Ronzo's road in racing

No, this thread is not about Ron Dennis! This thread is about the racing activities of 'Ronzo', the GT car. It has debuted for real competition recently.



Officially it's called the McLaren MP4-12C GT3, but that's too technical, long to spell and even to notice for some, so it was bound to happen it'll get an easy to spell nick. Well it was even mentioned yesterday in the live coverage of the Qualifying Race (GT1 World), the McLaren GT car is called Ronzo. The commentator added that maybe not everyone will like this name in Woking.

It's a good name, we'll use it with respect!

http://mclarengt.com/
http://media.mclaren...leases/model/2/

MP4-12C GT3 competitive world debut (video)

25 new MP4-12C GT3 cars to race across Europe and in FIA GT1 World Championship in 2012

Team Championship
Apex Selected British GT rounds
ART Blancpain Endurance Series
ASM Blancpain Endurance Series
Boutsen Energy Blancpain Endurance Series
Doerr Motorsport VLN
Gemballa Racing ADAC GT Masters, VLN
Gulf Racing Blancpain Endurance Series
Hexis Racing FIA GT1 World
JAS Selected Blancpain Endurance Series rounds
Lapidus Racing International GT Open
Molitor Racing ADAC GT Masters
United Autosports Blancpain Endurance Series
Von Ryan Racing Blancpain Endurance Series

This thread will be about Ronzo's road in racing...

Go McLaren, go Ronzo!

This was yesterday; it was great to watch live as Parente fought his way up to 3 from starting 8. There was a nice battle with Ferrari too.

Ronzo had a really bad day in the office today.

Double DNF (in FIA GT1 World, Hexis Racing), ouch...

I've looked around what's up with the other Ronzos. Here's the round-up.

Looking at the results, a week ago in Oschersleben (ADAC GT Masters) it also was an ouch weekend for the two teams (Gemballa Racing and Molitor Racing) with this new car. There are serious reliability issues, with Hexis it was related to the starter motor. So no surprise McLaren GT is busy to get updates on the car soon.

In British GT it didn't race on this weekend yet (in Oulton Park). Apex will race it later in selected British GT rounds.

Blancpain Endurance Series first round is on the coming weekend in Monza. Many MP4-12C GT3s will plan to race there.

International GT Open's first event will be in Portimao (Portugal) at the end of this month, 27th-29th. McLaren GT used that track a lot in the development of the car. Hopefully an updated and reliable car will race there with Lapidus Racing.

In the VLN's [Endurance Racing Championship Nürburgring] opening [59. ADAC Westfalenfahrt] race Dörr Motorsport (on the first post image) had really bad luck too. Both cars were taken out in crashes with other cars very early in the race. Chris Goodwin, McLaren GT test driver (who's Bruno Senna's manager too) raced one of the cars.

So these are challenging times for McLaren GT and Ronzo , they must be busy in Woking to solve these reliability issues and improve on performance also. They have to, this is about serious prestige and money too (one GT car costs around £325,000 / $516,000). If they won't make these cars very good and potential winners, they won't have too much GT customers in the future and it would be a bad reflection on the road cars or the company too.

Edited by hunnylander, 09 April 2012 - 20:23.

Great thread, I appreciate it's not for everyone but I look forward to keeping up with it

gt3 is balance of power, similer to grand am...

So these are challenging times for McLaren GT and Ronzo , they must be busy in Woking to solve these reliability issues and improve on performance also. They have to, this is about serious prestige and money too (one GT car costs around £325,000 / $516,000). If they won't make these cars very good and potential winners, they won't have too much GT customers in the future and it would be a bad reflection on the road cars or the company too.

What's the deal with these cars? Do they just build a basic car and leave it to the teams to prepare and develop them, or does McLaren have an active ongoing role?

You are right about the reputational risks but those of course apply equally to Audi, Ferrari, Porsche, Lamborghini and the rest as well, and I don't think any of those factories are directly involved with running any of the cars.

What's the deal with these cars? Do they just build a basic car and leave it to the teams to prepare and develop them, or does McLaren have an active ongoing role?

You are right about the reputational risks but those of course apply equally to Audi, Ferrari, Porsche, Lamborghini and the rest as well, and I don't think any of those factories are directly involved with running any of the cars.

Probably McLaren have an active ongoing role. Teams couldn't fix every issues themselves. The fixing of issues may require redesign and the manufacturing of those new parts. I doubt a privateer racing team could do it. I didn't hear it myself, so I cannot know the precise context nor expression, but I read it was said in the live GT1 Woirld coverage McLaren will bring a raft of updates to the car for the next race, which will be in too weeks time anyway. But the 12C GT3 did some races in recent weeks already, more preciesly just tried to do it, so McLaren might be doing those updates not specially for Hexis/GT1 World only, and developing them already some time ago, because they is well aware of the fact that the car's realibility is seriously crap in some areas.

An excerpt from some press release.

Private racing teams were provided with a total of 25 brand new McLaren GT3 cars within the 12C GT3 development programme. The Dörr Motorsport team actually received two of the racing cars and will be the only team to compete with two McLaren MP4-12C GT3 in both the VLN championship and the ADAC 24h race at the Nürburgring in 2012

[...]

“Our goal is to compete at the top of the championship with the McLaren MP4-12C GT3,” says team principal Rainer Dörr. “We trust the McLaren GT development team completely and are looking forward to test the car in the Nordschleife. McLaren offers us the opportunity to use the full extent of their engineering expertise: There will be dedicated engineers working with us. This will also be very helpful to the Dörr Motorsport team.”

http://media.mclaren...om/release/116/

A little old but still a nice read, http://www.topgear.c...-gt3-2011-04-20

It would be interesting to see Lewis in a GT race.


Blancpain Endurance Series - Round 1, Monza

http://www.blancpain...mp;session=Race

Wet race, 55 cars started (10 McLarens!)
Trivia: Valentino Rossi was also racing with a Ferrari, they finished 18th with his co-driver.

Best McLaren finished in 16th.

http://www.youtube.c...mp;feature=plcp

McLaren GT car takes first international win as Hexis' Stef Dusseldorp and Fred Makowiecki charge from back in Navarra World GT1 race

Well done to Ronzo! It's the first of many and it's a 1-2!



http://www.hexisraci...rsequalif60.jpg