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Between Ferrari and McLaren, who do you think has the better group of engineers?
I'm a Mclaren fan and they've always been hailed for their development ability, but at the moment it looks like they can't get the flexi-wing and EBD working. However Ferrari can, which makes me wonder which team is really better.
sure MCL can develop something but the current situation is they think it is illegal and seek clarification by the FIA with their stance... and of course work flat out to come up with a solution ,as RB and Ferrari will will not be excluded?
Imo mclaren. That McLaren cant get the EBD to be fully working is due to their rear end complexity, the rear end of the McLaren required much more reworking then others. Overall the development of McLaren is much better. afaik mclaren started 2008 somewhat behind and they became the fastest team. in 2009 it was the same, an dog of an car wich regularely didnt made it through Q2, often even excluded in Q1, they could develop the car to an car that was second fastest.
Each team has groups of engineers assigned to specific problems. Their work is determined by management, and they are the ones who decide which area to devote resources. If Ferrari decide to spend 20 million on some specific application and Mclaren 50 million, it's logical to expect better results from McLaren.
As far as the flexi-wing, Mclaren decided to pursue the political route rather than devote engineering resources. And it will pay off, Charlie Whiting has already stated he will impliment more stringent tests to cure this complaint. So instead of spending a few million going down a dead end road, they just campainged and waited a few weeks.
Yup, McLaren do have problems getting the blown diffuser to work. But then again, Ferrari had problems with KERS while McLaren seemed to have it all sorted from day one. Which proves that all problems cannot be solved easily, some just keep the engineers sleepless for months. And the blown diffuser is a complex aerodynamic problem, who knows the difference in flow and pressures that differentiate Red Bull from McLaren?
I consider both organizations as magnificent, each has turned out wonders.
Racing should be decided on the track, not the court room.
Well traditionally (At least up to 08, and even 09) Ferrari has been better than McLaren in terms of aerodynamics. McLaren has been better than Ferrari in mechanical. And for some reason now that logic no longer holds true
I think the reason why Mclaren is "struggling" at the moment is because the MP4-25 has been designed around the F-duct which make it very difficult for them to introduce major aero changes to the car.
I also think the the resources at MTC might have been over stretched by the company involvement in the MP4-12C road car project.
I know someone who worked at McLaren a few years ago. The racing & car divisions are entirely separate. People who work on the road cars have nothing to do with the F1 cars.
Their financial resources may been stretched by the new car but the F1 personnel compliment is unlikely to have been affected.
I'll go with Mclaren on this one, although it's a very close call. Simply because Mclaren generally don't try and bend the rules as much as Ferrari have in the past (bar Spygate).
Given that Red Bull have one of the most unique aerodynamicists in the paddock, I can understand why Ferrari and Mclaren are stuggling to keep up with them at present, also because they both had Horrible cars last year, whereas Red Bull already had a great car and could improve on it, its a much easier thing to do than design a whole new car and start from scratch.
What confuses me is Rory should still be in touch with Ferrari, and yet the car doesn't seem to be entirely that good. It's certainly quite far off Red Bull, especially in the high speed.
maybe because he has heard a whistle from some ol pals who work somewhere else now ...but why should we hear ?
would you help your friends when they are in the s..t?but maybe he´s afraid to be the schumacher of the designers comeback then..
The original question is impossible to answer in a simple way, when so very much is dependant on management, such as the Design manager and Technical director, as well as their different job descriptions obviously. Depending on the latter, someone has to set the direction for the engineers to go, engineering is not about democracy, but also make sure to xtract the very most from the staff that was given.
Engineers tend to make rotten managers, why I have seen more Design managers wasting good engineering talent than xploting their qualities in an optimized fashion, hiring a Phd to write lab-reports which nobody reads is one such.
"I spent most of my money on wine and women...I wasted the rest"
xpensive wrote:The original question is impossible to answer in a simple way, when so very much is dependant on management, such as the Design manager and Technical director, as well as their different job descriptions obviously. Depending on the latter, someone has to set the direction for the engineers to go, engineering is not about democracy, but also make sure to xtract the very most from the staff that was given.
Engineers tend to make rotten managers, why I have seen more Design managers wasting good engineering talent than xploting their qualities in an optimized fashion, hiring a Phd to write lab-reports which nobody reads is one such.