It seems that McLaren have said Only in Ronspeak, of course.


I think McLaren have been in track-led (rather than simulation-led) development mode since they stuck on the magic floor at Barcelona - and discovered that it wasn't magic enough.
Maybe before then. There was the strange day at Jerez when they tried two 2009 wings and still went back to the 2008.


Some VERY clever people have been improvising - against the clock.
Rather impressively.

Agree with Lazarus, that it has been interesting to watch.
The more so since McLaren would have been thought one of the least likely teams to find themselves in that position.

Fair enough in itself, yet I still don't see why you felt the need to say it in reply to my post.

I guess their must be some kind of misunderstanding?

Nice work by the team, finding time during an intensive development program this winter season.

You can never count McLaren out.

Funny that some people think the parts are created in a short time, I bet that the liveries on those parts would take a day to work on already.

Your response of "If they really have a cunning master plan all along.....". I guess I was just "taking it out" on you. Nothing personal.

I was just responding saying that every team has a testing master plan. Of course they are all in flux, but every team is following their script. Every team prepares for this scenario (car problems of each/every sort). The size of the team will correspond to the amount of money thrown at solving the problem. This is normal and because of the internet and testing being done out in the open and not behind closed doors (or at least locked doors) we the fan have been treated to seeing how a big budget team goes about sorting a recalcitrant car. It has been great stuff. Compare this with what must have been a similar situation at Maranello in '05. I wish we had the same "look" inside the Ferrari team then, but times (testing) are now different so we the F1 fan win in this situation.

As with your first reply, I don't disagree at all with what you write.

However, you're truly barking at the wrong tree this time. My "cunning masterplan" phrasing to which you supposedly objected was referring solely to the still circulating sandbagging myth, not to the standards of testing or F1 engineering in general. Maybe take a look at posts #3762 -> #3784 -> #3788 -> #3795 to better understand the context.

No big deal. I just hope it's cleared up now.

Brightness enhanced pic of the new exhaust (only left side).

Two points on that -

1 - none of the mechanics seemed to be wearing their washing up gloves in today's pix. So likely KERS was switched off today to avoid distractions from the aero work. (Which ought to mean a faster time when its switched on?)

2 - in that picture, the flowvis on the right side of the beam wing looks more even to me. That's what I expect they would want - indicating a smoother, more equal speed flow, so that the whole of the wing has the potential for working effectively. Which would mean that the ugly lashup on the right side of the car was actually working better... On-track development!

Either that, or they've removed KERS after realising they go faster without it

I think they're on the way to fixing what's broken.

Well, I did wonder if that was what they'd spent Sunday doing, after seeing the speed of the no-KERS Brawn-Merc.

But since they would seem to have got that working reliably, to their advantage, it would be an admission that the car design was very very very wrong, if they felt they needed to drop their KERS to get the car balanced.

Hence my thinking they just turned it off, to keep things simple while they got on with the work they needed to do in a VERY limited time.

Lewis has never won a dry race unless he has started on Pole. Even Massa won 2 in such circumstances in 2008 (France, Belgium), yet he always gets the criticism of never being able to win from behind while Lewis' record is glossed over.

At least the MP4-24 will allow Lewis the opportunity to finally put his demons to rest because he won't be starting on Pole very often in it, alas.

What about Germany 2008?

And what about Raikkonen's exhaust failure in France?

And what about the drive through penalty Lewis got in Belgium?

Hamilton was on Pole for Germany 2008: 1.15.666

And yeah Massa's wins there were fortunate, but he would also have won Hungary 2008 (at Lewis' expense - the 5th occasion in his short career that he has wasted Pole) had it not been for a cruel engine blowout 3 laps from the end, so he has proven he has got what it takes.

Hamilton has not been in a position to do what Massa has done so far in that respect, so I find it bang out of order than Massa still has this image of only being able to win from the front and Lewis has this squeaky clean win from anywhere reputation.

For the record, Lewis has only won the 2008 Monaco and British GPs (both wet) having not started on Pole - and in one of them he hit the wall foolishly and won because of maximised circumstances. Most other win he has has been plain sailing at the front (Germany exception)...sure he doesn't make mistakes, that's fine. But there is a saying about Massa, and maybe Hakkinen before him, that they can be the fastest on earth when they're out ahead, but never achieve anything else otherwise and don't battle through in the dry.

2009 will give us the opportunity to see Lewis battle through and maybe take some dry wins for a change, because I doubt he will be on Pole on merit too often. :\

dry wins? wtf..

What a twisted way to take a shot at Hamilton who has 22 podiums in 35 races... if you take Ferrari and assume there's at least 3 other very competitive cars out there, you really have to over-analyse with a massive dose of deception to find something to critisize about..

The guy touching the top of the wing (in the previous shot) without gloves seems to be trying to keep well away from the rest of the car. He's not touching the chassis - is the rear wing isolated, does it conduct? I dunno.

Mechanics touching the car in this shot are all wearing gloves.

http://f1.gpupdate.net/en/photolarge.php?p...0044&catID=4172


Good photo showing difference between the left and right exhaust areas, and the bigger lower element on the rear wing.

http://f1.gpupdate.net/en/photolarge.php?p...0038&catID=4172


Oh, and can the Mac fans who were offloading on the team for producing a dog would mind not jumping back on the bandwagon after a few positive tests, greatly appreciated

Young kid, this is the MP4/24 thread, not another bashing-Hamilton one.

If you wanna bash a bit more someone that has 9 wins, 22 podiums, 207 points and a WDC after just 35 races, go and trash your BS on another trhead, not here.

Can some moderator please clearr all that's not related to the MP4/24?

BTW, there won`t be a GP League this year on mclaren.com.

http://www.mclaren.com/latestnews/mclaren-...php?article=256

His join date gives it away. There's only been four dry wins from off the front row since Hamilton arrived in F1 and three of those were flukes brought about by strange circumstances. Hell Vettel can only win from Pole can't he

The GP League was the only reason to ever visit mcLaren.com atleast for a casual F1 follower like me. Perhaps McLaren is short on cash and wants to save on bandwidth costs?

There's an interesting article on itv's website by Mark Hughes who basically mentions that McLarens problems could be due to just one part messing up the air flow and negating the other aerodynamics. Once it is found, the other bits will kick in and they will have an essentially fast car. He mentions is unlikely they have created a truly slow car because of the speed it showed when they had the altered 2008 wing.

Maybe they have found the 'trouble maker' due to all the different pieces they have been trying?

Link to article: http://www.itv-f1.com/Feature.aspx?Type=Mark_Hughes&id=45271

(Am I allowed to link? - sorry new here)

P.s when this topic stays on the subject it is super interesting! Keep up the good work, the analysis of everything is fascinating..

Kovi Just did a 1.18.741!

Go on Macca!!!!

Some pics are up on Sutton, doesn't appear to be anything new on the car yet.

Some flow-vis being used around the new floor cut out, they've used it so often now that I've stopped worrying, seems routine.

The new exhaust that they used only on the left hand side yesterday is now on the right side. Maybe only on that one too, can't see the left one clear enough:

http://www.sutton-images.com/preview.asp?f...djm0919ma10.jpg

Mclaren Goal will be points

Tits or GTFO

McLaren's goal is to whitewash the field from Monaco and grab WDC and WCC. Nothing less.

Maybe a lot of McLarens time has simply come from taking KERS off the car?

Maybe the weight penalty, and thus compromised balance and resultantly less traction and increased rear tyre wear IS A SERIOUSLY BIG PROBLEM and why although teams like McLaren, BMW and Ferrari all have perfectly good KERS systems.... they may not use it.

The fact that the Brawn car appears to be a rocket without it, seems to support this theory.

My word, I knew weight distrubution in an F1 car was important, but potentially this is a real eye opener.

that is very true, however finding the missing bit can be difficult
it's clear here that we have a case of differences between simulations and real life. there was/is something very wrong with the airflow, it's not just changing the diff or the rear wing and bang, you're fast. I could be one small detail or at the same time it could be that you'd have to change a few stuff (it could prove faster than being in a dead end)
it could be fast with the 2008 wing that generates A LOT of DF....but that doesn't mean it's easy...a lot of cars would go a heck faster with some other bits, the problem is making it fast under the current rules

I hope that the recent test times are indicative of McLaren's pace. This season already looks very close and tight. It would be nice is McLaren can stay near the top.

Kovy was allowed/encouraged to put on 3.5 kg or something over the winter, and Lewis also said his weight wasn't an issue, so I don't think the fore/aft weight distribution is a problem for this car even with kers. The CoG is higher with kers obviously, but that shouldn't affect traction especially. Also I'm thinking traction is better with a rearward weight distribution, so other things being equal that would get worse with kers taken out rather than better.

I wouldn't be surprised if McLaren have built a very lightweight car with plenty of ballast, and a forward weight distribution that they're having to compromise on to find traction. Plus an aero problem.

FAIL. I wouldn't call Belgium a WIN for Massa.

Finally some good pic of the new exhaust.

That McLaren looks hopelessly out together. Doesn't look like the finish of a team like a McLaren. A team in which the owner designed his own type of boltheads for the McLaren Technology Center

Ffs, it's only testing, it's not even painted.

TBH I wouldn't mind seeing more of this non-painted, non-slick kinda stuff. On all cars! Makes you realise it's really all about custom build cars and fierce engineering instead of corporate liveries, glitter and glamour....

Note the BMW style cooling louvres at the bottom, under the suspension mount. KERS battery cooling?

mclaren diffusor new in the middle

Incredible.. that looks more like it! Where the hell did that come from
The car truly transformed the past week!

Thanks for the pic, guess there is no magic 'double decker' after all. Glad to see them improving the car. Now only an 8 day wait till friday free practice.

Is that a 'deck' joining the fins at the bottom? Just a line from this view.

Their developing power is f phenomenal.

Not to mention he was gifted the win in France as well.

isn't it just the bottom line of the watermark

Looks like they've gone back to the 'old' exhaust outlets too (on both sides).

1:17.946 para Kovalainen!

McLaren are ace

and seems to be doing 18's consistent now. BIG improvement!!!!!

James Allen writes:

"Today they are with Williams again and I think tomorrow they have the place to themselves. Some secrets will be coming out of the box, no doubt stuff they don’t want others to see before Melbourne. Look out for their press release this evening with details of the times, but will they tell the full story?"



Is this correct? Are they testing again tomorrow? Mclaren's website doesn't say so.

I don`t know, but there was some talk about a private session a month or two ago.

Think you're right, it just happened to line up.