Jebus, Andy. Of all people here, you should know ...

Most people here pretend like it's a certainty, a done deal...

Went mountain climbing the past week, mate?

Well, I hope not. People are just worried that with Mercedes involvement in Brawn, rumoured to be up to 75% of shares by 2012, Mercedes will cut ties with McLaren completely.

Thanks for the inside info Andy, however it is looking likely Mercedes will cut ties with McLaren in 2011 when the deal ends.

You're beginning to sound like Bourdais.

What Deal? Don't they simply own 40% and are the major shareholder?

An exclusivity deal which ends in 2011 and means Mercedes can do whatever they want.

OT but Iwant to know where is the thread about McLaren's new road car? I haven't seen it today.

It's in the Paddock Club forum now.

Thanks, mate!!

im sorry to say, if mercedes plans to do a bmw move with brawn, they are insanely stupid. They are never gonna succeed. That mclaren can turn this year around just shows their capabilities. I seriously hope mercedes is not that stupid. Mercedes is stealing all the credit at the moment and rightfully soo. But to start own team, so stupid. Just supply redbull also. That way you will earn money from supplier engines, you will have good reputation, and partner one of the absolute best in the buisness, Mclaren.

According to Auto, Motor und Sport, Mclaren is blocking the delivery of Mercedes engines to Red Bull...

Interesting

About time! Mercedes dont seem to care as long as they can sell they Engines to any car. The sooner McLaren is indpendent the better.

Mercedes is digging its own grave, Mercedes is only interested to have that so called WDC and WCC behind its name, well ... its not that hard when you equip 3/4 teams of the field. It's obvious that Mercedes doesnt care about McLaren only the status. So yeah, the sooner McLaren is indpendent the better.

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The 24 is flying today.

Yep, Macs look strong for now... but usually other teams improving in the FP2. We`ll see what will happen, but seeing Heikki next to Lewis is a good sign.

Any pics from testing?

Q & A with Heikki Kovalainen

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/78476

''For sure'' count: 1

FP1 = epic win

The worst part:



He feels positive... To lose to STR is definitely the thing to be positive about. What a shame.

TheFifthDriver Always great to be back in Monza - la pista magica - among the trees, the banking and the tifosi. P1 and P2 in practice too - magic indeed!

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2009 Santander Italian Grand Prix free practice

11th September 2009


LEWIS HAMILTON
MP4-24-04
P1 programme 26 laps 1m23.936s (1st)
P2 programme 32 laps 1m24.902s (11th)

Lewis conducted four runs this morning as he evaluated MP4-24’s low-downforce Monza package and back-to-backed a number of aero components. Despite losing a piece of bodywork (a right-hand-side fuel-filler cap) on his first lap, he was immediately on the pace, topping the timesheets for the whole session. He completed runs of three laps/1m24.632s best, four laps/1m24.147s, five laps/1m23.936s and three laps/1m24.920s.
The afternoon’s session also started with a slight hiccup when Lewis flat-spotted his tyres under braking for the Variante della Roggia and pitted early to avoid the excessive vibration. Nonetheless, he enjoyed another productive session, tweaking the set-up and evaluating both tyre compounds while running heavier fuel-loads. He conducted Prime-tyre runs of one lap/1m31.930s, 10 laps/1m25.099s before switching to Options and setting best times of 1m24.902s (nine laps) and 1m24.920s (three laps).
“I’m pleased with our progress,” said Lewis. “It’s always a little nerve-wracking when you arrive at a unique circuit such as this because you want to see if you’ve taken the right direction with the car’s aerodynamics. But this morning’s session showed us that the engineers had made a very accurate assessment of what would be needed. KERS certainly helps around here – we can expect it to be worth nearly four tenths in qualifying tomorrow – but we also made some good progress with our overall package. This afternoon was spent on heavier fuel-loads, so you can’t read too much into the times, but I’m encouraged by where we are.”


HEIKKI KOVALAINEN
MP4-24-03
P1 programme 27 laps 1m24.332s (2nd)
P2 programme 41 laps 1m24.482s (4th)

A strong day for Heikki, who underlined the solid foundations of MP4-24’s low-downforce spec by finishing the day’s sessions in second and fourth place. He started the morning working to neutralise the set-up of the car, becoming increasingly happy with the balance as the session progressed – he set times of 1m25.133s/six laps, 1m24.332s/six laps and 1m24.492s/eight laps.
For P2, he once again declared himself happy with the balance, setting times of 1m25.311s/five laps and 1m25.164s/nine laps before switching to Options and recording a 12-lap long run (1m25.320s), a 1m24.482s/four laps and a final single-lap run of 1m24.865s.
Heikki said: “At Monza, you’re always facing the problem of balancing overall downforce with grip through the corners – and I think today was possibly better than we anticipated. We’re quicker in the corners than we were last year, which is good.
“The KERS advantage here is nearly four tenths per lap so it’s really helpful along the straights and out of the slower corners. Others have more downforce compared with us, but we have this fantastic KERS from Mercedes-Benz. It’s funny: the teams have all adopted different technical solutions but the laptimes are still very close together – that’s the beauty of Formula 1.”

MARTIN WHITMARSH
Team principal, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes
“A disciplined day’s work for the team today as we evaluated our low-downforce Monza aero components and looked at tyre performance on heavier fuel loads. We’re encouraged by the results of today’s programme, but are fully aware that all teams will be making substantial changes overnight and, equally, we’ll need to further adapt our cars ahead of qualifying. Nonetheless, we’re encouraged by the direction we’ve taken and the results we’ve seen in both of today’s sessions.”


NORBERT HAUG
Vice-president, Mercedes-Benz Motorsport
“Two good and productive sessions for us today. As we’ve all learned over the course of this season, the field is very tight. Heikki in fourth is separated from Giancarlo Fisichella in 20th position by just over a second, and all 20 cars are within 1.6 seconds. Our long runs on high fuel loads looked quite promising compared with our competitors, but I seriously think there are a handful of teams who can compete for pole tomorrow.”

Hamilton is really monstering the kerbs! Looking good so far anyway but this is going to be so close between the KERS cars.

hm, the way he's using the kerbs looks like it's close to racing off-track... i hope he wont get any trouble in quali/race.

what's that guy in pic #3 doing? coaching? tourist guide?

Maybe with Nicole's "links" it's McLarens entry for X Factor..

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Yeah, really impressive...

How come they are 0.5 sec slow in sector3?

I blame the Parabolica.

Lewis was fastest in all 3 sectors in FP1... so I wouldn't bother too much about FP2.

The first pic what is that ugly thing in the middle antenna?

It's part of the Pitot, nothing new.

Come on, he is positive because the car seems to be good here. Give him a chance, he may have a good weekend. He should have a good weekend if he is to have a chance at keeping his seat.

Teewoods; I don't think losing Mercedes engines and financial backing would be a good thing for McLaren (not saying it will happen mind, just that I am not entusiastically waiting for that to happen). Williams had some very barren years after BMW left; McLaren had a hard time after Honda left. There appears to be some friction between McLaren and mercedes now and I hope it doesn't lead to a complete breakdown in the relationship.

He is still on the white line for your information

Spot on, Lewis was indeed the fastest in all 3 sectors, on a green circuit while Sutils best time was set late FP2 and Lewis's time was set early in FP1. Im not worried , and i even think Lewis set his time on the hard, Sutil's on softs?

Yes, Lewis did his 1:23.9 on hards, as well as Heikki did a 1:24.3 on hards on FP1.

According to poster "mead" on the "raikkonen to McLaren?" thread, Whitmarsh said on Finnish TV (didn't specify the channel, though) that Heikki will likely stay with McLaren for a long time.

Sounds quite different now, and with Rosberg likely to a silver Brawn and Raikkonen likely to stay at Ferrari for one more year it seems to make sense.

I'll be happy with Heikki long as he can keep up his recent run of improving race pace... he is good in just about everything else

Dont get me wrong, i really like Heikki and i'd love to see him around McLaren for a long time, Because his introvert / shy / loyal posture is just .

... I dont like to say it, but Heikki (at this moment) just doesnt have the speed to compete with Lewis, i can imagion that as Lewis you want someone as teampally that can push you to the limit, someone who can push you (even more) to the edge. But! I truely think Heikki can rease his game such way he can compete with Lewis, he just needs to take back the game into his hands and dont run behind the facts, my tip to Heikki would be 'Its your game and if it isnt lost you still have all the changes, the only limit you have is the limits you impose that grey thing between your ears' or something like that ...

Lewis (and Hamilton Snr) would be happy with that outcome.

Rosberg's lucky, he'd be stuck at Williams and have his hands full with Hulkenberg if not for Mercedes.

Just had a quick look at Lewis' stint times in FP2 and things are looking good in terms of race pace. With lots of fuel onboard he was consistently in the mid to low 25's, kimi was there or thereabouts but not as consistent, and heikki was in the mid to high 25's.

Things are looking good!

So... Heikki stays at McLaren, I suppose he'll be cheaper then Rosberg, he's a nice bloke but would have being nice to have a bit of a challenge to Lewis to se where everyone stood in talent

so, rosberg vs Button, no idea on that outcome.

2FP was slightly concerning but if you say they were consistant times then I'll go with it.

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It was the Finnish MTV3 television channel whose reporter asked Martin Whitmarsh's opinion about Heikki Kovalainen's chances of staying at McLaren. Whitmarsh didn't give any direct answer but, in a very roundabout way, he suggested that Kovalainen has indeed raised his game and that he might stay a bit longer...

The news item that MTV3 published on the Web (in Finnish) can be found here:
http://www.mtv3.fi/urheilu/f1/uutiset.shtm.../2009/09/952231

You can also try if you can find the actual video feed of Whitmarsh's comment here:
http://www.katsomo.fi/?treeId=214
(I've no idea if the MTV3 video service can be viewed outside Finland.)

I think McLaren would prefer Raikkonen to Kovalainen, but it appears that Ferrari might yet decide to keep Raikkonen for the next season. So Whitmarsh is probably now waiting for Ferrari's decision. Rumours seem to be currently linking Nico Rosberg with Brawn GP.

I think Lewis showed his talent even as a rookie against the then current and 2x WDC.