Motorsport: Cheats spectre dents image

There's something painful about watching superstars fade to the point where they become merely mortal - as Muhammad Ali, Severiano Ballesteros and now, maybe, Roger Federer, have.

But when it's not a sporting superstar, but a super-brand, that's a different story. It's why few tears are shed outside of Asia when Manchester United fail (which, admittedly, is not often), or outside of New York when the Yankees stumble.

It is why there is almost unrestrained glee in the world of motorsport at seeing McLaren and Ferrari flubbing away towards the rear of the Formula One field while upstart teams like Brawn GP dominate.

While Ferrari's decline has been sudden, it hasn't been seized upon with such a sense of schadenfreude as that of McLaren's, a fine name that has been tarnished, twice in as many years, with the spectre of cheating.

"There's no doubt McLaren's reputation has taken a hit, that it has been dented," says Bob McMurray, who worked for the organisation for 30 years. "McLaren still has its fans, and they will always remain McLaren fans, but the perception among the general motorsport fan is that they are a bunch of cheats.

"There's no doubt the brand was damaged with the Spygate scandal and that ridiculous fine [$142 million], and it has been further damaged by the 'lying' in Australia this year."

The shame of it is this should have been a year of celebration for the McLaren marque. This year marks the 50th anniversary of New Zealander Bruce McLaren's first grand prix victory. He won the US Grand Prix at Sebring in Florida at age 22, driving a Cooper.

Instead, one of the few remaining New Zealand connections to the British-based team, Dave Ryan, left the team after being made the scapegoat for Lewis Hamilton telling porkies to stewards in the aftermath of the season opener in Melbourne.

Now the brand that carries his name has been damaged, but not irreparably, according to McMurray.

"It has received a significant dent but if they keep their noses clean for a couple of years they can panelbeat that out and restore their image."

This weekend would be a good time to start. Monaco has been a kind track to McLaren, their 15 wins the most by any manufacturer at the street circuit.

It is also the track where Bruce McLaren sealed his reputation with a win in the 1962 Monaco GP.

"There's an expectation Monaco will be another good circuit for our car because the combination of low-speed corners and absence of any really fast stuff should suit it," Hamilton told reporters. "I really hope so because it would be fantastic to have a competitive car and be fighting at the front again."

Still, it's difficult to imagine silver livery at the front of the field when the chequered flag drops in the early hours of tomorrow morning.

Despite the rich resources they have to throw at their F1 operations, McMurray believes McLaren and Ferrari started on the back foot this season and never recovered.

"They put so much effort into last year's championship and honing their cars. Every resource available to them went into winning in 2008. Other teams like Toyota, and particularly Brawn, knew their cars were rubbish so started planning for 2009. Brawn used the resources he had with Honda [who pulled out of F1 at the end of last season to latch on to something that other teams, apart from Toyota, thought was illegal but turned out not to be."

He means the much-discussed rear diffuser, which gives the cars added downforce, meaning they lose far less time on quick corners.

"It's not a matter of saying 'Brawn has a nice diffuser so let's put one of them on our cars', because these cars are so finely balanced from front to back, left to right, that the whole package would need an overhaul.

"McLaren and Ferrari will get there quicker than the other because they have more money to spend, but it is not going to happen overnight."

The KERS system, which stores energy otherwise lost during braking and transforms it into extra horsepower that can be called upon at the push of a button for up to six seconds per lap. While McLaren is acknowledged to have the best KERS system, the extra 24kg it is carrying has negated any advantages.

It's not the only extra weight McLaren is carrying.

There's the weight of expectation. There's the weight of two major scandals that drags on them like an anchor as they try to restore the flagging faith.