More than 100 McLaren engineers "gave up Christmas to bring some joy to the beleaguered team that was the worst in Formula One last year," according to Kevin Eason of the LONDON TIMES. McLaren Operations Dir Simon Roberts disclosed that workers gave up their seasonal break to keep production for the car that will contest the '16 season on target for launch on Feb. 21, "the day before the first preseason test." Workers were paid "handsome overtime but they had to pass on the the turkey and trimmings to devote themselves to wing end-plates and carbon fibre." McLaren and Honda, its engine partner, "face one of the greatest uphill struggles in the team’s long and illustrious F1 history." The team has not won a grand prix since Brazil in Nov. '12 and "had to endure the torture of last season when just finishing a race was treated as an achievement, ending the year at the bottom of the constructors’ world championship." Roberts said that the eleventh-hour change in the calendar, which brought the Australian Grand Prix forward by a fortnight, "threw carefully-laid plans into confusion." Roberts: "Our entire build program wasn't lined up for that. So we knew we had a problem to solve. ... We put about eight shifts of work back into the program over a five-day period -- a fantastic effort. In total, there were about 110 people involved and we looked after our Christmas workers with a competitive package." Time is critical but McLaren CEO Ron Dennis is "determined that his team will suffer any further embarrassment on tracks his team once used to dominate" (LONDON TIMES, 1/19).
