"TheFifthDriver"?

McLaren website:




TheFifthDriver twitpic:

http://twitpic.com/xn9u1


See the bloke in the red tie taking the picture? Hmmmmm.....

lol this forum is ruining all the secret identities of mclaren personnel at the moment

i agree with you to, at brawn jenson commented on set-up not being good as his "team" got it wrong. I think mclaren got better set-up simulations as well. Also i never thought shovlin did jenson much favours or as good as the experienced Jock Clear

There's an RE blog here, if that's any use.

But I thought drivers can never ever can do that. I'm very confused now!

Bit of explanation again here
http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2010/01/mcla...ilton-equality/


and here
http://www.mclaren.com/latestnews/mclaren-...php?article=401

Although, thinking about it, Hamilton will probably tell Button about some of the features of the car when they meet later this month.

2010 race engineers: (l to r) Andy Latham, Phil Prew and Jakob Andreasen
http://twitpic.com/xs304

What did you expect, the team to hold up the development of the car till Jenson's arrival in January?

lol nice spot...we are so onto these guys

What's going on ?

Who's he ?

I'm confused

What he said.

It would of been better if Lewis was made to wear one of then ''snazzy'' red jackets Bernie and Emilio Botin wore at a Grand Prix last season

If you look on the pic posted on theFifthDriver's twitter page you will see it is taken from the same spot that where chap with a camera in this pic is stood:



Which suggests that chap is theFifthDriver.

Wow nice find!

Now all we need to get is an ID of this guy..

Gotcha

The Autosport BB's very own espionage unit are well on the case, Nigel Stepney hasn't got anything on these guys

...much appreciated.

Where is it ?

Croidon

Of course not.

Tottenham Court Road

http://www.mclaren.com/latestnews/mclaren-...php?article=400

top quality linking, very, very interesting ...

although, makes you kind of sad that we don't see a lot more of that kind of information showing up in this forum; he has a post with a nice explanation of spring rates [... the rest of this sentence was edited by forum mods, that's why it doesn't scan correctly or make as much sense as it should]

such is life i suppose, cheers anyhow.

My sentiments exactly

Jenson's in Finland on a training camp with the team

twitter.com/The_Real_JB

HINTSA BALANCES BETWEEN TWO CHAMPIONS

Aki Hintsa will continue as the manager of McLaren's formula 1 -team's medical treatment and wellbeing. He gets a completely new challenge now when the physical and mental striking force of the latest two champions is on his responsibility.

Hintsa will have to balance like a trapeze artist in order to keep both Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button satisfied.

Hintsa has worked with Hamilton ever since his GP2-times. His co-operation with Button again has only started.

– What makes this challenge interesting is that I have to be able to equally help both drivers reach even better results and get into an even better shape. It's not just a challenge for me, it's a challenge for the whole team, Hintsa emphasises.

– I'll just have to be myself and work from the bottom of my heart.

– My own goal is that a McLaren-driver will win the WDC. When we have two champions who want to renew their title with 100% you have to be extremely equal in everything you do, Hintsa said.

Both Hamilton and Button have their own working programs. Hintsa's job is to make sure that both get the best know-how and help to improve. A more specific survey is made during the joint training camps in Kuortane, Finland or Switzerland.

– The situation is like someone would both give and take - both ways. You have to keep your senses alert while you follow the situation and utilize the interaction. It's clear that Lewis and Jenson are different kinds of types and in this sport two drivers don't have completely similar programs. I'm going to concentrate first and most on supporting the athlete so that he achieves an impressive performance ability, Hintsa said.

Turun Sanomat Heikki Kulta 08.12.09

I'm curious to see if Jense keeps doing triathons under Hintsa.

It was Rubens more often than not that suffered in the races, so I think Jenson got plenty from the team. His excellent race pace, even when his qualifying wasn't on par with Rubens, was more than apparent. I really doubt that Jenson suffered setup problems anymore than anybody else on the grid did.

Its gonna depend on how Jenson gets on with his race engineer more than anything.

You know ATM Andys role? Lets be serious here, there are hundreds of staff working for the team back in Woking. I am sure there are a good number with the name Andy.

jeeze, is that your post, offcourse we dont know, but someone made a good and funny quess, thats all

Oh it was a joke now? Funny you seemed to take it seriously

it was a good and qualified quess, how could it be anything more


EDIT

But maybe your sources can tell if he is right

2010 test day announced. http://www.mclaren.com/f1season/testing.php

Thanks. We also really need to know if / when is the launch?

Lets guess.

Wed 27th Jan

That would be the day before Ferrari.

Why not the 29th, the last two years, ferrari's launch was always one day ahead of mclaren's .

Delay the launch and use the time to get the last of thhe bugs out so there won't be a repeat of last year without KERS to bail you out.

But the launches are only ever cosmetic affairs anyway, empty shells without engines and a vague semblance of the proposed an aero configuration and a livery. Anything else, for the media, would be foolish. Meanwhile the real components obviously are in the air on flight to the first pre-season tests.

Is there actually going to be a launch event, or just a track rollout, a la the MP4-20?

Wouldn't mind keeping it simple, some studio pictures with a few statements from the key team members. Far better than some photos of the drivers pretending to have fun taking pictures of each other with their vodaphone mobiles. But I guess since Button's joining there will be some kind of fanfare. Bleh.

I wouldn't call having KERS a bail out. The car was designed and optimized for KERS, taking it off would still have left them with a car with aero deficiencies and less than ideal weight distribution. The fractured 09 (and technically 10) rules meant that the KERS cars were at a disadvantage compared to the non-KERS runners.

I agree. I didn't particularly enjoy seeing the MP4-24 stuck up at a wierd angle on that trolly last year. It took ages for decent 'aesthetic' images of that car to appear. And where did it look its best? Surprise surprise, on the track, in action. So definitely keep it simple and keep it real and above all don't show your entire aero configuration. They have cameras now that can export the geometry of a 2d image direct to CAD.

Just a couple of hi res pics of all angles of the car from the 'white room' in the mclaren tech centre will do just fine.

Absolutely. The latest aero detailing never appears on the launch car. They save them for the opening race. The launch car is always way behind the developments that will feature on the race car.

i dont care how far behind, i want to see it! In my dream last night, it looked identical to the 24 but had a chunkier ass and the mid section was lengthy. i hope its aggressive looking and it looks mean, like the 20

I had same dream last night ! Only it was jessica alba I was dreaming of

Me too.

Even if the show car is not the latest (mainly with the wings), it'll reveal a lot of new details. I wanna see it, now!

I agree, that trolly idea was not the best way to reveal the 24, but I liked these images:
http://www.mclaren.com/interactive/wallpap...aren-2-1680.jpg
http://www.mclaren.com/interactive/wallpap...aren-1-1680.jpg

But it looked much better on track, especially after the Nürnburgring upgrade.

McLaren will launch their car on the 29th, the day after Ferrari, as I expected.

I expected 25th, till Mercedes pissed on our parade.

A fierce rivalry in the making (McLaren vs Mercedes)...

Its on the 29th...its ok

I know my team, launch on the 29th indeed

Team spirit