McLaren MP4-26 Mercedes

[Giblet]

The Flybrid drum is housed inside a near vacuum, which will explain some of the plumbing you see.

[Scania]

Flywheel KERS is banned I thought, Electrical only for this year. But I'm not too sure.


I'm pretty sure ATM-Andy is legitimately Andy Latham.

the rule of KERS wouldn't changh as I know

[Owen.C93]

Yeah I think I was wrong about flywheel KERS being banned.

[ing]

The Flybrid drum is housed inside a near vacuum, which will explain some of the plumbing you see.

Fluid connections are for the hydraulic control of the variable gear drive "transmission" that connects the flywheel to the rear wheel drive, and maybe for oil supply - looks to be an oil pump intergrated (for bearing and transmission lubrication ?). This system should be connected to the car mechanically.

Don't think there is an intermediate hydraulic drive as this would need to be reversible between motor/pump at both the flywheel and the tranmission ends - too complex, I would think.

Two other systems use the flywheel as the energy storage medium, but the output is electrical current: the Flybrid system with Marelli generator and the Williams system where the generator magnets are integrated in the flywheel. These create current which powers electric generator/motor at the transmission. So electrical KERS, but without batteries.

[wesley123]

indeed its the 21.

But apart from that, it is funny to see how people already know that the Chrome mclaren looks better then an black and 'red' one while apart from an badly photoshopped one where the chrome was replaced by black there isnt anything other than imagination. point is, the 'chrome' paint which resembles Mercedes benz isnt new anymore and apart from that not even fitting to McLaren anymore, so i do not see a reason why to keep the silver.

[Marco Alves]

Lewis Hamilton gets a feel for MP4-26's steering during a seat-fit last December.



http://twitpic.com/3nhaew

[adrianjordan]

McLaren look set to run an interim car at the first test and are launching the MP4-26 on the 4th February in Berlin according to Autosport.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/88834

I wonder why the launch is in Berlin though? New sponsor to announce as well or are any of their current sponsors based there??

[Richied76]

McLaren look set to run an interim car at the first test and are launching the MP4-26 on the 4th February in Berlin according to Autosport.

I dont believe this is because Mclaren want more time in the tunnel. They have already said they have a good aero platform, so it sounds like there already set. Maybe they just want to try some unique ideas on a known platform to see how usefull they are. Or to try a radical placement of mechanical parts (i.e kers batterys) I do think, on the other hand, it maybe because teams like sauber had i hinting of what mclaren were doing last year with the f-duct and hence they got it on there car super quick for the next race. I think mclaren dont want people seeing whats up there sleaves untill the very last min.. This car could be an interesting one! [-o<

[Just_a_fan]

I think there might be something clever on the car again. Either that or they're struggling to get something to work. Or they want to calibrate the new tyres to the a known configuration.

Perhaps we'll see more of their aero-probes again.

[adrianjordan]

Or they want to calibrate the new tyres to the a known configuration.

I think this is the most likely as it will give them some data to reference against what they got when they tested the new tyres in Abu Dhabi last year.

Perhaps we'll see more of their aero-probes again.

I would expect we will. As I understand it, they use the data acquired from those to correlate their CFD and Windtunnel data with the real world readings, which then allows them to be more confident in their development parts...not that it worked as well as they would have liked in 2010...

[wesley123]

by the way from Scarbs twitter;

McLaren may use an interim car at the 1st test and will launch the MP4-26 in Berlin Feb 4th according to @AUTOSPORTdigi Why Berlin?

Same question for me, why Berlin?

[N12ck]

i thought that too, maybe saying goodbye to mercedes? just thinking that could be the only reason,,,, mercedes but they arent shareholders anymore so i dont know :S

[spinmastermic]

it maybe because teams like sauber had i hinting of what mclaren were doing last year with the f-duct and hence they got it on there car super quick for the next race. I think mclaren dont want people seeing whats up there sleaves untill the very last min.. [-o<

De La Rosa spilled the beans to Sauber about the f-duct a few weeks before the first test. Thats why they were first to copy it.

[Holm86]

Perhaps im beeing a bit too overanalytical but the talks about a new livery in black and McLaren officially dismissing the talks about a livery change could that be because they dont want people to get a hint of who their new sponsor is?? A sponsor that is going to be unveiled at the launch in Berlin?

I can't see any reason to why they are going to launch their car in Berlin so long away from their factory and so long away from the Jerez.

And Mercedes is situatet in Stuttgart not Berlin.

Too me it all seems a bit strange ....

EDIT:
Siemens has a headquarter in Berlin. They are not sponsoring McLaren anymore are they?

[spinmastermic]

No, Siemens aren't sponsors anymore but its a good guess. Could it be be something to do with Vodafone?