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Motorpedia McLaren Mcl32 2017

McLaren MCL32

Fernando Alonso testing the MCL32 at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya

The McLaren MCL32 is a Formula One racing car designed and constructed by the McLaren Honda team to compete in the 2017 FIA Formula One World Championship.

The car's main race drivers are two-time World Drivers' Champion Fernando Alonso, who stayed with the team for a third season; and Stoffel Vandoorne, who joined the team after Jenson Button left the team at the end of the 2016 season It made its competitive début at the 2017 Australian Grand Prix

The MCL32 is the first car built by McLaren since the McLaren M30—which contested part of the 1980 season—that does not contain the "MP4" prefix as part of its chassis name. The change was introduced following CEO Ron Dennis's departure from the team's parent company, the McLaren Technology Group, in November 2016.

Design and development

Power Unit

The Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) amended the technical regulations for the 2017 season to abandon the token system—which limited engine development over the course of a season—first introduced in 2014, engine supplier Honda was free to extensively redesign the team's power unit, which was named the RA617H. The company started with the ultra-compact RA615H that accommodated the "size zero" concept first conceived for use in the MP4-30 chassis, but with the RA617H moved to recreate the configuration first used by Mercedes in the PU106 series of engines. Honda's Formula One project manager Yusuke Hasegawa described the new architecture for the RA617H as "very high risk, justifying the choice as being the only way to catch up to Mercedes. Hasegawa also admitted that the technology implemented into the design—particularly around the combustion concept—was not entirely understood and that its potential would take time to fully realise.

Following the Australian Grand Prix, Honda announced that work carried out between pre-season testing and the race meant that a majority of the issues that plagued them were fixed. Although the engine proved reliable over the race meeting, it had been detuned and the gearbox shift times increased to maintain reliability. Honda also revealed that a heavily-revised "B-specification" engine was already in development and would be ready in as little as eight weeks, with both Honda and McLaren developing upgrades for successive Grands Prix to make up the deficit.

Technical partnerships

Prior to the start of the season, McLaren secured technical partnerships with BP to supply fuel and Castrol to provide engine lubricants for the RA617H after ending their contract with ExxonMobil.

Competition history

Pre-season testing

As in 2015, McLaren endured a difficult pre-season during testing at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. Despite the overhaul to the engine, the RA617H was found to be unreliable, interrupting the team's preparations and preventing them from achieving consistent running.Fernando Alonso was particularly critical of the engine; while denying that the issues were as serious as those faced by the team in 2015, he described the RA617H as having no power and no reliability and that the issues that had repeatedly stymied the team's testing programme were "amateur problems". The team managed to complete only 425 laps in the eight days of testing compared to Mercedes, who completed over one thousand laps in the same period, and had used more engines during pre-season testing than they would be permitted to use during the regular season. The team's initial struggles then prompted reports that McLaren had sought out an alternative engine supplier.

Opening rounds

McLaren endured a difficult start to the season at the Australian Grand Prix as Alonso qualified in thirteenth but ultimately started from twelfth after Daniel Ricciardo received a five-place grid penalty for changing his car's gearbox; Vandoorne in the second car only managed to qualify eighteenth. Alonso retired from the race seven laps from the end owing to a suspension issue and Vandoorne managed to finish in thireenth and last, having suffered from loss of dashboard readings and having his car rebooted in an unscheduled stop in the opening phase of the race. After the race, Alonso bemoaned the car's pace as being the slowest in terms of raw pace and that if other teams had not encountered unforeseen misfortunes, the result would have been far worse and urged the whole team to make huge improvements in order to be competitive.

At the Chinese Grand Prix, McLaren were expecting to be at the back of the field with the track's high speed nature exploiting the weakness of Honda's engine. The team also introduced their iteration of the controversial "T-Wing" at this race weekend. Even though Honda made further progress on its engine's reliability and power and McLaren introducing a multitude of new parts, the team had another poor weekend with Vandoorne qualifying in sixteenth but starting in fifteenth because of Antonio Giovinazzi receiving a penalty and Alonso once again managed to qualify in thirteenth. During the race Vandoorne retired on lap eighteen due to a fuel pump issue; Alonso meanwhile was showing good progress with the MCL32, which was running a much improved race over the first round and was running as high as sixth at one point of the race but settling comfortably back into eighth, however misfortune again hit the team with Alonso retiring, this time from a points paying position on lap thirty-three due to a driveshaft failure.

McLaren endured another tough weekend in Bahrain, with Alonso qualifying in fifteenth after failing to set a competitive lap during Q2 as the team decided to save his engine and Vandoorne also struggled and could only manage to qualify in seventeenth. Vandoorne failed to make it to the start of the race as his ERS system had developed a water leak during the installation laps; Alonso meanwhile was running in fourteenth and was last of the runners when his engine failed two laps from the end. Although he retired, he was classified as a finisher as he had completed over ninety percent of the race leader's distance. Alonso, being frustrated over the lack of power from the Honda power unit, said through his team radio that he had never raced with less power in his life.

At the mid-season testing after the Bahrain Grand Prix, McLaren had more reliability issues on the first day of testing and managed only seventeen laps under their test driver Oliver Turvey. On the second day of testing, McLaren managed to run eighty-ond laps, void of any mechanical issues under Vandoorne, which shocked the team as they did not expect to have a failure free test session. Vandoorne urged the team to find the cause of such reliability.

The team struggled again in Russia with Vandoorne receiving a fifteen-place grid penalty for changing parts of his power unit which saw him start in last and Alonso muscled his car into fifteenth. Alonso estimated that the car was losing two and a half seconds on the straights alone during qualifying. Alonso's race ended before it even had started as his engine failed on the formation lap which made it two races in a row that a McLaren did not make it to the start of the race. Vandoorne meanwhile finished in fourteenth, only ahead of the two Saubers. Four races into the season and Alonso has still not managed to complete the full distance of even one race. This statistically is McLaren's worst ever start to a Formula One season.

European Season

The Spanish Grand Prix weekend started poorly for the team with Alonso unable to set a lap in the first practice session after suffering an oil leak. During qualifying Vandoorne struggled and qualified 19th but started last because of a grid penalty for changing parts of the engine. Alonso enjoyed the best qualifying session of his season reaching Q3 and starting from 7th. The race proved to be frustrating, Alonso losing many positions after a skirmish with the Williams of Felipe Massa causing him to leave the track and rejoin in 11th. He finished in 12th, which was the first time he managed to complete the full race distance this season; Vandoorne meanwhile, retired after a collision with Massa. McLaren, as of now, is the only team that has failed to score a single point this season.This was also Alonso's final race before being replaced by former teammate and reserve driver Jenson Button for Monaco as he will be racing in the 101st Indy 500 race in Indiana, U.S.A. which takes place on the same day as the Monaco Grand Prix.

Complete Formula One results

(key) (results in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	Engine	Tyres	Drivers	Grands Prix																				Points	WCC
Year	Entrant	Engine	Tyres	Drivers	AUS	CHN	BHR	RUS	ESP	MON	CAN	AZE	AUT	GBR	HUN	BEL	ITA	SIN	MAL	JPN	USA	MEX	BRA	ABU	Points	WCC
2017	McLaren	Honda RA617H	P
				Fernando Alonso	Ret	Ret	14†	DNS	12																0*	10th*
				Stoffel Vandoorne	13	Ret	DNS	14	Ret																0*	10th*

Notes

* – Season in progress.
† – Driver failed to finish the race, but was classified as they had completed over 90% of the winner's race distance.

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