Vodafone McLaren MP4-27 Mercedes

[simieski]

Apologies if this has been mentioned before, but during one the the Hungary practice sessions I think it was mentioned that Macca was running a considerably softer rear end. If they continue with this one would assume it will improve traction and rear tyre deg? At the trade off of something else to a certain extent I guess.

[beelsebob]

Apologies if this has been mentioned before, but during one the the Hungary practice sessions I think it was mentioned that Macca was running a considerably softer rear end. If they continue with this one would assume it will improve traction and rear tyre deg? At the trade off of something else to a certain extent I guess.

McLaren have run the philosophy of a very soft rear end and a very hard front end for several years now.

[simieski]

Apologies if this has been mentioned before, but during one the the Hungary practice sessions I think it was mentioned that Macca was running a considerably softer rear end. If they continue with this one would assume it will improve traction and rear tyre deg? At the trade off of something else to a certain extent I guess.

McLaren have run the philosophy of a very soft rear end and a very hard front end for several years now.

Was aware of the ridiculously hard front end, the soft rear was presented as something different by commentators on one of the practice sessions, perhaps they just meant softer than usual.

[MikeFromCanada]

Was aware of the ridiculously hard front end, the soft rear was presented as something different by commentators on one of the practice sessions, perhaps they just meant softer than usual.

It did appear to be softer than usual, as I saw a few pictures lingering around where the car was coming out fo a corner (assuming under acceleration) and the front wing was visibily higher than it normally would be.

A softer rear end would help in tyre degradation if the car naturally likes to slide around at the back. However as always there is a limit to how soft you can go on the rear springs, causing too much body roll.

[beelsebob]

Apologies if this has been mentioned before, but during one the the Hungary practice sessions I think it was mentioned that Macca was running a considerably softer rear end. If they continue with this one would assume it will improve traction and rear tyre deg? At the trade off of something else to a certain extent I guess.

McLaren have run the philosophy of a very soft rear end and a very hard front end for several years now.

Was aware of the ridiculously hard front end, the soft rear was presented as something different by commentators on one of the practice sessions, perhaps they just meant softer than usual.

The idea of the hard front end is exactly to allow the soft rear end. The soft rear is desirable because it gives you traction out of corners and rear tyre life. The hard front stops the car from rolling.

[n smikle]

Must be Hungary setup, because the Lotus was ultra Soft!

[GrizzleBoy]

I think the McLaren's strengths are that it can carry good amounts of lateral load, enabling it to carry a lot of speed through. But I don't think its nose is as strong as in 2010 and 2011, where it had a very confident turn in that could get a bus through the Loews hairpin.

I don't think in short and sweet, dinky little corners which require a strong turn in it's the best. I think it abuses the rears under traction too.

I'd agree.

Looking at Lewis' pole lap in Melbourne, I'm always amazed at the turn in during turns 11 and 12. Mostly 11 though.



Watch from 1:00.

You can see him literally throw the car into turn 11 and the back steps out almost the perfect amount. He tries it again in in turn 12 and while the back doesn't come round, there is a very obvious "jolt".

I have so much on board footage of the McLaren (and others, Webber, Grosjean, Schumi) from Hungary including all of Lewis' P3, Q1, Q2 and Q3 laps that I want to upload for the forum but youtube seems to be blocking it automatically probably due to the F1 watermark.

One thing I noticed is that in one of the sessions, Lewis was set up to be very oversteery and he was looking very ragged (but still fast). He boxed, went back out and the car was much more balanced and set the fastest lap.

The idea of the hard front end is exactly to allow the soft rear end. The soft rear is desirable because it gives you traction out of corners and rear tyre life. The hard front stops the car from rolling.

Stiff fronts also give better initial turn in response at the cost of less actual grip through a long turn (understeer).

When you have a driver like Button who does not like to throw the car around like his team mate, its probably understandable why he has an issue with understeer many times.



Watching the pole lap in Hungary, you can see a bit of what Jenson is talking about.

The car does seem to be very understeery, but it slides through the high speed turns and also manages to over steer in other slower corners.

The high speed turns 10 through 13 (after the chicane) are also pretty much an extended version of Melbournes turn 11 and 12 and it goes pretty well through there too, especially the full throttle turn 12.

[raymondu999]

I don't think in short and sweet, dinky little corners which require a strong turn in it's the best. I think it abuses the rears under traction too.

I'd agree.

Looking at Lewis' pole lap in Melbourne, I'm always amazed at the turn in during turns 11 and 12. Mostly 11 though.

Just to clarify - I said I *don't* think that. Lol. T11-12 I'm not surprised - I've said the car can carry lateral like no other, especially through the fast corners. But in slow hairpins I'm not sure the turn-in is as strong as they used to have

[Kiril Varbanov]

McLaren have run the philosophy of a very soft rear end and a very hard front end for several years now.

Not all the time, 2010 as the car with the longest wheelbase they had to make the suspension rock-hard at both front and rear end, though I assume, being adjustable, these were altered per race.

[raymondu999]

It was all hard in 2010 except for Monaco, where they were running a soft rear.

Then an upgrade package in Singapore made them try a softer suspension setup, but it just burnt through the softer tyres in short order

[simieski]

The idea of the hard front end is exactly to allow the soft rear end. The soft rear is desirable because it gives you traction out of corners and rear tyre life. The hard front stops the car from rolling.

I was under the impression that the popular theory behind the very stiffly sprung set up was to keep the car in what was a somewhat narrow aerodynamic optimum performance window, but this idea is incorrect or secondary to the points you made?

[raymondu999]

That was the theory in 2010 - because they had a double diffuser the size of a Sumatran rhinocerous it apparently starved of air at higher ride heights

[simieski]

Ok, thanks for the explanation Ray.

[SDG31]

Sky sports news have just published an interview with Sam Michael where he says that Mclaren are looking at DDRS.

http://www1.skysports.com/formula-1/new ... -DRS-plans

[zoro_f1]

upload them [here] and we can download them later... ... it's not like youtube to whatch it while we are on the forum but at least will not be blocked.

I have so much on board footage of the McLaren (and others, Webber, Grosjean, Schumi) from Hungary including all of Lewis' P3, Q1, Q2 and Q3 laps that I want to upload for the forum but youtube seems to be blocking it automatically probably due to the F1 watermark.