Emag wrote: ↑24 Feb 2022, 17:22
SmallSoldier wrote: ↑24 Feb 2022, 16:58
Emag wrote: ↑24 Feb 2022, 16:48
The driver is the "source of truth" for the engineers. You can rely on the data all you want, but if the driver cannot translate that in the track, then everything is meaningless.
In that regard, a driver's input is very important, because good feedback pushes the development towards concepts that lead to better on-track performance, and the opposite can lead to disaster.
So yeah, you cannot attribute the car's performance entirely on the driver's feedback, but you cannot discredit it as well.
It’s “feedback”… It’s subjective… It’s based on “feeling”…
Last season one driver extracted speed out of the package, the other one didn’t and it was because of “feeling”… It was very telling when Tom Stallard was telling Daniel: “It is fast when it feels slow”.
Engineers design cars, engineers rely on data
I’m not discrediting it, but I won’t overestimate it either… The MCL33 is one of the worst cars McLaren has brought to a track, with feedback from the likes of Alonso and Button, not “7 time race winners”, but World Champions… Was the MCL33 a dog because of their feedback?
You picked the worst car for this argument, because the MCL33 was always going to suffer from some sort of flaw given how late the decision to switch to Renault was made. Nevertheless, the problem with that car turned out to be a fundamental error in the design, and not bad driver feedback as you suggested.
But because you mentioned one of the past cars. I believe one of the reasons why these last few McLarens, although very decent cars, have suffered from a weak front-end, has to do with Fernando's feedback back in 2015-2017.
Fernando is one of the most adaptable drivers of the recent history, but he had his preferences. And his preferences, unfortunately for McLaren, required bizarre handling characteristics.
You can see this mostly from his onboards with the Renault of 2004-2006, but basically, he liked to forcefully push the car towards understeer on corner entry, wait for it to balance and grip, then shoot away on the exit.
This driving style, which as far as I am aware is unique to him, led to post 2017 cars having a weird front-end trait on them, for which both Carlos and Daniel can vouch. How do I know that this is the case? Because Fernando himself said back in 2017, that he could finally reuse his old style again.
Actual quote taken from this article:
https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/ferna ... 7/4997657/
"With the 2017 cars, I'm able to drive back again to my driving style, I feel much more competitive than the previous years, I'm feeling competitive out there on the track."
So, yeah, driver's input is important. It pushed engineers back then to pursue certain handling characteristics that Fernando was asking for, and they were translating on track because he (Fernando) could make them work.
But here comes Carlos and Daniel (and actually Lando has been critical as well), and it turns out that it's not such a good trait to have on your car, unless your driver is Fernando Alonso.