Has McLaren’s biggest strength become its weakness?
McLaren was shocked by its poor qualifying in Bahrain, and now has nowhere to hide thanks to its switch to Renault engines. But an approach the team employed in 2017 could be hurting it this season
World championship points might be what matter most to Formula 1 teams, but as McLaren heads to the Chinese Grand Prix it will be the first to confess that its third place in the constructors' standings gives it little reason to celebrate.
Its racing director Eric Boullier labelled it "funny" that the team's placing is so high right now, because he well knows it has been bailed out by its consistency and reliability in the first two races rather than out-and-out pace.
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Jonathan Noble is Motorsport.com’s Formula 1 editor. Having graduated from University of Sussex Jonathan worked for sports news agency Collings Sports reporting on F1, F3, touring cars and other sports, with articles appearing in The Daily Telegraph, The Independent, Reuters, Autosport and other publications. In 1999 he moved to Haymarket Publishing to become a senior editor at Autosport Special Projects, and one year later he became Autosport’s grand prix editor. In 2015 he moved to Motorsport Network, becoming the F1 editor for Motorsport.com. He is also a member of the Guild of Motoring Writers, and sits on the FIA Media Council.
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