amc wrote:Conscious of previous poor starts to the season, since 2009 really, Mclaren have designed a conservative car. Everything that they have on the car works as they expect it to - when did they last use flow-vis? They had the fastest car in the pack until Bahrain, and could have had a significant lead in both championships at that stage if not for operational errors.
They do not want to change to a Red Bull or Ferrari exhaust (by far the most effective on the grid) for fear of going backwards, through lack of consistency. It also won't work with their undercut, front wing or rear suspension. They won't change the nose whatever 'sources' say - that is simply not viable or necessary. It qualified 1-2 in Melbourne, remember? The nose isn't slowing them down. I accept it may make a difference but not one worth changing.
I think the constructors is gone to RB now, and JB cannot win the WDC. Mclaren should accept this, take the step back and introduce a Ferrari style exhaust at Hungary. They then have the summer break to fix the undercut and suspension (and potentially fw) to make it work for the second half of the year and get some reasonable data for the next year, where I expect nose regs mandating a Macca style nose but not much else will change.
The nose is slowing them down, and im not going off of any journo sensationalism either. It's just the reality. The higher nose is better aerodynamically; this is a fact. All things being equal it is a disadvantage to have a lower nose.
Forget about the exhausts. That's not doing much for the car, as compared to the body of the car itself. The blowing effect is greatly reduced this year. Plus Mclaren's exhuasts are the most stable flow wise.
As the season progresses and the iterations converge, the finer details will be the determining factors of performance.
