Mclaren Honda 2015

[adrianjordan]

Doesn't Alonso in thr car get more PR value as well?

[Manoah2u]

Not for testing. The only more PR value he'd get is if he'd only had 1 day of testing and Button 3, that would raise questions.

Alonso will not be getting any more PR then Vettel will have with Ferrari. Both will get more PR compared to Hamilton and Rosberg though, just because they changed teams.

Mclaren probably will get most PR attention because they're with Honda now, and honda is entering 'new' this year.

[Paul]

They are almost going to have too much media attention on the first day. Could have spread it out more evenly by having Jenson in the car the first day, but what do I know.

[Richard]

We have a thread for orange fetishists and predicting colours from the tea leaves .... http://www.f1technical.net/forum/viewto ... =1&t=21323

Colour posts have, and will be, removed from this thread.

[taperoo2k]

seems to be a feeling in the press that alonso is being preference over button by having first shot at the car in pre season one
but i would have thought the opposite , first up is more likely to get any problems , so in my view button is better getting day 2 and day 4
or is that just my way of looking at it ?

I think it's more about the PR and giving Alonso a chance to give his feedback on the overall design of the MP4-30 and how the power unit compares to what he had last year and if he thinks it's any good. They will no doubt compare and contrast the feedback Alonso gives with Buttons feedback. Any problems that crop up on day 1, will be down to Jenson to work through with the engineers on day 2, Alonso will then have to go through them at the start of day 3 before doing whatever programme McLaren have planned and the same for Jenson.

Plus you have to remember that Alonso will need time to get back into the McLaren groove, so starting out on Day 1 will be good for him. I doubt Jenson will be that upset about going out on Day 2, the important thing is that he works with Alonso to shake out the gremlins, not a lot either can do if the Honda Power Unit is not up to expectations.

[max_speed]

Of all the reports i have read so far almost everyone has written off Mclaren-Honda from start, everyone is saying (including Lauda) that they will experience difficult year from start. do they have some internal info to claim this ?? why cnt honda be strong from day one , if mercedes can do so can honda , they have all the resources. any solid reason why they gonna be inferior to mercedes or redbull.

[Thunder]

So the Common thing on the Interwebz is like that:

If Alonso drives on Day One: He is the preferred Driver because he gets to drive the Car earlier.
If Button drives on Day One: Alonso is preferred because the car will not do many laps on Day One.

It's just testing, don't read anything into who drives when. Saves you a lot of Headache.

[turbof1]

Agreed.

It's an issue that comes back ever year around this period. Too little to write about, resulting in overhyping and reading too much in the few bits of news.

It's testing; each driver gets the equal amount of running. If one driver hits a spot of bad luck, the remaining time during the test will be reshuffled between the 2 driver to balance things back out. The only entity getting a preference is the team, as these tests are much more important for the team then 2 very experienced drivers who have lapped the new car several hundred times already in the simulator.

[iotar__]

So the Common thing on the Interwebz is like that:

If Alonso drives on Day One: He is the preferred Driver because he gets to drive the Car earlier.
If Button drives on Day One: Alonso is preferred because the car will not do many laps on Day One.

It's just testing, don't read anything into who drives when. Saves you a lot of Headache.

Motivation is of course to make up some special preferences for Alonso theory (again) based on nothing. It does not matter at all in Jerez, it may matter on the last day of testing but 2-4 is better than 1-3.

[Mesteño]

I expect some kind of promo like the past with Button as a child but with Alonso, this week.

[Manoah2u]

ronny boy to step back? :-"

[mclaren111]

Why do say that ??

Any new info available ??

[Manoah2u]

No, just feeding. I dunno, it's been said that's a possibility months back, won't expect this to actually happen though, but, you never know.

[taperoo2k]

Of all the reports i have read so far almost everyone has written off Mclaren-Honda from start, everyone is saying (including Lauda) that they will experience difficult year from start. do they have some internal info to claim this ?? why cnt honda be strong from day one , if mercedes can do so can honda , they have all the resources. any solid reason why they gonna be inferior to mercedes or redbull.

No I think they are merely making assumptions based on what they experienced last season, plus Honda wasn't exactly brilliant the last time it was in F1 and just as they were about to have a very good car they pulled out of the sport. The crucial aspect for Honda is have they used the time wisely, made the right design choices and ensured the power unit is a good fit within the MP4-30.

Anyway it can go one of 3 ways

1. Fast and reliable and on par with Mercedes (unlikely).
2. Faster than Renault and Ferrari and not too far off Mercedes.
3. Renault like disaster.

As a McLaren Fan I'm hoping for number 2, dreaming of 1 and fearing number 3. Not long till we find out how good the MP4-30 design looks and what the Honda Power Unit is like. Lets hope the test back in Abu Dhabi has ironed out the gremlins and McLaren Honda can get some decent mileage under it's belt over the first test. I think the key thing about the test will be reliability, if you can believe Ron Dennis performance is apparently not an issue.

[KingHamilton01]

Not sure if I would believe Ron Dennis and his self made hype! Didn't he mention last season McLaren would find half a second in an upgrade which wasn't the case. Also he is bound to talk the Honda engine up. I would rather it be fast and fragile, you can fix reliability issues but surely harder to make an engine faster.