McLaren 2011

[chepoi]

13:31 A 1m22.937s for Button, who is some two seconds quicker than last week's personal best

13:31 Button takes a big leap and moves into the 1m22s

13:17 Button's time is over a second quicker than the best he managed in the previous test at Barcelona

-Autosport.com

[marcush.]

But Toet questioned the Toro Rosso approach even more ...basically he seemed to have issues with the increase of licked outer surface with these concepts,right?

[marekk]

Not suprised to see winglets appearing around the sidepods. Getting stable airflow around there is going to be a major area of development for McLaren. However, putting winglets there will probably decrease the volume of air going through there.........

I hope McLaren don't need to call out British Gas......

The channel itself is enough to stabilise the air. As such, those winglets are basically "free downforce." I won't be surprised to see bigger winglets and maybe even more winglets in the future.

There's no free downforce in our universe, i'm afraid .
I think the winglets are there to direct ongoing air downwards (generating a little lift actually), maximizing flow to diff and lower wing.

[Pup]

[continued from "Is McLaren really off the pace?"]...were his comments about qualifying - "It is going to be tricky – and I don't know if I should say anything. Between the two tyres over the race weekend there will be a big difference. Qualifying is going to be very, very interesting. I don't need to say anything else." - implying maybe that McLaren have a trick or two planned?

[segedunum]

What's this Pup? Are spreading comments over several threads now to escape Giblet's knife?

No, Button isn't telling us anything we don't already know. The difference between the tyres is going to be quite large to the point that someone could qualify on pole with the softest tyre and then get overtaken by everyone in the first five laps as it goes off completely.

[ringo]

wrong thread!

[forty-two]

What's this Pup? Are spreading comments over several threads now to escape Giblet's knife?

No, Button isn't telling us anything we don't already know. The difference between the tyres is going to be quite large to the point that someone could qualify on pole with the softest tyre and then get overtaken by everyone in the first five laps as it goes off completely.

Ooh, Seg, I think you might be on shaky ground with that remark. Pup merely drew attention to comments he'd made in another thread rather than make off topic comments (which this post is in danger of doing actually!), his post content was relevant IMO, and let's not forget the comments you've made in pretty much every car thread telling how team X have "clearly" screwed up and RedBull are the best team?

Onto the rest of your post, I agree, I think that is a distinct possibility, and highlights the fact that drivers/cars with the ability to look after their tyres should fare better than those who don't.

[CHT]

[continued from "Is McLaren really off the pace?"]...were his comments about qualifying - "It is going to be tricky – and I don't know if I should say anything. Between the two tyres over the race weekend there will be a big difference. Qualifying is going to be very, very interesting. I don't need to say anything else." - implying maybe that McLaren have a trick or two planned?

What he is probably implying is that since the soft tyres has such a big drop off in grip after 1 lap, the qualifying session is going to be interesting because every team will want to have a clear track for their their flying lap and drivers who are good at delivering a single flying lap with fresh tyres is going to have a big advantage over others.

Then again, we might have some drivers driving too slow on their out lap to nurse their tyres before the flying lap so this is going to create some traffic issue during qualifying.

I suspects drivers will be fighting to be the first car out on track in Q3.

[SennaMclaren]

Τhis car MP4/26 will be worst that MP4/24.
Τhe fans of Mclaren(I'm one of them)are already frustrated.

[Hangaku]

I'm actually getting frustrated with McLaren also. They are old enough and ugly enough to assume they are going to get the basics right, but they can't even manage to get a car prepared or have contingency for failure during a pre-season test. I wonder if we're going to see some personnel changes this year...

[Giblet]

All dead horse beating may continue in here where the posts about them not favoring one driver have been moved to.

[adrianjordan]

I apologise for this as it's off topic, but I hear that De La Rosa has rejoined the team, I wonder if he'll get a day in the MP4-26 this week??

[Dragonfly]

OT: Pls remove if appropriate
May I suggest that being under the title "General chat" slight deviations and retrospects which are nevertheless technical be treated with a bit more leniency. For me, and I suppose for the other technically inclined non-professionals, who use to read more than write, they are useful and also interesting to read. Unlike flamebaiting or prophesy mantras which are endlessly repeated every other post.
Thanks
and apologies for the OT.

[RedTzar]

Hamilton said: "Do I believe I have a car to win the world championship at the moment? I don't. No.

"But that doesn't mean it won't become a world championship-winning car.

"From today, the improvements we've had, it's something that can grow to be better, so as long as we keep pushing in the right direction with the development, and the new things we have coming several races down the line, hopefully they will enable us to close the gap and compete for wins.

"As long as we pick up a good few points in the first few races, then we won't be miles behind.

"Say for example we were able to be in the top five for the first three or four races, get those points, and then if we happen to have a car capable of winning, then it would still be possible.

"So I'm definitely not shutting the year off. Everything is still to play for."

..."But in terms of how long the can go in terms of reliability and our true pace, that's an unknown factor for us because in the time we have had we've not been able to maximise things.

"That's no one's fault, just issues you have in testing, and this is testing, this is what it's all about, finding where your weaknesses are so you can build on them and fix them.

"We've been focusing on those, but we definitely have several issues that are not as easy to rectify as we had hoped."

from autosport, I read that as McLaren aiming for p5 finishes at the first few races, they have a good baseline and think they can improve but there are problems. I'm wondering if half the problem for Hamilton is the new tyres, he seems a lot more downbeat than Jenson about the car.

[Pup]

Sandbagging propaganda, every word of it!