go on Andy stop beating about the bush .

Anyway my Aerodynamics for Dummies book says the RB5 will get lift all over the sidepods...

Feb 10-13 - Jerez - Group Test Two

10th February - Heikki
11th February - Heikki
12st February - Lewis
13th February - Lewis

------------------
Official word on who's driving when.

Here are two close ups of the RBR5 and the MP4/24 rear wheel/wing.

http://f1.gpupdate.net/en/photolarge.php?p...7923&catID=3945
http://f1.gpupdate.net/en/photolarge.php?p...7075&catID=3792

Those pics are somewhat misleading given the large wheelbase difference between the two cars. Newey has gone for a long wheelbase, the top three for a short one. Time will tell who got it right I suspect. Will Mclaren miss the influence of Newey this year?

ffs, wheelbase difference is about cca. 3cm

Damn, even the fuel flap looks good

Still wondering why they're testing with those weird 'cut off' exhausts and not running the launch car with the integrated design ...

Cheers dsfgdshg. Nice.

Yes, thanks a lot dsgfjks(?)!

Looking at one of the pictures one can see the Renault employees staring in envy. Lovely!

Looks like a big F3.
The chubby aspect of the car probably makes the McLaren the easiest car to drive, the absent of many sharp angles.
This might be an advantage when tires get worn.

In this one he looks like just a helmet glued on the top - he seems a long way proud of the car.

Why would this have anything to do with the ease of use?

What is this color?

They use it to get real air-flow patterns on the car; it's a dye.

Flow-vis, strange it's not on the frontwing...

Probably sprayed from that part on the nose, that looks like a camera housing.

It's also only on one side.

The MP4-24, you won't like it when it's angry...

oh oh oh, do we need to be worried or are they just checking if the windtunnel and cfd calculations match the real life flowstructures, it has been a while since ive seen them use this paint

Warp!

They've done the flow of the front-wing in other tests and the full 2009 car will act the same way in that portion of the flow so there's not much point.

Presumably using flo-vis in a shared test carries a risk that other teams might get a photo, and learn something. I guess that's why there's a line of guys alongside as they push it back into the garage.

The car is symmetric, so no use in doing it on both sides.

Symmetric? You mean like a mirror image?

Lets not reflect on this...

How does transparency affect this

I'm not confident on this. The test report doesn't sound that positive..

Date: Tuesday February 10 2009
Drivers: Heikki Kovalainen
Location: Circuito de Jerez
Track Length: 4.423km
Weather: Dry and cloudy - with a mid-morning shower
Track temperature: Maximum 20.6°C
Air temperature: Maximum 16.7°C
Laps run today: 60
Laps run in total at test: 60
Kilometres covered today: 265km
Kilometres covered in total at test: 265km
Best lap time today: 1m22.634 at 16:29
Best lap time of the test: 1m22.634
Programme: First running of MP4-24 in familiar conditions. Heikki ran a parallel programme, focusing on developing useful set-ups for the new car while also putting mileage on the car’s active KERS device. The team set itself prudent targets on both thermal and pressure thresholds in order to safeguard the machinery and this resulted in a few aborted runs when those thresholds were reached. Heikki felt the KERS device worked well but required further work in concert with the car’s set-up to produce optimum results. As much of the day’s work was exploratory, the team chose to undertake most of its work on a single set of dry tyres choosing only to switch to fresh rubber – and set its fastest lap – towards the end of the day. The team will continue with the same programme tomorrow and is optimistic of increasing the length of the runs as it increases its understanding of the KERS device.
Drivers for tomorrow: Heikki
Duration of test: Four days (Feb 10-13)
Next Test: Jerez (Mar 1-4)

Thats the most detailed test report I've seen in a while ... y'd mclaren give out details like that . fastest time set on fresh rubber !.
kinda cuts down on the amount of discussion/debating here

well the impression mclaren left in dec that they were well advanced with kers was :\ although they try their best to explain their situation in todays test report, its just a lot of bla bla bla. The way i read the report, this is fase1 or something like that, and im beginning to question whether they ever run an active system back in dec.

The word from Brixworth is that they didn't run it in December and the development is not as advanced as people here seem to think. Having said that, MBHPE have spent millions on developing this device and have some hugely talented people working on it.

It is mainly safety issues that are slowing things up, once these are resolved hopefully the development will get back on track.

Is it just me or does that sound like the ramblings of an off-record analyst and not the press release from a professional race team?

This from F1-live.com:

Testing resumed today in Spain and Heikki ran a parallel programme in the MP4-24, focusing on developing useful set-ups for the new car while also putting mileage on the car’s Kinetic Energy Recovery System.

The team set itself 'prudent targets' on both thermal and pressure thresholds in order to safeguard the machinery and this resulted in a few aborted runs when those thresholds were reached.

Kovalainen stated that the KERS device worked well but requires further work with the car’s set-up to produce optimum results.

As much of the day’s work was exploratory, the team chose to undertake most of its work on a single set of dry tyres choosing only to switch to fresh rubber – and set its fastest lap – towards the end of the day. Kovalainen was fourth fastest of the five runners with a best time of 1:22.634s.

The team will continue with the same programme tomorrow and is optimistic of increasing the length of the runs as it increases its understanding of the KERS device.
------------------------------

The message is loud and clear; we are not pushing for times yet.

ok thanks, hope you are right

Surely they used it at Portimao in December :\ , and it actually appeared to have worked then...

I would imagine that the actual utilisation of KERS must take some getting used to. Making it work at the right parts of the lap, how it might interact with the moveable aero, other cars etc. Understanding what it does to the cars attitude in long fast corners will be key to making it work successfully and tactically. There's a lot of work to be done here, I would expect, for all teams.

The Green liquid: (With apologies to those who already know about flow vis)

There was a little head-scratching here at ESPN Racing-Live as we looked at the picture of Heikki Kovalainen putting the new McLaren Mercedes MP4-24 through its paces yesterday in Spain. Was the green liquid splattered over the surface of the car due to a brake fluid overfill, had the Bridgestone staff found a new colour to paint the Potenza rubber - with unexpected results - or was it something to do with McLaren's ongoing aero-programme?

Naturally we were completely wrong on the first two counts but not too far out on the third. McLaren explained to us what in fact they were doing at Jerez yesterday... "This is what we call a 'flow vis' (visualisation) - where we take a paraffin-based light solution and apply it to the car," the team told us. The solution is light enough to flow over the car, drying quickly to determine the airflow over the bodywork."

McLaren explained this is a routine operation. "This is a common occurrence when testing new cars and is used to confirm the wind tunnel readouts."

From F1-live.com

Major problem with KERS is braking balance problems while batteries are being charged. I don't think anyone confirmed to solve it. Maybe it's not possible to do it? Imho who will cope with it, will gain lap-time advantage which it is all about with KERS.

Old rear wing again.

There is black hole beneath sidepod intake, and that old wing looks lower than 2008 spec.

thats because the bright heads at mclaren just found out that kers needs a lot more cooling, the black box is were the cooling inlet for kers normally is, and we have 14 degrees nice work mclaren engineers

Or maybe its better solution (two holes) than one bigger

it may just be my tired eyes, but is that fin on the engine cover new? It doesn't just slope down it looks like it slopes then the angle goes steeper and leaves sort of apex, kinda like red bull but not as drastic, could be the different in the reds and silvers of the paint, but it looks like that?

Maybe it's only a measuring device?

May be they are doing multiple decker rear wing!


The rule alows them to make use of sevarl planes,... TOW! so double decker... It is such a secret thatthey are not allowed to use it, and on the tunnel it produces equal down force as the old ones...

I really dont understand how you find what you just said that funny? Is it a European thing to laugh at your own bad jokes or am i just incapable of laughing at non funny stuff?

It is the latter. Also, I share your incapability. I consider it a benefit in life

Are you German?

Could someone explain why Mclaren would be using a 2008 rear wing if the 2009 one was working as intended? I can't think of a reason myself, other than protecting the rear tyres on longer stints that they want to run to test the KERS setup.