McLaren Honda Dynasty (Part 1 - 2015: A rough start)

2015 Pre-season testing Day 1

McLaren Honda: the secret challengers?

The Honda-powered team looks on pace to 2nd best car, with impressive figures from the Honda PU. Ferrari also looks to recover with newly-acquired multichampion Sebastian Vettel, with Red Bull regressing down the order with the pair Ricciardo-Kvyat.

2015 Pre-season testing Day 2

Alonso crashes! No footage available though. Many raise eyebrows with the safety of the MP4-30. He will be available for the Australian GP, although not fully fit, confirms Ron Dennis.

2015 Season Summary (McLaren-focused)

Alonso misses the start at Melbourne feeling unwell from the Montmeló preseason crash. Jenson Button recovers to finish the race 4th in a Mercedes 1-2.

Alonso is ready to make his debut for McLaren-Honda at Malaysia. He finishes as far as 5th saturday benefitting from the rain, with Button 10th. But both cars suffer from engine overheating and retire mid-race at sunday.

At China, both McLarens struggle in qualifying with Button 7th and Alonso 9th. In the race, Alonso is able to get past Grosjean for 8th place, Button keeps his 7th from saturday.

At Bahrein, Button's engine explodes in Q1. He has start from P20, but the engine doesn't respond from the overheating in the formation lap. 3 engines down, he will have to penalize soon. Meanwhile, Alonso drags his car to P8 in Saturday, and finishes sixth despite the overheating scares.

At Spain, both McLarens shock the world with an Alonso P4 and Button P5 in qualifying. Dramatically, Alonso's brake system brakes in lap 26 when he was running 3rd but Button halts Bottas powered-Mercedes car to gain 4th.

At Monaco, Button finishes 4th and Alonso 6th in qualifying. Alonso's gearbox fails, but Button keeps the P4.

At Canada, Button receives his 4th engine (last before penalizing) starting again from the back. Alonso starts in P9 the race, but DNFs again due to general exhaust problems with the Honda PU that affect Button as well.

At Austria, both cars start from the back due to penalties. Alonso crashes with Raikkonen in lap 1 and retires, while Button retires in lap 35 with electrical issues.

At Silverstone, both cars struggle with apparent chassis problems. Despite that, Alonso qualifies P10 and finishes on an impressive P5. Button who qualified P11 crashes with Grosjean in lap 1 and retires.

At Hungary, magic happened. Fernando Alonso qualified P4 on saturday. Heavily beneffited from race strategy and chaos all around, he catches Vettel in lap 64 and overtakes him. At the back, more chaos ensued. Ricciardo and Rosberg abandoned on lap 63, followed by a Kvyat-Hamilton-Grosjean triple crash on lap 67. Button, who started in P8, finished P3 after a last lap overtake on young prospect Max Verstappen. Marussia scores points with Roberto Merhi, and Sauber gets a 5-6 finish.

At Belgium, McLaren decides to introduce an engine upgrade which sees again both cars in the back of the field. Alonso regains up to P10, Button up to P14.

At Monza, Alonso suffers an electrical issue again and retires, while Button jumps from P11 to P9 to get valuable points for the team.

At Singapore, Alonso gets P2 in the saturday session while Button gets P3 with both dominant Mercedes suffering with chassis issues. Button finishes P4 while Alonso keeps P2 in a strong weekend for the Woking team. Both Red Bull's engines fail as Christian Horner and Helmut Marko blame Renault with strong words.

At Suzuka, Honda's home race, both McLaren get the usual P7-P8 combination with Alonso and Button. Alonso finishes the race P6 and Button P10.

At Russia, Alonso finishes in a strong P5 after suffering a penalty earlier in the weekend. Button P4 after qualifying P8.

At Austin, McLaren seizes the second row with Alonso P3 and Button P4. Button finishes on the podium at P3, Alonso P6.

At Mexico, Alonso's power unit gives up. Button repeats an engine penalty but recovers up to P9.

At Brazil, Button scraps up a point while Alonso finishes P15 after a slow puncture.

At Abu Dhabi, Button finishes the season on a high note on a P7, Alonso scraps a P10 after struggling in saturday.

Lewis Hamilton is a 2 time world champion! Will McLaren Honda be able to mount a challenge to the unstoppable Mercedes after a rough but promising start?