An average gap of 0.4s per lap is not really what I would call alarming on a track they said not to judge the form on.
Yea holding fire with Australia and Japan till we see upgrades from the entire field
Aeordynamically speaking, the surface parts are largely unchanged compared to Abu-Dhabi spec MCL60.pazazamadaz wrote: ↑02 Mar 2024, 19:20Before testing Stella said something about they hope the rate of the development from last year could be maintained.
EDIT: so he said the same rate had been continued during winter but thats when the upcoming upgrades were developed, surely?
https://racer.com/2024/01/17/mclaren-no ... velopment/
A thought occurred to me this afternoon on this subject: maybe it's the fuel. The more ethanol in the petrol, the less power for the same compression ratio. Maybe different engines tolerate more and more ethanol in petrol differently. If I remember correctly, every year there is less and less fossil oil in fuel and more and more synthetic oil. Of course, this is just a guess, but the general trend kind of hints at it a bit.mwillems wrote: ↑02 Mar 2024, 16:16And one for the folks discussing the speed of the Mclaren, which does have a bit of a bigger wing than RB and Ferrari, but similar to Merc if I recall. Everyone has lost speed but we have lost the most. This is a really interesting sign that the teams have prioritised DF over speed in their setup and possibly in their designs, more time needed to see if that is true, and to see if we are slower in general or just in setup here. Of course, it could well play into tyre life and race performance.
Yes you may be right. Did that change again this year? It passed right by me if it did !LionsHeart wrote: ↑02 Mar 2024, 19:45A thought occurred to me this afternoon on this subject: maybe it's the fuel. The more ethanol in the petrol, the less power for the same compression ratio. Maybe different engines tolerate more and more ethanol in petrol differently. If I remember correctly, every year there is less and less fossil oil in fuel and more and more synthetic oil. Of course, this is just a guess, but the general trend kind of hints at it a bit.mwillems wrote: ↑02 Mar 2024, 16:16And one for the folks discussing the speed of the Mclaren, which does have a bit of a bigger wing than RB and Ferrari, but similar to Merc if I recall. Everyone has lost speed but we have lost the most. This is a really interesting sign that the teams have prioritised DF over speed in their setup and possibly in their designs, more time needed to see if that is true, and to see if we are slower in general or just in setup here. Of course, it could well play into tyre life and race performance.
In other words, engine power is going down a bit.