Making McLaren a winner again

The Hungarian Grand Prix weekend was dominated by Felipe Massa's accident and its aftermath, and in the days after the race events such as the planned return of Michael Schumacher, the withdrawal of BMW and the sacking of Nelson Piquet hogged the headlines. Even the signing of the Concorde Agreement - after months of debate about the future of the sport - was a little underplayed, thanks to the attention focussed on Michael.

One thing which has been somewhat overlooked in the past couple of weeks was the remarkable performance of Lewis Hamilton and McLaren in Budapest. Rarely has there been such a turnaround in fortunes of a team in the course of a season, although clearly the circumstances in Hungary suited the MP4-24 just so, and it might not be quite so easy from now on.

Just think about where things were just a few weeks ago. Hamilton endured a whole run of races where he started in the bottom quarter of the grid, and whatever strategy the team tried, he seemed to end up pretty much where he started. What had been a mood of frustration had become one of total resignation. 'This year is written off', was the mood in the camp, 'but we'll come back big time in 2010'.

But let's give full credit to the McLaren guys. They kept plugging away and throwing new bits at the car. Without the usual safety net of testing they sometimes got it wrong, but eventually they got it right. And there were clear signs of that all through the Nurburgring weekend, although Lewis didn't get a chance to prove it on Sunday. He had more or less got into the lead when the tiniest tap from Mark Webber punctured a rear tyre and, handicapped by floor damage after his stop, he looked very ordinary.

Lewis Hamilton at speed in the revised McLaren MP4-24 Mercedes © LAT

In Hungary it all came together, and the Mercedes KERS system played its part as well as Lewis grabbed the opportunity that had been presented with both hands. A win for Kimi Raikkonen might have been the ultimate feel-good result, bearing in mind what Ferrari had been through, but nevertheless the McLaren success was welcome, and certainly well deserved.

It was good too to see Martin Whitmarsh up on the podium, this time as team principal. A lot of things have conspired against him this year and on paper his first season in charge doesn't look very convincing. But he's played a huge role in motivating the troops and persuading everyone that the team could bounce back. However, even he admitted that he hadn't expected to win a race so soon.

"No, I wasn't expecting it," said Whitmarsh after the flag. "We were aiming for it, of course. A month ago no one would have predicted that one. We've had a tremendous effort from everybody, in Woking, Brixworth and Stuttgart, and at the track. It's a massive team effort. Lewis did a great job again, but of course he can't do that unless we give him the car to do it. Once you give him the car...

"We knew when Fernando was stopping, we knew we were going to have him. We knew it was going to be tough with the Red Bulls, but I have to say from early on in that race Lewis was just controlling the pace. Once he was in that zone... he could have driven quicker, but he just protected and drove a mature, sensible race.

"I never gave up on the year. I don't think the team did. When you are as far back as we were, you struggle with - particularly as McLaren - the pressure. Not to be unrealistic or whatever, but the fact is we didn't give up. You don't give up and achieve what we've achieved as a turnaround in the last four to six weeks."

At the car's launch in January, when discussing prospects for 2009, Ron Dennis said that, given the huge rule changes, the year would be all about the established frontrunners. That was a logical assumption since the big teams, as he put it, had the best resources. It's hard to believe that Hungary was the first win this year by any of the teams that won a race last year. Indeed it was the first by a team that finished in the top six in the points.

But that strength in depth has been evident as those established teams have caught up. Ferrari wasn't too far away from a victory in Hungary - Massa felt he would have won and so does his engineer Rob Smedley - and lest we forget, there was a Renault on pole, albeit a very light one.

"I think with the competitive situation in F1 at the moment it really is that close," says McLaren engineering guru Paddy Lowe. "I think you can go from hero to zero and back to hero in the click of your fingers. You've got to enjoy every result that you can produce.

"And on top of that also to get the first KERS win. Mercedes has done a fantastic job on the KERS. It's a great shame that this is its only year. To have actually got a win for all that effort is really historic."

Aerodynamic upgrades on the McLaren MP4-24 © LAT

Lowe says all the effort of the past months was worth it: "For Germany we produced a new bodywork package which was floor and top body, and whole rear end. That's been the most substantial step.

"But on top of that there's a constant flow of updates to the car, lot of little things. You see teams that are slipping back at the moment, that's because they are not maintaining that rate - the gradient - that you've got to do just to stand still.

"Friday is the test day and you're hopeful. The wind tunnel is never 100 per cent reliable, but it's all paid off. I think when we get back to some of the high-speed circuits, if we don't produce some more developments, we may well struggle. We're still not quite where we need to be in the high-speed.

"When you can start to see that it hangs together as a package the leverage that it gives you in the system to produce more is difficult to describe. Everybody gets behind it."

It remains to be seen how the McLaren fares in the coming races and, as Lowe says, the fast corners at places such as Spa could still be quite a challenge. But the team can be confident that the car is at the very least going to be a contender for points from now until the end of the season.

"We've got an upgrade package for Valencia," said Whitmarsh in Hungary. "We're continuing to improve and develop the car, we know we've got to improve it to be competitive at all circuits. But I think we've made a fair bit of progress."

The Lewis effect

It would be wrong to ignore the special contribution of Hamilton. There probably have been times this year when he struggled to find that last ounce of his usual commitment - tooling round in a crippled car at the 'Ring must have been particularly painful - but in Hungary we saw the real Hamilton back.

"To be quite honest he's been carrying the #1 this year, but we haven't given him the car that he needs and deserves," says Lowe. "It's just fantastic to be able to give him a win with the #1 on the car."

No one knows Lewis better than his father Anthony, of course. On the grid at the British GP he seemed to have written off the year, saying that "it was no use flogging a dead horse." He was both delighted and surprised when things came Hamilton's way over the past couple of races.

"The team has worked extremely hard and they deserved that fantastic win," he smiles. "Lewis made a couple of mistakes, but otherwise it was really a faultless drive. So we're happy."

Anthony and Lewis Hamilton © LAT

It's been a painful year for Lewis and his camp, with the post-Melbourne saga adding to the on-track woes. But Anthony insists that they've always looked at the bright side. To use an old cliche, it's been character building.

"This is a great year for us, if I'm honest with you. I mean, Lewis was a boy when he came into F1 and this year's making him a man. It's actually going to be very dangerous [for the opposition] from this point onwards.

"At the end of the day, two things can happen. When you're having a year of adversity you can either curl up and let it get to you, or you can grab it by the scruff of the neck and make a success of it. What Lewis did was he turned everything around so that his life was back the way that he wanted it. This race was the culmination of Lewis Hamilton being Lewis Hamilton."

But surely he had a hard time with the going got tough a few weeks ago?

"Absolutely. But you know what? Good. You can't have your own way all the time. You've got to have bad times, and it's the bad times that make you stronger. You come into F1 and you have two great years, then you have a bad year, well that's a great learning curve.

"What are you going to do? Are you going to grow from it or are you going to let it get it you? Well, we've already grown from it. Not just for Lewis, but for the team. And not just us, but all the little kids that are looking on at Lewis. That's what it's important for."

The Nurburgring was the turning point and from the first day with the new package Lewis knew things were looking up. The Turn 1 disappointment was obviously frustrating, but Anthony insists it was another valuable step.

"He was a happy bunny on that Friday. I remember watching the TV before Lewis was in F1, people used to start their race and the next thing you know, they're out at the first corner. I used to think how disappointing is that for them? It very rarely happens, but we've had a few situations where we haven't finished a race. Nurburgring was one of those, first corner down to last place. You've got to learn, you've got to take the rough with the smooth. That's all part of the learning process.

"Maybe it won't be so good at a track like Spa. Who knows? We'll worry about that when we get there. At the end of the day it's all now a development stage. If a unique thing happens and we do win again, then great. Otherwise it's all part of the learning process. At some stage you have to have a bad year to know what you have to put right."

So what was Lewis doing wrong and what has he had to change? It's a key question, but one Anthony deftly sidesteps.

"I think what he's learned this year is that he's got great love and support from millions of people around the world. He knows he's already got it from his friends and his family, so that was one thing, but considering the year that he's had, he now knows that the rest of the world loves him too..."