Lewis Hamiton and the MP4-24

[jamsbong]

I think this is the true nature of the team McLaren. They are not good at making fast cars. They knew how to steal and copy from Ferrari and improve on that to win the championship.

Now with all rules changed, they need to start spying again to get on terms. However, recent lie-gate thing would make it very risky to steal. So they just end up at the bottom.

I can see one good thing out of these, Lewis will be more level-headed and hopefully he will be a better driver. Rather than one who thinks he is some sort of super-driver.

[KiwiF1]

More whining from lewis... Get some class man and work with the team to make a better car. Whining like he has some kind of fundamental right to have a race winning car only adds basis to the ridiculous argument that mclarens good cars were all down to alonso's development.

Lewis, your a great driver... However you will not always have a good car, rather than whining keep your head down and work to improve it boy!

[Alpine White]

I think this is the true nature of the team McLaren. They are not good at making fast cars. They knew how to steal and copy from Ferrari and improve on that to win the championship.

Now with all rules changed, they need to start spying again to get on terms. However, recent lie-gate thing would make it very risky to steal. So they just end up at the bottom.

I can see one good thing out of these, Lewis will be more level-headed and hopefully he will be a better driver. Rather than one who thinks he is some sort of super-driver.

Hello all, long time lurker here.

Signed up just to say that what I have just read is the most claptrap I have ever seen. You can copy another team as much as you like, but by the time you look at another car's parts, apply the concepts to your own car and get them onto a race car, those cars you copied will have moved ahead already.

You just can't build a winning car that way.

[PlatinumZealot]

There is no other choice the way the results are looking now..LOL

[ringo]

The ferraris were always the better cars in last 2 years, no doubt about it. And to credit Alonso with "developing" the car is a stretch.
Saying he developed a car , optimized for his driving style, only to be slower than Hamilton is saying a lot.
Its lewis right to want a better car, all drivers do. Even Alonso is complaining right now.

I believe all great drivers need a bad season, this is good developement for Lewis, in fact he is going to be pretty hard to deal with next year if he steps into anything remotely as good as this year's Brawn.
I don't think he is whining either, the Journalists have a way to twist comments. Hamilton cannot pretend that his car is perfect, it takes a big man to face the truth.

[noname]

(...) I feel that the wind tunnel guys and CFD guys at McLaren are not working together, and need to check their equiptment, then deal with that before they can tackle the problems with the car, as the recent case studys above have shown, the car may be a dog because of poorly calibrated equiptment. Thats just my hunch.

those guys created MP4-23 which helped Lewis get the crown and MP4-22, which was similarly fast and so I do not think they do not know how to work together.

2009 regulations required starting from the scratch and taking risk in many areas of the car. some make it right, some not. MP4-24 may have some fundamental flaws difficult to find out (signs of that we saw during the pre-season testing - using 2008 wing etc.) and even more difficult to correct, partially due testing ban.

Mclaren is not the only team fighting its way back. BMW just scored its first points of 2009, Ferrari which looked quite good in Spain (Monaco is an extraordinary venue so I would not draw too much from the results there) today came almost unnoticed, even if they finally bring DDD.

everybody around are pushing like hell with developments, even Brawn, and that's not helping if you have a damn high mountain to climb also.

[ISLAMATRON]

I think this is the true nature of the team McLaren. They are not good at making fast cars. They knew how to steal and copy from Ferrari and improve on that to win the championship.

Now with all rules changed, they need to start spying again to get on terms. However, recent lie-gate thing would make it very risky to steal. So they just end up at the bottom.

I can see one good thing out of these, Lewis will be more level-headed and hopefully he will be a better driver. Rather than one who thinks he is some sort of super-driver.

Yes because the red cars and the silver cars looked like carbon fiber copies the last couple years... especially with much different wheelbases.

[ISLAMATRON]

More whining from lewis... Get some class man and work with the team to make a better car. Whining like he has some kind of fundamental right to have a race winning car only adds basis to the ridiculous argument that mclarens good cars were all down to alonso's development.

Lewis, your a great driver... However you will not always have a good car, rather than whining keep your head down and work to improve it boy!

Please provide us with a link to this supposed whining" that you are referring to... there certainly hasnt been any links to that in this post. To me it seems that Lewis has been nothing than supportive to his team, and I can highly respect that.

[FGD]

More whining from lewis... Get some class man and work with the team to make a better car. Whining like he has some kind of fundamental right to have a race winning car only adds basis to the ridiculous argument that mclarens good cars were all down to alonso's development.

Lewis, your a great driver... However you will not always have a good car, rather than whining keep your head down and work to improve it boy!

Please provide us with a link to this supposed whining" that you are referring to... there certainly hasnt been any links to that in this post. To me it seems that Lewis has been nothing than supportive to his team, and I can highly respect that.

I think "whining" is nothing more than an interpretaion of what is read in print. How you see it is subjective and may indicate some personal bias.

Regardless... There's no question that Hamilton has been critical of his ride. But he has also driven his dog of a car very well and done his best to get the most of it. Think of Schumacher in 1996.

[jamsbong]

I think this is the true nature of the team McLaren. They are not good at making fast cars. They knew how to steal and copy from Ferrari and improve on that to win the championship.

Now with all rules changed, they need to start spying again to get on terms. However, recent lie-gate thing would make it very risky to steal. So they just end up at the bottom.

I can see one good thing out of these, Lewis will be more level-headed and hopefully he will be a better driver. Rather than one who thinks he is some sort of super-driver.

Yes because the red cars and the silver cars looked like carbon fiber copies the last couple years... especially with much different wheelbases.

That's after they've been caught spying. So what if the wheelbase or any other specs appear different. The point is that they have learnt from spying and thus reduced the time and effort compared to learning from scratch. Once you have the knowledge, you'll know what NOT to do. so appearing different in specs does not mean they have not applied their know-how which was learnt from spying.

[ISLAMATRON]

More whining from lewis... Get some class man and work with the team to make a better car. Whining like he has some kind of fundamental right to have a race winning car only adds basis to the ridiculous argument that mclarens good cars were all down to alonso's development.

Lewis, your a great driver... However you will not always have a good car, rather than whining keep your head down and work to improve it boy!

Please provide us with a link to this supposed whining" that you are referring to... there certainly hasnt been any links to that in this post. To me it seems that Lewis has been nothing than supportive to his team, and I can highly respect that.

I think "whining" is nothing more than an interpretaion of what is read in print. How you see it is subjective and may indicate some personal bias.

Regardless... There's no question that Hamilton has been critical of his ride. But he has also driven his dog of a car very well and done his best to get the most of it. Think of Schumacher in 1996.

Critical of his car yes, but he has not been critical of his team at all... in my eyes there is a big difference, he understands that the team are giving him maximum effort and there no need to demean his team's efforts. If Alonso's development was so good he wouldnt be complaining about his team like he is reported to be doing in this article.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/75917

[bjpower]

To be honest i think he needs this crap car.
i will make him a better driver.
character building etc.
allot of people felt he had it too easy.
most of the grid started in jordan or minardi. very few started in the top 2 teams.
eh anyway you learn more from a bucket than you will ever from a top car.
going forward he will be able to understand future cars better and help develop them more.
cant wait to watch him come back in anger next season

[CHT]

I hope Lewis realises that it is too naive to tell the world about committing to Mclaren for life just after finishing 2 seasons in F1.

[KiwiF1]

Please provide us with a link to this supposed whining" that you are referring to... there certainly hasnt been any links to that in this post. To me it seems that Lewis has been nothing than supportive to his team, and I can highly respect that.

I think "whining" is nothing more than an interpretaion of what is read in print. How you see it is subjective and may indicate some personal bias.

Regardless... There's no question that Hamilton has been critical of his ride. But he has also driven his dog of a car very well and done his best to get the most of it. Think of Schumacher in 1996.

Critical of his car yes, but he has not been critical of his team at all... in my eyes there is a big difference, he understands that the team are giving him maximum effort and there no need to demean his team's efforts. If Alonso's development was so good he wouldnt be complaining about his team like he is reported to be doing in this article.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/75917

Being critical of the car is by implication being critical of the team, further i dont like the way he seperates himself from the team for example most recently "When the team gives me a car to win, I will win.". I think great development drivers dont say stuff like that, they know they are an integral part of the team and they win and lose together. But thats just my opinion.

But either way dont get me wrong, he is a great driver... Im just sick to death of it being permanantly rammed down our throats "oh, poor lewis, hes driving so well but he has a rubbish car everyone feel sorry for him" like he is the first driver ever to have a poor car. Maybe thats not his fault, but he certainly dosent help.

[ISLAMATRON]

Being critical of the car is by implication being critical of the team, further i dont like the way he seperates himself from the team for example most recently "When the team gives me a car to win, I will win.". I think great development drivers dont say stuff like that, they know they are an integral part of the team and they win and lose together. But thats just my opinion.

But either way dont get me wrong, he is a great driver... Im just sick to death of it being permanantly rammed down our throats "oh, poor lewis, hes driving so well but he has a rubbish car everyone feel sorry for him" like he is the first driver ever to have a poor car. Maybe thats not his fault, but he certainly dosent help.

Being "critical" of the car helps make a great development driver, they say ts good here but not here and this is what it is doing, but it doesnt need to be so put out there in the press. But like I said I dont hear it from Lewis as much as I hear it from Alonso(link provided).

Never heard him say "When the team gives me a car to win, I will win.", but maybe I'm not privy to everything he may be saying, I only only get SpeedTV, autosport & F1live.... no access to the BBC stuff. If he did say that is an asshole thing to say.