Whitmarsh offers to step up amid McLaren crisis

management is one thing, the design team is another, agree with your 100% the design team is at fault here not the management.

I like Goss and still don't quite get why he left or was fired. However, I do know with certainty that the initial decline of McLaren happened entirely during Martin's watch. I like Martin a lot. Especially since he replaced Ron and the atmosphere seemed a lot better. But he was the man when McLaren dropped from a winning team to a mediocre team. It seems highly suspicious for him to come out publicly with this. Furthermore, it's classless and unsavory.

Yes, it wouldnt surprise me if he, as Whitmarsh implied, was a scapegoat. And while I agree that the decline begun under Whitmarsh'es era, it doesnt mean it is related to him, or that it would've gone this poorly had he remained in charge. Either way, I dont think McLaren's current poor performance can be explained by poor leadership, but their face outwards certainly can be, and at this rate is has become a problem for them. As I've said before, I dont think they are doing a bad job, but their arrogant talk worsens it from mediocre to poor. So reemploying Whitmarsh will likely not fix the performance, and may or may not improve team atmosphere and image. As you say, I dont like this move, things like this should happen on the other side of the curtain, but maybe it is that bad that he feels a need to vent it? It could be him basically warning Boullier and co of ongoing discontent (Yeah, I dont think so, but could be).

AJP that’s my recollection as well and the team has never recovered. Can’t imagine how difficult it must be inside McLren F1 to maintain a positive attitude so long without a win, just like with Williams. I used to regularly visit McLaren Automotive as a supplier and shared in the sense of pride that enthused through the whole company. Really want them to turn this around again but not sure this is the answer.

@Calle @RogerF1 I think there's plenty of scapegoating going on, but it's being done more by fans rather than Mclaren. I agree that they made things incredibly worst with bold talk of wins and podiums. However, seems that after a couple of GPs they've toned it done to normal levels. You don't hear them making bold predictions anymore do you? Also, I'd say that outside of the F1 team, Mclaren's image has never been better. Their road cars are selling at record levels, good reviews across the board, expanding their racing footprint, etc.

As mentioned before, McLaren is already have collected 85% of the total points from 2017 and we're not even half way through the season. McLaren has improved massively, the problem has been the absurd standards and expectations management created; and of course you also have history. McLaren exists to win. All of these fighting for 8th and 7th places is hard to swallow. But let's not lose perspective. The team is not going from winning 6 races in a year to not even scoring podiums like it happened from 2012 to 2014 still with a Mercedes engine. McLaren is on course to score more points this year than in 2013 (121 pts).

@AJP - they only make bold nonsensical statements in the off-season. Once the season starts and their car is shown to be mediocre, they shift into excuse-mode. They'll cycle back into making bold and ridiculous statements once we're back in off-season mode. Their 2019 car will have surpassed all predictions and benchmarks heading into 2019 pre-seasons testing. Just watch.

Yeah, as BHURT says, McLaren has entered what the game industry refers to as the Molyneux cycle: perpetual excuses and promising the next will be much better, nay superior to anything else. But its true that McLaren's car division has a great reputation currently, as it should, but that does sadly not help its F1 case. As I've said, I never went into this season expecting wins, I dont think anyone truly did, but since they promised wins and podiums they've caused some of this mess themselves.