It's like deja vu, isn't it? In that year, we had the diabolical MP4-19(A) which was a bit of a mess but got fixed up, and then now we had the equally diabolical MP4-24 (I wish they would just go ahead and admit the pre-germany one is a 'B' spec, because we all know it is anyway) which was quite a shocker but that got fixed up as well. Sort of.

It's very interesting to note the parallels between the seasons. Both cars started out badly but got much better. But what was it that was so terrible about the 19A and how did they fix it? I remember the engine being a bit of bomb. Was that aero related as well?

This race particularly just reminded me of the similarities, because, IIRC, it was the first and only race won by the 19.

In memory of...


best wishes...

I miss the 2004 spec cars. THE fastest cars of all time...

MP4-18/19 is the base of design philosophy for (20,21,22,23)

MP4-24 new philosophy (probably base for 25,....)

Another history coincidence

Where the hell was Schumacher going in that picture? Looks like he's about to pop off down the shops. Or perhaps he left the gas on.

I would guess warmup lap/safety car.

Well Newey designed a radically different car that pushed it's capacities to the limit(engine), whereas the MP4-24 was fairly conservative. What went wrong, both were underdeveloped.

The 18/19 cars were very tightly packaged and I believe that cause quite a few problems.

I think it's fair to conclude that looks certainly did not improve over the years. The MP4/20 being an exception, that thing was pure sex.

Severely underdeveloped. They did extensive testing on it the whole of 2003 (Hence why the MP4/17D was raced wholly that year), and they still didn't get the car right come 2004. In fact, I don't think they ever did. 2005, the car was substantially improved and extremely fast, but it was still unreliable as a motherfucker.

2006 was an off year since the Mercedes V8 just wasn't up to par, but the team finally decided to sacrifice speed for reliability and that's what paid off big time in 2007 and 2008.

This year? Well, they just got the rules all wrong, just like Ferrari and the rest of the lot did.

I still like the MP4-20 more, but any of the past McLarens look better than what we have this season.

lol the 07 and the 08 cars were both rockets.