They're reported to get a lot of wheel spin even in the dry. Wet conditions would probably require ultra-safe throttle and engine mapping, which would have some effect on the performance, I guess.

How do you mean?

To win or lose a world championship is pressure, to play on the midfield playground is nothing pressure compared to that. With a crap car you have not much to lose.

Well given Matt Bishop was conducting the 'interview' it was probably put in there because it's what the media would have said anyway so it's getting their answer out there before the question gets asked of them by someone other than their own PR people.

Makes sense in at least PR terms. Which rarely make sense in any other context

McLaren have such technical depth that they'll be able to turn the car around before the European season starts I reckon. They'd never just give up an entire season and push on for 2010.

There is when you have multi million dollar promotional contracts.

Basically the pressure is the gnawing sense of irrelevance which for guys like Schumacher, Senna and probably Hamilton is a pressure all of itself.

I wonder if Brawn has a financial bonus deal with Mercedes, if they do the most winning while McLaren struggle...

Expect some heavy Mercedes branding on the BGP001 soon ;)

Have they even tested the 2009 wing in the wet ?

Yes, one day at Jerez last week

That's true, but the driveability of the engine seems to be near perfect. Rubens was praising it a lot this week.
However, bad traction is not something you wish to have in the wet.

I just hope it's not as bad as on the Youtube video where a Ferrari shot past as if Heikki was driving with his hand brake still on..

They wont give up but I dont think they'll be the best team this season at all. I think their chassis is not as good a basic design as the Brawn.

Well, I'm here to admit that I was wrong in my confidence that the car would come good for Melbourne.

(I'm ready to change my signature, paranok0 ).

I'm still confident that we will recover and be fighting at the sharp end of the grid sooner rather than later.

Now it's just for us to see how bad it actually is come Melbourne. I'm still not worried, it won't be a disaster season for us .

You know it is coming. Powered By *MERCEDES BENZ* When Ferrari turned down Brawn, I'm sure Brawn will return the favour. Apparently Button his having orgasms about the drivability of the Merc engine, compared to last years Honda.

So is Rubens.

I thought the official line was that Brawn turned down Ferrari?

Yeah, I think they chose the Mercedes because it was easier to install.

As a Ferrari fan I'll grant you four wet test days in Jerez next week instead

Oh bollox

Considering the MP4-18 debacle a few years ago, I wouldn't be that optimistic. Now the problems obviously are not the same as back then, but still of similar nature. If their new ideas work out, they'll most likely have a winner, but if it takes too long, other teams will have caught on. McLaren are seldom suffering from bad car design, it's rather that their ideas are too advanced and need more incubation time.

Wonder what the odds are for a McLaren being lapped by a Brawn in Melbourne? :\

I think upper middle in my opinion, I still think they will surprise a few people who are expecting them to be at the back of the grid.

Depending on if/how much they improve next week, I'd say you were right. They have got a better overall driving line-up than teams they'd likely be competing against in the midfield too, so that will be in their favour.

yea, i always get the feeling they try too hard...but what do i know

I can't agree. Kovalainen is terrible.

back in 2007 after watching hami's performance in first 3 races, i told my friend that with the speed that hami is going up IS the speed with which he'll come down. And man was I right!

He's not terrible but he's not better than a lot of the drivers on the grid.

open season

Well, Kovalainen was a man that was way faster than Fisi on the R27 and at Fuji with that was able to fight wheel to wheel with Raikkonen on the last lap for second place and won it.

But let's get back to the MP4/24. If you don't like Kova, open a new thread and bash him there.

Probably a better way of putting it, I agree. A lot being all except Piquet and Fisichella, and maybe Sutil, Nakajima, and Buemi but I haven't watched those three closely enough to draw an opinion.

So the MP4-24 is great, and Hamilton is now turning in to a rubbish racing driver that can't exit a corner without putting too much power on?

no need for an argument...

What goes up must come down!

`nuff said. and I'd say its about time for mcLaren, yea about time...

So we can talk about how amazingly jaw droppingly orgasm inducingly stunningly godly Lewis is, but not the way Kovy has failed to perform time and time again?

Faster than Fisi? :\

I just don't like the way McLaren and Renault are purposefully hiring lame duck second drivers to default to a lead driver setup recently. I think it will bite them in the ass this year if they really are midpack to backmarkers as Lewis could probably do an Alonso or Webber and bring the car up the grid but I don't see Heikki doing it.

Anyway I have refrained from saying anything about the car apart from the rear wing saga but it certainly seems like they are in trouble. That said, McLaren along with Ferrari and Renault have shown some fairly high paced in-season development in recent years compared to the other teams so they may well pull themselves back into a respectable 5th or higher running team and quickly.

Just look at Renault last year.

Hamilton != McLaren.

I wonder if anyone said that Senna's career would go down just as quick as it kicked off. I guess they'd be right too.

^ Brilliant username

It's about the only phrase I understood in a Mazda video on Youtube going on about building an RX-7.

That's my sweet little o-zone killer in my avatar

Not Equal.

Martin: Ross, how are you doing!
Ross: Fine, fine.
Martin: New car looks really good.
Ross: Yep.
Martin: Like the colour scheme. Sleek.
Ross: Yep.
Martin: And really, good to see all you guys racing in 2009. Close call that one.
Ross: Yep.
Martin: So, anyway...
Ross: Yep?
Martin: You know how we're giving you engines?
Ross: Yep.
Martin: And you know how you could have KERS if you wanted?
Ross: Yep.
Martin: Could we borrow a chassis and a couple of wings?
Ross: Nope.

Yep != is "not equal". I meant to type =/= as that seems to be the more conventional way.

Or "<>"

My moles near Woking report that McLaren have posted employees at every copy shop in and around Woking in hopes of finding data that could get them back on track.

So funny!

Heh, someone works with SQL

And not only

Actually Renault's lead driver, Alonso, said exactly that.

A while back somebody posted some pics of the Mclaren cab back design. The cockpit is set back in the car visibly much further than the other front runners. Presumably one reason was to reduce the wear on the outside of the front tyres which plagued the 07/08 cars. Maybe this has got something to do with the lack of downforce.They are having to run to much wing. If so, I don't think they can change the chassis dimensions once it's been passed by the FIA ? The season might be over.

PHP can use "!= "or "<>"
Visual Basic "<>"
COBOL was simply "NOT EQUAL" or "NOT ="
I mess around a little with PHP and MySql and one of the things that still trips me up is that in SQL, it's "If a = b" whereas in PHP it's "If a == b"... I always forget that "equalequal equals equal" and "equal equals an assignment"...

Oh well, it's been a long winter. F1 starts up in a couple of weeks and I CAN'T WAIT!

I think they can. But this means new crash tests and with no in-season testing ....

COBOL is simply NOT EQUAL to anything that should be used now, and consigned to history.

Is it possible that any moderator could clean all that's not related to the MP4/24?

Thanks.