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I am here sometimes. I have a day job.
Do you guys really believe that the Marca is slower than Force India?

Give yourself some breaks and wait...
I am off to work...

Has everyone forgotten there is still another test to come? Hold your horses until then!

We do not have to 'hold' our horses; they are too weak to walk let on be on 'pace'.
Seriously though, the hopes of optimism are slowly but surely ebbing away. I'm looking at a scenario that conjures up a combination of 2004 & 2006. My heart still says that after Jerez it going to be 1988 all over again but my brain says, " "

4. Its something we haven't seen before because its related to this seasons testing ban, so McLaren are doing a lot of data work for the season spend developing in the factory only.

But at some point they do need to actually test all the simulation data on-track. That has to be done before the Winter Testing is done. Because that is going to be the baseline for all the simulation work during the course of the season. And I don't think they have established a baseline as yet.

That would be great for them.

But still doesn't explain why they are they only team crashing the car while doing not so fast laps

5. Martin Whitmarsh want to start his team principal career with a thundering crescendo.

mclaren is so screwed im sorry to say, this is the third test and they are getting nowhere fast. Unless they post a middle to low 18 time, im convinced they suck.
Seems like the car has fundamental problems, it has problems with traction/mechanical grip, which actually has been one of the strongpoints of the mclaren cars the last couple of years. Add to this, that it has rearend aero problems and it seems like Mclaren have no clue to why. This means their tunnel and cfd is way off. Put it all together, Mclaren has produced a flawed car, on basis off false info from tunnel and cfd. So first they need to recalibrate their tools, and then they can make a new car. And that in a season were testing is banned. We are so dead From hero to zero in one year

We were told to expect something towards the end of the Barcelona test.

Well it's the last afternoon so my guess is it's now or never.

Jerez will be reserved for fine tuning and GP sims I suspect.

That is the assessment of many, but better to come from a Mac fan. Sad really as i was looking forward to Lewis fighting for the title this year. It will seem like a hollow victory for the champ this year if Lewis can't at least compete, much like Alonso winning in 2005.

This years rules really do make it hard to catch up to the leaders.

Yep. It's looking like McLaren are royally scr*wed and the car is fundamentally flawed. But I'll keep supporting them in the hope that they can turn the sinking ship around. MP4-24B anyone?

Actually it is a surprise that Pat Fry has come up with something that has gone so horribly wrong. Normally, Tim Goss is the one who comes up with duds (exception being the 2008 car).

Yes, I'm still waiting for this "We'll show them" time that was coming from Barca, maybe we'll have to wait till next week, but like many I am steadily losing confidence, I don't they will be as bad as they are, but they not going to challenge in the first races :-(

and it looks like Femi's done a runner

I'm joining Ron (and heading for the escape pod). We're outta here!

[img]http://www.autosport.com/gallery/picture_free.php/dir/2009martest2/image/l__o9t8883-2[/img]

I know. Jonathan says Hi everyone and don't worry

@Owen

He could play the part of Dr. Evil!

The problem is the new rules. If you get it wrong it is harder to improve, expecially if your CFD and wind tunnels are not translating data to the track.

If the worst is feared for you Mac fans, i will know how you feel. 2005 was a painful year for me, not because Ferrari lost but because we couldn't even fight on those tyres. The car was good, but the tyres were just not up to par.

This however is solely down to the car as most other teams are very close to one another with respect to their lap times. Somewhere it just went terribly wrong. Too many resources into 2008 which happens when you fight to the end for the championship.

If Ferrari perform well this year they should be applauded, as it bloody hard to resource share when you are focussed on 2008 and 2009 campaigns.

One thing I'd forgotten was the info we got that the engine was being run below full power. Not suggesting this as a reason for the low times, I've given up on trying to find excuses for them, but rather wondering if this is still something that's having to be done? Anyone heard/read anything?

There's still a faint voice of hope echoing dimly around my mind, saying that the Diffuser of Justice will be fitted during the break and that after lunch Hamilton will put in some very good times. However, since that same voice has been saying that during every test day so far, it is very close to being shot.

Yeh, if they've achieved that, then hats off to them. For many McLaren fans here I suspect it's laugh or cry time. I'm going for laughter (for now). Will leave the blubbing for Melbourne.

If lap time is so important for them, how hard could it be for them to run the car with a very light fuel load and a car that is underweight just to do a fast lap time?

Perhaps the fast times will be posted once Ferrari pack up. Pure gamesmanship. Perhaps.

If the car isn't working as it's supposed to, then can it really be chalked down to the team being too busy with the 2008 title race? This is why I haven't been able to get my head round it, I'd have understood if the car they'd designed was just not up to par because the design specs they'd managed to reach weren't good enough. That I could comprehend. I still can't for the life of me work out how the wind tunnel and simulation systems that they have at their command can contribute so hugely to the design of a championship winning car, then feed them a load of rubbish with regards to the very next car that is made. Doesn't compute.

Diffuser of Justice


I think they have a problem with rear end grip which is maybe why Hamilton ran offtrack yesterday.

If they already have the solution i.e. Magic Diffuser a.k.a Diffuser of Justice a.k.a The Phantom, why havent they bolted it on already. so others dont copy?... or it doesnt exist?

Yea the engine might be well below full power, perhaps explains Kovaleinens start the other day...

either way time is running out...

Mclaren are in trouble, this much is painfully clear and I am a Macca fan. Too many Macca fans are burying their heads in the sand and making too many illogical excuses for the poor testing performance of our team. The question is can the the problems be solved sufficently, so we will be uppermidfield competitive in Melbourne. If not we will struggle to get 2 cars into Q2 and I mean struggle. It appears Mclaren have got the concept and the design of the MP4-24 horribly wrong, in comparrison to the competition. Ive been saying for a long time things dont look right and my fears seem to be coming true.

Thats all well and good but if they only do 15 laps the whole morning they may as well not bother going!

why arn't they testing

From today, same old diffuser. :\

is that blanking going to go, is that the real diffuser?

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Oh man. Bring out the Diffuser of Justice™ now.

God only knows.... Bit worrying

They're probably having an open and frank conversation with the designers...

I am off to do some work like Femi. Hopefully when I get back they will have done a few more laps...

Yea, I've been wondering about this, too, now. We keep hearing about how they're going to have this new diffuser, but I think that only started as a rumor due to speculation that this little blanked off bar on the top of this one isn't purposeful. We heard Haug or Whitmarsh or somebody talk a while ago about how they're 'big' development is going to be the interaction between a new floor and rear wing, but there was no mention of a new diffuser.

Has there been any official confirmation that there's a new one coming, or that this one isn't basically the finalized version? I think people are assuming they *have* to have a new diffuser, but they wouldn't be the only top team that isn't making huge revisions to it.

That's good.

They might be fitting the new one right now...

And immediately McLaren go faster than they have all week.

Still last though

I think it came from a combination of the quote from Haug, a separate quote from Sam Michael claiming that he expected many teams to turn up in Melbourne with a diffuser similar to Williams', with two teams in particular looking like the car was designed with it in mind, and people thinking McLaren's part blanked diffuser couldn't be the final one. Nothing official. Speculation.

Maybe the current diffuser is as good as it gets. :\

Well why not? That's what a superfandango miracle diffuser would do. We're just depending on one actually existing. Which it might , or might not .

Another solution in the McLaren which look stupid for armchair experts. With so many stupid solutions initially I thought they have done something clever what we dont understand, but so far it seems not.

I think they should have one of those meetings.

I guess the there is something wrong with the airflow at the back (no shit Sherlock, I know) and they tried to find a way around it with a new diffuser design but it was hard/impossible, hence the delay.

How do you know whether BMW, Ferrari, Renault, Toyota run their engines on full power? It's illogical excuse.

And with such specific test days reports from McLaren, fans would already know if it was the case.

I don't know that. And I wasn't offering it as an excuse. Hence why I said that I wasn't offering it as an excuse. The question was asked because the engine was supposedly running on low power for reliability reasons, which is a worry.

If that was the case then, Jenson wouldn't be breaking lap records...it's the same engine.

Lewis is in the low 1.21's now. that would have put him 4th the day before yesterday and 6th yesterday and it doesn't look like he has done a qualifying simulation yet so maybe Femi's prophesy is shaping up to come true?

Perseverance works!

I fricken knew it, Sith Lord......

BGP are not using KERS which is where Mac were having some problems.