It's safe to say we shouldn't expect a podium this weekend.

It isn't.

Scroll back to the 'thread-state' of after-FP2 of Canada!

What was it in Canada based on FP2 from you? "Jenson isn't in contention for a podium this weekend"

The usual suspects have arisen
Go back to the Canada pages, and reread the posts after free practices, you all will find some similarities

And the panic pendulum swings.

and this just from a Friday session?

And he should not have been on the podium.

Alonso had a brain fade that he shouldn't have had.
Webber had that penalty.

Button should have finished 4 at the very best.

well im not that pessimistic, but i think the others are closer, which shows the impact of the blown diffuser

How does he keep getting all this luck

just checked canada 2fb was exactly the same so,

I just read Scarbs' new article. Makes me a little more pessimistic regarding the big update next GP.
I am curious to see what they have done with the wishbones at the back of the car. They may have had to repackage the rear...

Canadá FP2 times:

FORMULA 1 GRAND PRIX DU CANADA 2010
Pos No Driver Team Time/Retired Gap Laps
1 5 Sebastian Vettel RBR-Renault 1:16.877 32
2 8 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:16.963 0.086 35
3 4 Nico Rosberg Mercedes GP 1:17.151 0.274 34
4 6 Mark Webber RBR-Renault 1:17.273 0.396 33
5 7 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:17.401 0.524 33
6 14 Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1:17.415 0.538 28
7 2 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:17.522 0.645 29
8 11 Robert Kubica Renault 1:17.529 0.652 36
9 3 Michael Schumacher Mercedes GP 1:17.688 0.811 34
10 15 Vitantonio Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 1:17.903 1.026 35
11 1 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:17.961 1.084 33
12 9 Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1:18.385 1.508 27

We were slow too!!!

Don´t worry

Do not worry fellas, Ferdinando is going to murder us, he¨ll make us his lapdogs :verysadsmiley: :suicide:

Except RBR, Ferrari, Mercedes and Renault are all faster then McLaren in S3, where is the two fast corners, that is the truth for EBD, even though Horner reject it. It will be tough weekend, because on race fuel top 5 cars look closer then ever, but everyone except McLaren have EBD which is biggest help in qualifying. But we got to be optimistic, McLaren wasn`t that bad at all.

Could be another weekend for a few fluctuations of the mood swingometer ;)

Lol, I don't really want to repeat myself, but seeing though the usual's keep up the same game, this track is another street circuit, I think because the Macca is so easy on its tires it suffers more than other teams do until it rubbers up, add to that its only practice, it has all this year only been a rough guideline to who will be around the Top10 and who definitely wont, if you can get anymore out of these sessions I would amazed to hear about it. Really none of the teams including McLaren have pushed their cars, the only time we will know is Q1 in my opinion and even then its might not indicate the pole lap.

I still think that tire management is the single biggest differential between the teams week to week, these .3 .5 second race updates are all horseshit, yes all teams are improving their cars, but because of the tires and each cars characteristics using them the week to week results are skewed as to any proof of upgrades etc time gap closure to any one team.

This thread really has some heavy mood swings. Some hard work tonight and Mclaren will be right up there tomorrow. I don't for second think that they are 0.5 secs off the pace.

Keeping in mind Ferrari and Red Bull apparently brought larger updates, the friday results seem like nothing really changed.

McLaren will be fine..

McLaren will struggle to get out of Q1 IMO!

Ye definitely; if we beat Lotus in the race I will be highly surprised .

Yep, it's over, McLaren is finished.

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On a serious note; I think it is very clear that we have a chance to at least get a podium this weekend. Obviously all of our main competitors have brought decent updates to this race, whereas we haven't. Thus it is expected that we will see some lap time advantage lost or in some cases drop behind our competitors a little. However, I honestly expect Lewis at least to be able to get into the top 4 or so in qualifying and maybe then get a podium or even better a win in the race. Jenson seems to struggle a little more than Lewis in qualy so I think he might not be able to do quite as well.

Having said that though, this weekend is essentially damage limitation in the sense that there is an overlap of major updates with most teams bringing theirs here and us bringing ours in Silverstone. Thus with that in mind if our drivers mange to get in the top 5 or 6 (in the race), I will be reasonably pleased as I think that is a good haul of points if the exhaust powered diffuser updates do actually deliver the speculated performance gain for the other teams.

I'm sure he said something similar after FP in Canada

http://motorsport.nextgen-auto.com/gallery...25jun-1/069.jpg

Wow our front wing really does look the class of the field, with Renault a very close second .

How do you know? This was practice not qualy. So, let's see what happens tomorrow.

Well going by the fact that the others are likely to have taken the initiative with these EPD updates and looking at Lewis' comments. I still think we will be competitive for a decent points haul, but I don't think we will see a similar performance comparison between us and the others from Canada. And seeing how close it was there, I feel that Ferrari and Red Bull will be quicker this weekend, so if we can beat one or two of them then that will be very good.

Shouldn't you put a wink after that?

Well, remember Lewis comments after Canada FP2? I think its just that we don't know anything by FP2, but I have a hunch McLaren will be right there with Ferrari and RBR tomorrow, and especially in race.

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They're fine. Pole tomorrow.... just like last round.

as usual FP3 will give us more of an indicator than the Friday sessions

Fact 1: You said Jenson will not be in contention for a podium.

Fact 2: Jenson was on the podium.

If, but, otherwise, whatever, is meaningless. You were wrong.

And I think your prediction for this weekend is wrong too. McLaren will be in the top three teams, top six cars. Rosberg may be able to mix it up with them, but McLaren is still in a comfortable position for a podium.

Just watching the FP1 replay on BBC iPlayer and as I thought the McLaren video with Jenson & Lewis building the car was unscripted.

pros: fine tuned setup for this spec, track suits mclaren, reliability with this spec, lewis and street races , race pace,  possibly lot of reliability and setup problems for others

cons: big step in performance for renault, mercedes and ferrari, bulls fast as always




When I look at this I think that we could see two mclarens in top 5 and Ham on podium (and with a bit of luck fighting for the win)

kubica dark horse

Fact 1: ... and he was not in contention for a podium if you take into account Webber's penalty and Alonso's brain fade.
Fact 2: Yeah. Good for him.

My prediction: You forgot Kubica. Renault brought massive upgrades for this race and Kubica will be right there with Rosberg + 2 Ferraris + 2 Red Bull. It's going to be crowded at the top. McLaren really needs a good qualifying session tomorrow and from what Hamilton JUST SAID (he agrees with me), the one-lap pace of the McLaren is not so great at the moment.

How exactly is that a fact? And brain fade? What? You mean, a backmarker driving in the way?

Face it.. McLaren did the best job in Montreal. And they don't look any weaker here. Hamilton will get a podium, the win depends on 1 qualy lap and the start. But it's possible. If Button does any better than 7th we can at least be happy he did better than last year.

It depends on his qualy performance because his race pace is great, but I bet he will start in a compromised position as usual so a top 5 in the race will not be easy for him. Last year we could have seen a Button win if it wasn't for Vettel squeezing him against the wall at the start.

guys dont worry we'll be close to red bulls and ferraris if not faster than them. I trust and believe in our strong race pace, still nothing to lose.

He qualifies relatively well, but he always loses a couple of places by the first corner for some reason.

Looks like pole is out of the question this weekend then...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport...one/8763963.stm

they said we were bad after Fp last race in canada, well see how it goes when it comes to qualy, but i think we all knew with respect to the teams that have the new Blown diffuser, that it was get as many points from this race before we head back to to the top at silverstone

I´m a bit worried , i think we are far off the pace... we´ll see

I hope this is not true

Regards

I'm not so sure but look at it another way...if these teams are showing that the blown diffuser upgrade works and gains them a lot of time...then ours should work at least as well at silverstone and put us back ahead!

Eat it, now. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/motorsport...one/8763963.stm

/kthxbai

I am just realistic. McLaren may get a podium, but they are on the outside looking in. I believe in my 'hunch' and I am sticking to it. I said they were going to be good around Montreal and Turkey and they were. I said they would be nowhere in Monaco and they were nowhere.

Instead of insulting fellow posters, you should take people's most seriously. I think LH knows a lot more about McLaren's pace than an armchair specialist like you.

PS: Using your logic (ie. only looking at finishing positions), Button had a stellar race in Spain while Hamilton sucked hard and was reckless (DNF - crash). My point was that Button's race was mostly uneventful and that the only pass he made was extremely opportunistic and would not have happened had Alonso been "his normal self". That's my point. McLaren was great in Canada but Button's 2nd place was facilitated by Red Bull's woes/penalty and Alonso's brain fade. This being said, Button did a great job, but I seriously doubt Button's odds to end up on the podium were pretty high BEFORE Webber's penalty.

Glass half full

My hopes have faded a bit for this race, just hanging now on if they, and only they, were running race-start fuel in that last stint yesterday. Waiting for FP3...

The team are looking good on race pace.

Mercedes aren't running their EDD in the race/quali.

So it is only Ferrari who will jump ahead, if they even do that. So the boys will get as high as they can in Quali and look to a strong race pace to make up any defecit!...

Hopefully

After seeing Renault, Ferrari and Mercedes lap Valencia yesterday, any guesses to the average lap time gain with a exhaust blown diffuser?

You do realise because of the way the race planned out Webbers penalty had no effect on Jenson finishing ahead of him right?

Better to see after 3rd practice.