Does look like the right one is more open than the one on the left. must be a reason?

It's not big, it might be the same size as last year, but the sidepods have become bigger because of the batteries of the KERS. There was a discussion and illustration (in the F60 topic) about Ferrari and others, who put KERS batteries under the fuel tank, might have reduced the size of the fuel tank to get small sidepods.

Update might come on them, but I think first for Barcelona. Melbourne, Sepang, Bahrain needs good cooling, so I don't expect reduced air inlets to appear there.

It sure seems strange to go from the smallest sidepod holes in F1 to some of the largest, it must be down to kers

Maybe they need bigger sidepods because lack of winglets&stuff have a big impact on guiding air to the rear wing. Inlets are other story, they can change it on race basiss.

Consistent times during a stint point to high tyre degradation as the fuel load is going down at the same time.

Laptimes should fall during a stint and not remain consistent.

It's relative, depends on other's stints. What if some rivals will suffer on softs having drop off?

We should see more long stints for accurate conclusion, but there is sign for laptime fall too.

15:12 Tanda larga de 20 vueltas goma blanda
1.23:923
1.21:149
1.20:929
1.20:839
1.20:502
1.21:413
1.20:598
1.20:080
1.21:074
1.20:786
1.20:338
1.20:482
1.20:291
1.20:296
1.20:417
1.20:278
1.19:884
1.19:829
1.20:198
1.23:509 Box

LOL.

Kova just did a 1:18.202.

No more mr.Slowalainen.

there is a new diffuser???

Any pic from them?

Regards

Mclaren must have borrowed the anti-gravity ballast from Brawn for testing!

mmhmm @ Kovi 1:18.202

That's the 3rd fastest driver at Jerez this winter.

Sandbaggers of the century? Freak? Fixed a problem?

Can you imagine if they -were- sandbagging this whole time? Maybe all the flowvis was just part of their testing? I doubt it, but it would be funny if Macca turned up at aus with the competitive car..

Yes and track is faster, than 2 weeks ago.
Calm down

I think the cars changed too much and too much viz flow flying around for them to be sandbagging. Testing times are always a little bit meaningless but credit has to go to Mclaren's engineers for the amazing amount of work they've done. THey probably knew there was a major problem since the first day at Barcelona and have been working their socks of since. Probably more pace to come. Of course we have to assume that other teams are working hard to find extra tenths here and there but they can't expect as larger gains because on the whole they haven't had a major, identifiable problem with their car that needs fixing as Mclaren did with the rear down force.

He's never been. Always fast, especially over one lap perhaps, but struggled a little with race-pace last year, but that was more due to car-characteristics than him lacking the ability.

You may have a point if that indeed Mclaren's situation.
They might have developed a more detailed knowledge and understanding of their car due to problem solving.

This (if it were the case) would also stand them in good stead when it comes to developing the package.

I read somewhere that Heiki has started a race simulation.

Could argue that drivers of this calibre should be able to overcome the car characteristics to make it go as fast as physically possible.. That's what a driver is meant to do right, make it go as fast as physically capable.

How much faster? In percentage?

It's just an assumption, we can't know how much faster is the track if it's faster at all.

It's only 4/10 th's off button yesterday so they are getting there

Nothing to get excited about IMHO. I still but them behind two thirds of the field and a Q3 performance in Adelaide will be a miracle.

It looks like they have added downforce to the rear at the expense of increasing drag. Sadly some of the other teams have found the former without upping the latter. A quick fix but it will take more I think to get close to challenging. I'd love to proven wrong of course.

How did you arrive at this conclusion... I mean what info do you have that points to this?

Same place someone got info that McLaren would blitz all comers by the end of the Barca test?

Indeed it would

I do like the fact that the grandprix hasn't been there for 13 n a bit odd years and people still associate it with the Australian Grand Prix

No KERS label. So McLaren is testing without the system?

Those exhaust outlets look bigger than ever before...

Where would the KERS label normally be?

eine Schwalbe macht noch keinen Sommer ...

They are actually testing KERS according to "TheF1":


16:53h A Kovalainen le marcan en la pizarra PUSH y a la siguiente vuelta SPEED. ¿Son pruebas del KERS?.

Like this http://www.autosport.com/gallery/photo.php/id/122691

May be. I don't know really if the label must present on the body...

it seems that McLaren could smile a bit .....

Heh, indeed. Good to see they've made progress though. I think Lazurus made a comment in the winter thread about the engineering treat we've all gotten seeing the process McLaren have gone through to identify and fix what are clear problems with the car.

They've got some ways to go still, but it's still impressive, their reaction.

I'm sure some can "imagine" that... particularily those who had their heads in the sand(bag) all the time, denying there were problems in the first place, even after McLaren themselves admitted to it.

However, they seem to have recovered a fair bit of ground , which is just as well because I want Hamilton in the thick of it, not trundling round at the back.

A very nice time.


I love it that when McLaren set awful times the haters stick to those times like glue but when the MP4-24 sets a reasonably quick time like today those same haters are trying to downplay the significance of that time as if it means something less than the earlier bad figures. Very pathetic

Agreed

Yes, but Button was the one to show him the correct trajectory in the track.

Hmm, interesting though that they have apparently recovered almost as quickly as some were willing to believe they had fallen.

I think they didn't show full potencial yet , and ofcourse they improved a car. Its only strange that car recived some updates today and Hamilton won't be able to try them before Melbourne.

He'll try them in free practice in Australia. The car will have yet more updates by then anyway, which won't have been tested at all. Such is life this season.

If this progress continues, potentially a 1.17 tomorrow? Too hopeful?

behind brawn and williams, with neither ferrari, bmw nor toyota doing similar runs these days to compare...
they've improved, but if that is the maximum available now they will struggle for points in merlbourne

All the wannabe clairvoyants and crystal ball readers on this forum, will have their moment of truth come qualifying In Melbourne, in just over 10 days. Until then we wont know the true order. All will soon be revealed.

Macca is improving, both in stints & 1 lap

JEREZ TEST - WED 18th MARCH 2009
Date: Wednesday March 18 2009
Drivers: Heikki Kovalainen
Location: Circuito de Jerez
Track Length: 4.423km
Weather: Very warm and very sunny
Track temperature: Maximum 37.2°C
Air temperature: Maximum 20.9°C
Laps run today: 85
Laps run in total at test: 293 (87/121/85)
Kilometres covered today: 376km
Kilometres covered in total at test: 1296km (385/535/376)
Best lap time today: 1m18.202 at 13:53
Best lap time of the test: 1m18.202
Programme: Heikki took over driving duties from Lewis and immediately resumed the week-long programme of introducing and evaluating new aerodynamics mods for MP4-24. In perfect weather conditions, the test proved extremely productive, both in terms of evaluating the laptime potential of the new components and their effectiveness over the course of a simulated race stint. The team’s pre-season preparations conclude tomorrow when Heikki will put the final pieces through their paces.
Drivers for tomorrow: Heikki
Duration of test: Four days (March 16-19)

Driver
Constructor Time Laps
Heikki Kovalainen Vodafone McLaren Mercedes 1m18.202 85
Kazuki Nakajima Williams F1 1m20.023 103

http://www.mclaren.com/f1season/jerez-mar09-18.php

--------

Simulated race stint? Didn't do any runs above 5 laps did he? Maybe he just didn't refuel and kept the same tyres on between each one...who knows I guess. Some more parts coming tomorrow as well it looks like, excellent stuff.

Now let's approach it from a different angle...

If they really have a cunning masterplan all along, why give it away today, in a meaningless testing session? Makes even less sense then to believe they had the mother of all sandbagger plans to start with.

Besides, it's never good to go to extremes (not outside the car, anyway ;)). I never thought they would fight with Force India and today, Kova's time notwithstanding, I still don't think they will fight for victory in Melbourne.

Well I don't remember them being able to get the word Bridgestone on the bridge wing visible before to start with.

Femi, you made out you knew something about Mclaren that assured you they would be in great shape and topping the time sheets in Barcelona and now you don't even know where the KERS label should normally be?

I don't get you at all?

To think they have been like a bunch of weekend club racers chasing their tails is completely ridiculous. There is NO WAY that you actually believe this. You have been around these boards far too long (and therefore have followed F1 for more than a day or two) to actually believe that. Every lap for these teams is scripted. They ALL follow a script. Of course their designs are in flux, that is only natural, but to thinkthese teams just come out and drive the cars and THEN begin developing is ludicrous thinking.

The key word is "developing". There is no uber-fusor hiding in Woking or Maranello that has been hidden for Melbourne. These teams go about things deligently and we the fan have been treated to watching teams that have predicted very accurately and teams that have had to show their engineering strength to claw back innacurate calculations.

This has been a stellar winter test season

Where in my post did I say any of that?

Of course they had a plan. But as it goes with plans sometimes, something went seriously wrong so that the car didn't meet their expectations and calculations. Now they are trying their hardest to recover, apparently already with some success. Good for them.

I was only referring to the still floating around "deliberate sandbagging" theories.

You don't want to tell me that the problems they admitted themselves a few days ago were carefully scripted too, or do you?

This is what I said....so you must have missed it.