There is absolutely no denying that the McLaren-Honda partnership which has reignited itself for 2015 has been one of the talking points of the year for what has turned out to be all of the wrong reasons. With a power unit which has been well off the pace, unreliable and at times simply painful to watch, McLaren languish in ninth in the Constructors’ Championship with just six races to go. After talking themselves up at the start of the year saying that they will be contesting race wins by the end of the year, the combination has been massively disappointing thus far, and there is no guarantee that it will improve for 2016. This has almost certainly had a negative effect on the World Champion drivers in these abominations of cars. Should both Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso retire from F1 at the end of the season, I feel that it is the best move for them, for Honda and for McLaren.
Should Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso Retire from Formula 1?
It seems crazy to think that a top team such as McLaren could be facing financial troubles but apparently that seems to be the case. However with just one World Championship in 30 attempts in the last fifteen years, and no title sponsor since the start of last season, it does make at least some sense, especially when the downfall of the almost equally great Williams team occurred following their breakup from Renault and then BMW. Both Alonso and Button are unsurprisingly on very high wages with their World Champion status, and a mutual ending of both contracts could save in excess of 45 million Euros a year, a substantial amount.
Another point worth mentioning is that given the situation on the circuit, having both Alonso and Button at the team could well be harming Honda’s image more than if they did not have two World Champions at the team, in addition to the image of the drivers. Whilst some will look beyond the results and give benefit of doubt to Alonso and Button regarding their performances this season, the fact that two World Champions are struggling to get out of the first part of qualifying at every race event is very much a talking point amongst pundits and those on social media on every occasion and this only harms the image of both McLaren and Honda even more than if there were non-World Champions in the cars.
Alonso’s image following this season is also under threat with this move to McLaren. After spending many years downplaying arch rival Sebastian Vettel’s achievements with Red Bull and also downplaying his move to Ferrari, Alonso now finds himself languishing at the back battling with the Saubers, the Lotuses and the Toro Rossos. At the same time, Vettel is delivering arguably the strongest performance across the season out of all the drivers, and is beating Kimi Räikkönen by a similar scale to that of what Alonso did last year. Vettel also appears to have gone down pretty well with the Tifosi, whilst Alonso has seemingly dropped off their radar, especially considering he has gone to McLaren – Ferrari’s historic rival for almost 50 years.
The final big factor in this is the Kevin Magnussen and Stoffel Vandoorne factor. It is absolutely criminal that both of these talented young drivers are not driving in F1 this year, especially in Magnussen’s case as he was dropped after just a single season. Vandoorne is set to win the GP2 series by an incredible margin, and Magnussen has been wasting away in the simulator and not honing his wheel-to-wheel skills. These are two drivers who have shown future World Champion credentials in the junior categories, and whilst Red Bull has managed to get some future megastars through the ranks (especially this year), McLaren has struggled to, and risks spending a lot of money backing two drivers who could well get wasted in terms of their potential. Also if this Honda project is for the long-term, it is worth getting these young drivers in as soon as possible for them to make their impact. Some fresh and young faces in the car is no bad thing at the end of the day, and as the likes of Vettel and Lewis Hamilton has showed in the past, their presence within a team despite a lack of experience can prove to be positive.
Both Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button are great drivers. They are still great drivers, but it is time for the future stars to come through. With Red Bull already having at least four possible world-class drivers at their disposal in the next few years, McLaren needs to get their future stars ready for a possible onslaught on them should they also resolve their power unit issues. Both Mercedes and Ferrari also have drivers who have a number of years left in them, yet Alonso and Button will not be at the top of their game forever, and I think that they should give up now otherwise they risk a second season on the trot of being woefully uncompetitive and tarnishing their reputation further. Whether they choose to decide to remain in motor racing by competing in the World Endurance Championship (if any team could afford them) or whether they decide to go cycling or whatever, they should end their Formula 1 careers with a bundle of respect whilst they still have the opportunity to.
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