Formula 1: McLaren Mercedes - Mid Season Review

When it came to sitting down and writing a mid-season review about McLaren, it was a lot harder than I had first anticipated. It was as hard as figuring out what Max and Bernie were going to slot the team into for the next grand prix - although unlike Max and Bernie I never had the help of a giant motor home to make my decisions!

After a torrid 2007, where the team tripped up and lost the title plus the whole espionage affair, McLaren looked to be getting back to some sense of normality this season. Out had gone Fernando Alonso and in to replace him had come Heikki Kovalainen, who had impressed during the second half of 2007 with Renault.

At the first race in Melbourne it looked as though it was going to be 2007 all over again, with Hamilton taking a dominating win and Kovalainen unlucky to finish 5th having hit the pit lane speed limiter on the start-finish straight as he started his last lap.

However Australia was to be a false dawn. Both Ferraris suffered mechanical failures in Oz, and a dominant win for Kimi Raikkonen next time out in Malaysia showed just how much McLaren had to do.

The team was then forced to move to the bottom of the pit lane in Bahrain as part of their punishment for 2007, and a Ferrari one-two further damaged the blow. Kovalainen could only finish 5th and Hamilton, having damaged his nose in a collision with Alonso, could do no better than 13th. It looked to be getting better in Spain with Hamilton coming in 3rd behind the Ferrari duo, but a major crash for Kovalainen gave the team a scare and put Heikki's appearance at Turkey into doubt.

He did appear in Istanbul, and could have won the race but for a puncture on the first lap that pushed him down the field. Hamilton could also have won had he been on a 2-stop strategy, but ultimately his 3 stops kept him behind the two-stopping Massa yet ahead of Raikkonen.

The circus then arrived at Monaco and Hamilton completed a dream by taking victory around the principality, but once again this was aided by mistakes from the team in red. Heikki struggled all weekend and could do no better than 8th - one place ahead of the accident-prone-for-the-weekend Kimi Raikkonen.

With Hamilton leading the title race and McLaren only 3pts behind Ferrari in the constructors, it all looked good. But then came Montreal and the moment it all changed. Hamilton led convincingly from the start and had built up a 5.5sec lead from Robert Kubica when the safety car was deployed on lap 17. After picking up all the cars, Hamilton, Kubica and Raikkonen all dived into the pits once the pit lane had opened, but as Raikkonen and Kubica stopped for the red light at the end of the pit lane, Hamilton didn't and crashed into the back of Raikkonen taking them both out. Kovalainen couldn't rescue the team's day and finishing agonisingly outside the points in 9th.

Hamilton was given a 10-place grid penalty for Magny-Cours and lined up 13th, but he cut a chicane trying to pass Vettel for 10th on the first lap and was handed a drive-through penalty, eventually finishing 10th.

Kovalainen meanwhile had been handed a 5-place penalty for blocking during the second part of qualifying, but in what was probably his best showing of the season so far he climbed up to 4th place and nearly took third from Trulli on the final lap only to go off the circuit.

It all swung back into their hands at Silverstone, with Kovalainen starting on pole before finishing in 5th, while Hamilton took a convincing win in the rain leaving him level at the top of the standings with the two Ferrari drivers on 48 points.

So how do I sum up McLaren's season so far? If I'm being honest it has been disappointing. Their three wins have come when Ferrari have had problematic races, and only once in Turkey have they looked close to winning a race on merit.

With the strong showing of Ferrari in the second half of last season still fresh in their minds, McLaren know that they will need to push themselves to the maximum if they are to have any chance of claiming a title this season