Mclaren fuel consumption

[bernard]

I was thinking about the problems the Mp4-19 has. Then i thought about what they are planning to change in the car. But there was one thing that hasn't been mentioned in any context... have you noticed how the mclarens are always the first of the top teams to come in? This is strange, and to me it would much more suggest ineccessive fuel consumption than tyre wear... Mclaren doesn't have any improvements on this sector. It takes a long, long, long time to make a new engine(they have already started designing next years engine months ago) so all they can do to this problem is trying to upgrade their engine, but it won't help that much. So my guess is that they will suffer from this problem till the end of the season. It's a whole another matter whether they manage to win with this handicap, but i hope they will.
Naturally i hope i'm wrong, and that fuel consumption is not a problem, and that they only need more speed, which they will get fo their upcoming engine upgrades in magny cours and hockenheim.

[Guest]

Certainly contratry to some rumours last year their last two engines (FO 110P & Q) don't have the best fuel consumption out there. There were rumours about the use of GDI technology in these engines to bring fuel economy to an unprecedented level in F1, which would allow them to do a race distance in Monaco for example without refuelling -with MP4-18 since it had a very large fuel tank. All that rumour was BS as we can now all witness every two weeks.

McLaren always qualify with less fuel compared to others & hence pit-in first because MP4-19 does not bring tyres to optimum temperatures on lap 1 but rather lap 2. Like 17(D & E) it is not good enough in qualifying trim. 19B will not change that´-even with new qualifying rules- as Raikkonen mentioned himself that its better in race trim but not as good in qualifying trim.

It's a shame considering that M.Schumacher alone has gathered more than 4/5 times as many poles in the past 3years than Hakkinen+Raikkonen+Coulthard have achieved all together in a Mclaren...

[bernard]

Well, fuel consumption or not, it is a fact that mclaren's stops in France were approximately 1 second slower than other's, and still they were always among the very first to come in. If their engine has the same consumption as the other teams', then they should have been the last ones to come in... contrary to what we saw on the race.

The fuel pump pumps quite a lot of fuel in one second, so the extra fuel they had would have allowed them some three to four laps more than others if their engine was as economic as the other teams' engines. This speaks strongly for the argument that mclaren has a consumption far bigger than ferrari, bar, williams and renault (not in any special order).

[Monstrobolaxa]

Like the guest mentioned Mclaren have used quite small fuel loads in order to gain some time...that is lost because of other problems the MP4/19 has...lack of front end aero....lack of front end grip due to the front susp...etc.

Another thing is that if I'm not mistaken Mclaren has one of the smallest fuel tanks this year....

I'll try to pay attention to their pit-stops this weekend...cause to tell you the truth it hasn't been something I've paid attention to!

[Guest]

assuming the last engines were after laurentzens philosophies (Big bore short stroke) you have a explanation for this.
Having a ligt car to get a better startingposition makes sense.and the additional seconds are due to them having no reserve,whereas others are able to run the car with additional fuel they can consume during the race allowing for shorter stops during the race.
I´d say if you have 10 or 20 litres on board does not make a difference in lap time really .But as you fill it up the influence of the fuel pushing the CG up increases dramatically .this is not a linear thing like 10 litres loose ypou 2 tenth a lap.
So it makes sense to fill the car up a bit more and save two seconds in refueling time.It´s a matter aof optimising things.

[scarbs]

I think you will find the McLaren has a larger tank than most teams, the design team never made the alteration in the 18s fuel tank for the revised parc ferme rules, as the car wa sin its late stages at the tiem of the rule announcement. As a result its tank was larger than required. the resulting 19 & 19B still bear this philosophy, it was soemthing newey felt was a remaining compromise in the recent line of cars.

However, that doesn't have any bearign on the early pitstops, I imagine MAC are simply trying to run a faster Q and Stint1 to leapfrog some of the midfield competition, and run out of phase with the top teams. It is more usually MAC s strategy to focuss solely on the fastest race set up and not opt for lower tanks (Monaco being a rare exception)

[mep]

Firstly it's easy to find out if mclaren needs more fuel than the other teams.
You must simply add the refueling time of all pitstops and compare it
with the other teams.
The fact that they are the first at the pit says nothing because
a lot of things play a role at pitstopstratrgie.

Secondly the tank volume must be big enough to finish a race with only one pitstop. Because if something like an engine fault in the qualyfication or a chrash at the racestart happens, than the team must be able to switch to an one stop strategie.
We have seen that a few times this year.
Thing about it.

[scarbs]

since the new parc ferme rules, you'll find no team has the option of a one stop strategy for normal racing conditions (i.e not in the wet). As you have to qualify on the same fuel as at the start of the race, all the teams downsized their fuel tanks for this year, with the exception of McLaren who were stuck with the legacy of the 18-19 cars.
smaller tank allows shorter wheel base broader sidepods (internally for coolers etc) and a little less weight....

[Guest]

with a bigger tank volume the effect of playing around with 5 or 10kgs of fuel gets even less important to laptime as the CG height is even lesser (if the increased wheelbase is because of the longer tank).&that would explain the team statements they have a better race car than for qualy,as the car is more consistent with increased fuelloads.
I don´t think having 5 0r ten kgs on the car very low in the car will make a significant difference,bearing in mind the car has to weigh 600 kgs and has around 900 horsesto propel it .the difference in accelerations in all directions will be barely measureable.

[mep]

What was with fisicela this week end, I think he stopped only one time.
But I'm not sure.

If you have to start from the last row because of an engine failure than
you will drive as long as possible before the first pit stop.
And think of the years whitout the parc ferme regulation, mainly the fastest strategy was a one stop strategy. And if you start from the end of
the grid it's quiet the same.

[Guest]

fisi stopped two times,but he drove a hell of a race,having to get his engine repressurized at his second stop it is amazing he bagged 6th place.

As for Mclaren trying to run out of phase...Michael is the Master of that strategy this year....he seems to run in clean air all the time ,very good simulation at ferrari pitwall,good shots called ,bravo..that´s how you win even if your advantage is small....
MclarenMercedes has got rid of the unwanted persons presumably...mario Illien standing at the winners circle was a nice one....funny how they found speed and reliability overnight.....politics????

[bernard]

I believe Ross Brawn said that Schumi overtaking Kimi in the forst pitstop was luck, Kimi got stuck behind sato, for a few laps till he overtook him, and then he got stuck in an amazing traffic...
Brawn hadn't planned for Schumi to overtake in the forst pitstop, they had planned it to happen during the second one.
(Which tells something about how they race. Well, not so much race as calculate the race on computer and then only need adriver capable of making the stable laps their computers have calculated)
So no overtaking from ferrari this season, I would say.
They only overtake when it's absolutely vital and the last option. They really love the sport...