I don’t know if it’s Senna tax, Mandela Effect, or anything like “The FW15C was utterly god-tier”, but there’s a thing that the McLaren MP4/8 was a bucket of bolts that had to be dragged to the top step of a podium by Senna.
But was it?
Because it had most, if not all of the things the Williams had, and a driver that could lob it around, which is how those cars needed to be driven. It was actually really good around tighter tracks.
Power tracks? Yeah… It wasn’t that good… It needed more power.
So what was this thing then? Let’s have a look.
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excelent video
I heard rumours that Mercedes didn't spend any upgrade tokens on their W12 challenger in 2021 so I want you to make a video about the Mercedes W12. And with Redbull going over the cost cap that year, I guess that was why they were quicker over the season
Aidan thank you for it all. I love your story of perseverance.
Congrats for 100K and cheers for 200K subs.
Out of curiosity is this now your full time job
I wonder if the legend of Senna's performances in this car would've been as great if he were partnered by Hakkinen all year, who would've been a much more even match than Andretti.
Best looking F1 car ever.
McLaren used the same engine as Benetton from Germany, and to top that off, Senna preferred the older spec engines torque band. So that's another bit of a fairytale when people go on about the so called massive advantage Benetton had with the Ford engines. My dad worked for Cosworth and even he said the gap between the Ford engines was no where near 30 horse power. More like 10-15.
if you really want to stir up some drama, make a video on the F2012. I'm an Alonso fan, but I refuse to believe a car with 3 wins 15 podiums and 2 poles was the absolute tractor people keep saying it was.
The MP4/8 was probably the slowest Mclaren since 1980. It was three seconds a lap slower than the Williams. It wasnt even reliable to beat the Williams.
Imagine if the Zetec-R arrived a year earlier and McLaren had it in this car 🤔
Good video
I suspect that Honda's move to a V12 was a backward step. The V10 came back in later iterations and proved surprisingly competitive in second tier cars. Then there was the full-on comeback that yielded Jordan's brief golden age.
It would have been interesting to see if Senna would have stayed if he won the championship and if Ford would be favoring McLaren more instead of Benetton for 1994. That is also assuming Ron did not sign the deal with either Peugeot or Chrysler and held off until the championship was won. The McLambo would have gotten Senna to stay but if they won the championship and Ford gave them the engines Benetton inevitably got, it would be interesting if Senna would have also won 1994, assuming that with his input, the 1994 McLaren would have been better or on par with the Williams or Benetton.
it was a good car. certainly not as great as the williams, but good. for a true shitbox, the 1992 was both slow and unreliable, and it showed
I still can't fathom how Senna got 5 wins from that season. Only he could have pulled that off.
I’ve never heard the ‘93 McLaren referred to as a “bag of bolts”. I was always of the impression that it was a good car that did not have enough power to match first Benetton, then the Renault engine in the Williams. I was of the understanding that Williams’ head start with electronic aids in 1992 meant that it took some time before the ‘93 McLaren car was at the same level electronically. I would assume that it would take time to understand and maximise the electronics on a car too, so surely Williams had a head start in ‘93 either way.
I am not sure that the McLaren active suspension was better than the Williams'.
According to Paddy Lowe, the Williams system was a reactive system, whereas the McLaren's was pre-programmed to define where the car was on track and then would change attitude 4 times per corner, or at least so was the case at the beginning of the season.
So, in other words, the Williams car would continuously adjust its suspension, come what may, throughout the lap. The McLaren, on the other hand, had a memory chip on the onboard computer which was programmed before hand. If a driver wasn't happy with some preset attitude adjustment, the memory would have to be changed in the garage.
At least this is the information that I gathered over the years. I could, of course, be partially correct or completely wrong.
Absolutely gorgeous looking car
How many times has Honda "left" Formula 1?
Mandela effect?! LOL!
Honda F1 engines of that period sure had the pixie dust sprinkled on them, and needed a clan of magicians to keep them running
I tape recorded the entire 93 season way back then. I can tell you that it was well-known that the MP4/8 had the most sophisticated active suspension system on the grid, but they were hamstrung due to not getting the very latest Ford HB engine because Benetton was the official factory sponsored team. Ron Dennis lobbied hard the entire year to get parity of equipment with Benetton.
I like these “cars” storytime 🙂 , I believe McLaren had the best chassis that year..
i think i read in Richard Williams "The Death of Ayrton Senna" many years ago, that Senna likened the 93 car to his nimble old FF2000 cars and was more than happy to throw it into corners