Yea i guess so... I wander if it almost increases the power of the diffuser..

hopefully scarbs will analyze the cars a little better, his articles has so far been a little thin i think

Their rear wing really is weird.

Beauty on the track

It's near vertical in those shots, too. Certainly, it wasn't a test for Monza setup

I can see Lewis's legs pressing the accelerator in that last shot.

I can see Nicole's head also.

Won't see legs until he meets a concrete wall in Canada

PS: McLaren wheel fairings are illegal

Those are jsut for testing. They have sensors in them.

Hitting concrete wall is not funny.


PS: Third year in the row there is debate about legality, they only using them for testing.

Sorry but I think that kind of comment unnecessary and downright stupid. As a F1 fan for over 35 years, I have seen many great drivers killed and seriously injured. Every time it left me with a sickness in the pit of my stomach and a great deal of sadness and loss in my heart.

The fact you think it funny to make reference to the most sickening accident of recent times regardless of the miraculous survival of its driver shows how sick you are. To wish that on the youngest F1 champion in history shows a deep lack of respect.

A F1 fan you are not

its not a looker

What has age got to do with it?

Painting the rear wing bright orange-red doesn't do the look of the car any favours - it's much too conspicuous. It might look better in black or silver. Or better yet, they could use that new transparent carbon fiber they've developed to make the rear wing invisible!

Not orange, Rocket-Red. Good to fianlly see some testing donw in the dry, i really hope the weather stays dry for the most of the remaining tests. Can we not go to Bahrain, if we can spend millions on a small upgrade for brazil surely a trip to UAE wouldn't be that bad.

Bahrain is not in the UAE

My mistake.

You are an embarrasment to the decent Ferrari fans. Remove that logo Ferrari logo and do yourself a favour and crash.

If you thought that was funny, you need lots of growing up Why the heck does this thread attract this kind of buffoonly?

I love the rest of the car, but that rear wing is hideous. Front suspension looks cool.

Despite winning the 2008 WDC, apparently their competency is at question due to having an old wing on a new car!

That's forum journalism for you.

Video of testing in Portugal today, Hamilton stopped with a problem:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=wZN9Zdc8VDo

You might want to avoid a career in advertising, however!

Lewis sideways mid corner

I can't say that I'm feeling 100% confident that we'll be leading the pack in the 1st races

While setting stunning times in testing doesn't mean anything it would be nice ;-)

we also seem to have hit more mechanical problems then other teams so far, just in front of Ferrari

I have my doubts, I feel it might be a season of being behind the main 2, with Ferrari and BMW battling it out.

PORTIMAO TEST - WED 21st JANUARY 2009
Date: Wednesday January 21 2009
Drivers: Lewis Hamilton
Location: Autodromo Internacional do Algarve
Track Length: 4.687km
Weather: Damp in the morning but dry and sunny in the afternoon
Track temperature: Maximum 30°C;
Air temperature: Maximum 13°C
Laps run today: 81
Laps run in total at test: 171 (28/62/81)
Kilometres covered today: 380
Kilometres covered in total at test: 801 (131/290/380)
Best lap time today: 1m30.242 at 17:15
Best lap time of the test: 1m30.242
Programme: Lewis returned to the cockpit for his first taste of the 2009 regulations and the team’s new MP4-24 car. While the weather was markedly improved over the previous two days, the morning remained damp, requiring the continued use of an ’08-spec rear wing and intermediate tyres. The team was briefly hampered at lunchtime by a precautionary engine systems shutdown, which was quickly rectified without the need to change the unit. In the afternoon, conditions sufficiently improved to allow an ’09-spec rear wing and several sets of slicks to be bolted to the car, resulting in Lewis’s best time of 1m30.242. Lewis said: "It was good to be back working with the team - it felt like I’d hardly been away because it was easy to slip back into the routine. It’s amazing to think that, while I’ve been to Woking throughout the winter, I haven’t properly driven a Formula 1 car since the Brazilian Grand Prix two months ago, but everything very quickly felt normal today. "This first test was all about just getting used to the new car and the new regulations and about giving my feedback to the engineers; it wasn’t about setting a fast time. I’m pleased to report that the car feels good, we’ve made lots of progress over the winter and I’m looking forward to developing the car ahead of the Australian Grand Prix. "It’s going to be an extremely busy winter. I’ve only been in the car for one day and our usual joblist for the weeks ahead is already enormous. With the limitations on testing during the season, and the few sessions we have over the next two months, this is going to be an intense time and absolutely critical for every team."
Drivers for tomorrow: Heikki Kovalainen
Duration of test: Four days (Jan 19-22)
Next Test: Jerez (Feb 10-13)

Driver
Constructor Time Laps
Sebastien Buemi Scuderia Toro Rosso 1m27.987 128
Nico Rosberg Williams F1 1m29.729 143
Lewis Hamilton Vodafone McLaren Mercedes 1m30.242 81
Timo Glock Toyota 1m30.878 64
Fernando Alonso Renault 1m31.743 85

http://www.mclaren.com/f1season/portimao-jan-21.php

Not an engine blowout then it seems. Can't say I'm too worried, the laps are beginning to rack up, the rear wing doesn't seem to be a problem and there are positive noises coming from the drivers. Hopefully tomorrow the track will be dry throughout the day, but reading elsewhere it seems it might not be.

Anyone knows what was the cause of the problem which stopped LH on track?

"The team was briefly hampered at lunchtime by a precautionary engine systems shutdown, which was quickly rectified without the need to change the unit."

Doesn't sound too drastic.

well thats the problem, that statement is bs to my ears, if it was insignificant, why didnt lewis run for well over three hours, but hopefully they tell the truth and they didnt have to change the engine

Would be a pointless lie, I can remember them saying they had an engine failure in testing plenty of times before.

With the restrictions on testing engines, there would be more conservative electronic checks to ensure no damage was done to an engine, such as from overheating, or a hydraulic issue etc. I also imagine the practice engines will not be revved out as high as the race engines, due to the testing limitations. But then I am merely guessing.

Thanks.

What a beauty.

New pictures in the mclaren media section

perfect for desktop patterns


http://www.mclaren.com/mediaroom/2009-launch-Studio.php

Nothing you tit

thanks a lot

I really like these 2009 cars. I didn't think I would when we saw the hybrids last year, but now we've seen the real thing I'm converted.

I'm even getting used to those rear wings already.

In those pictures above, the MP4-24 looks stunning, and far more like an actual racing car than those things we had last year, which looked more like a means of transporting ever-growing numbers of aerodynamic devices at high speed.

I can't wait to see how they race. I'm looking forward to the first GP this year more than I've done for quite a few years.

here is the special frontwing feature, i think its there to calm the flow or create vortices to increase low pressure

Exactly my feelings. 08 specs cars are getting uglier as I'm converting to the new look.

Its only a small point, but I notice that the McLaren livery paints the top of the inside of the rear wing endplates "to match" the top surface of the wing.
The result of that is that it is only from straight ahead (or behind) that one realises just how disproportionately narrow the 2009 rear wing really is. A nice aesthetic touch that one might hope that others would copy.

is that a bargeboard i see?

not saying it's illegal to have "bodywork" there. but it looks like something that the rules had intended to ban.

Is it not just a camera mounting point?

Yes

He means the black ...er... things below the wing.

erm thats the front wing end plate you are seeing, there's nothing under the nose.

http://www.autosport.com/gallery/photo.php/id/121614
http://www.autosport.com/gallery/photo.php/id/121777

they have attached something to the endplate, bmw also, an aerodynamic device, you cant see it on the launch picture, see yossi's algarve movieclip pt2, it's were i got the picture. The camera needs to be at the right angle to see it, and i havent found good pic of it yet

you can see it in the 2nd link i posted - here is the high res image. http://gallery.autosport.com/picture.php/d...835_HiRes.jpg-4

here

It wasn't meant as a joke, nor as a hope.
I was referring to the fact that u need a crash like Kubica in 2007 to see legs. The wink was meant as: "just so that u know"

Ask before u start insulting me

i think they are there to create vortices, to increase low pressure