How a previous failure influenced McLaren's last F1 winner

After four long years in the doldrums, McLaren finally seems to be clawing its way towards calmer waters - particularly after announcing a deal to link up with Mercedes again in 2021.

But even before its ill-fated hybrid dalliance with Honda, Formula 1's former powerhouse team had suffered two barren years with no victories (and only one podium) to its famous name.

McLaren's most recent win came courtesy of Jenson Button's victory at the rain-affected 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix, capitalising on a front-row start (sharing McLaren's most recent front-row lockout with team-mate and polesitter Lewis Hamilton) to prevail amid the chaos.

McLaren got the ingredients right that year with its MP4-27, before embarking on a long downward spiral.

The 2012 car's predecessor, the MP4-26, featured an interesting U-shaped sidepod arrangement and a quickly discarded 'octopus' exhaust, aiming to take advantage of the off-throttle exhaust-blowing trend. But at the end of that season, the sidepods were also discarded after new regulations dictated how exhausts could be positioned.

"We'd had exhaust blowing first in 2010, and then there was a period of critical development and mapping development over the next two years," explains Paddy Lowe, McLaren's technical director at the time.

"It was a pretty exciting period to be honest; we had cars in 2011 basically doing the full lap on full throttle, but not [receiving] full torque [all the time].

"But there were quite a few constraints on that part for 2012 - with the [engine] maps - but I think [the FIA] realised that it was all very difficult with maps, so the solution was going to be geometric, or physical in the sense of the tailpipes."

A number of teams followed the spirit of the regulations and produced exhausts with a line of fire directly into the Coke bottle section of the car.

But McLaren instead set the exhausts back, which allowed the exhaust gases to drop down and circulate around the edge of the diffuser - which became known as the Coanda exhaust.

McLaren had known about the Coanda effect as an accidental byproduct of its previous attempts to blow the exhausts, as did Red Bull, and the two lobbied for an exhaust position that allowed them to take full advantage.

"We brought our first exhaust-blowing solution in 2010, and it didn't work," says Lowe.

"We were all playing catch-up to Red Bull with exhaust blowing and ours didn't work - when the exhausts came out, instead of going straight out and onto the rear corner of the floor, which is where it was aimed, it [was] pulled in by the Coke line and travelled down it.

"We did a load of R&D to work out what was going on, and we'd found out about an effect called Coanda.

"So when we came out with the 2012 car, we got all of this Coanda working well, and we were ahead of the game because we put in a lot of work in 2010 trying to not to have Coanda, so we knew the score."

Worried by driver safety as F1 noses had grown increasingly higher, the FIA brought the regulation nose height down to 550mm above the car's floor, keeping it in check with the car's intrusion panels at either side of the chassis.

But the chassis rules remained unchanged, prompting the majority of teams to bridge the gap with a step in the nose. This gave each car ample space to let the air flow underneath the nose and chassis bulkhead.

The MP4-27 was the only car not to feature an incongruous transition, having instead evolved its concept from the previous two seasons that already featured a low nose well within the maximum height permitted.

Immediately the car proved competitive, as McLaren locked out the front row at Melbourne having topped two of the three practice sessions. Button overhauled polesitter Hamilton at the start to snatch the lead, which he held to deliver a win at the first time of asking for the MP4-27.

McLaren couldn't convert the next front-row lock-out in Malaysia into a win, and then Mercedes took its first victory as a full works team in China courtesy of Nico Rosberg. McLaren completed the podium positions and, after the opening three rounds, Hamilton led the championship from Button.

Then a dreadful race in Bahrain allowed Sebastian Vettel to vault to the top of the standings and Red Bull similarly overhauled McLaren in the constructors' championship.

In Spain, McLaren deployed a new nose package to raise it to a level consistent with the other teams - albeit still with a smooth transition. Here, Hamilton managed to hit back with pole, but this was later rescinded after he stopped on track without enough fuel to make it back to the pits. Without the requisite fuel sample for scrutineering, Hamilton was shuffled to the back.

Pastor Maldonado inherited pole then fended off Fernando Alonso's Ferrari to win the race for Williams.

A quick car, the MP4-27 sometimes struggled to underline its pace on two counts.

Firstly, the 2012 Pirelli tyres were notoriously difficult to get to work consistently, and tiny set-up changes could result in massive swings in performance. While Hamilton won in Canada, Button floundered in 16th having not been able to find any balance.

Secondly, reliability issues began to appear in the second half of the season - with disastrous consequences.

Although McLaren took a hat-trick of wins in the middle of the season - Hamilton bagging victories in Hungary and Italy to rekindle his championship and Button triumphing at Spa - Singapore ended that run in dramatic fashion.

Hamilton, having taken pole, seemed untouchable around the streets of Marina Bay.

Then, on the 23rd lap, his MP4-27 came to a grinding halt with a gearbox problem. Inspection later revealed that a crack in the gearbox had allowed a slew of moulding foam - left in the casing in a manufacturing oversight - to clog up the internals.

Weeks later, Hamilton announced his departure to Mercedes for 2013.

Hamilton and Button scored a win each in the final two rounds to end the year on a high, but those were to be McLaren's last hurrahs.

Today, the team's winless streak is into its seventh season, and it may be that the MP4-27 remains McLaren's last winning car for some time.

Race record

Starts 40
Wins 7
Poles 8
Fastest laps 3
Other podiums 6
Points 378

Specification
Chassis Carbonfibre and honeycomb composite monocoque
Suspension Double wishbones, pushrod-activated torsion bars, rear pullrod-activated torsion bars
Engine Mercedes FO108Z 90-degree V8
Engine capacity 2400cc
Power 750bhp @ 18,000 rpm (+80bhp from KERS)
Gearbox Seven-speed semi-automatic gearbox
Tyres Pirelli
Weight 640kg
Notable drivers Jenson Button, Lewis Hamilton