Mclaren Mercedes MP4-25

[Tonn]

[bidong]

Now that's a McLaren F-Hole...


sorry just had to post it..

[ringo]

Hamilton said the car needs to find quite a bit of time. That comment had me feeling a little nervous.
However knowing him, he is not easily satisfied and says things like that all the time. Button should give us more frank comments tomorrow since he is new and never driven the mp4 24. I also feel that Button, though may be slower, will prove very useful in comparing the car to the 09Brawn. He knows how the Brawn felt last year and can help Mclaren tune the car to get it to a similar feeling.

[ringo]

Nuclear waste?!!

[i70q7m7ghw]

I don't care why they are doing it, it's bloody great for us! Now we can really see how that diffuser is working back there, looks great!

... It's massive!!

[BorisTheBlade]

This whole flow-viz thing is simply great for us. I'd wish, the other teams would use it too.
What can be seen from these pics is (especially in comparison to the flow-viz pics of last year) that they don't have that much problems with guiding the air to the back end. At last year's pics you could clearly see that the flow-viz didn't even reach parts of the diffuser and the beam-wing.
Looks as if the solution was generally working - time for some refinement then.

[astracrazy]

i never understand how they can see whats happening with this paint it just looks a mess lol

so they put the paint at certain areas at the front of the car? And the windtunnel and computers say air should flow all the way to x and puttin paint there proves if it does or doesnt?

hence last year hardly any paint reached the rear end so there was a problem, this year the opposite?

Obviously they really know what should be happening but general guidelines?

[BorisTheBlade]

That's how I understand it.

[Pup]

I think there's two different methods. One is how you describe, and the other is to coat an entire surface with the paint and then see how the airflow affects it.

[xpensive]

It's the dead zone, easy pickings.

[jason.parker.86]

I know that the times set in testing are sometimes hard to go by, but during 2009 testing, all Flav and Co would say about BrawnGP is "They are running light to get sponsors...".

Either way - todays testing times clearly show that Macca have go to find 0.5secs to be on par with the Ferrari?!?! Maybe Macca are playing with different parts, but I somehow do not see it. I hate to say it but the Ferrari seems to be in a different league to the rest of the crew.

[wesley123]

last year ferrari was fastest in tests too, but their race pace sucked.

It seemed that hamilton did his laps on long runs, thus that time isnt bad afterall.

[Giblet]

last year ferrari was fastest in tests too, but their race pace sucked.

It seemed that hamilton did his laps on long runs, thus that time isnt bad afterall.

And Williams was fastest in most of the Friday practices. We all know how well that worked out.

[Richard]

I'm just glad to see that all the added bits are nicely prepped and polished. A welcome change from last year, when it seemed like they had a crew in the back of the garage frantically making any part they could think up out of whatever scrap they could find.

They can't do that anymore, they don't have the skills. All the guys with making-cars-from-bits-of-scrap are now at Virgin/USF1/Campos/Lotus*. They're a talented bunch, some of them can make toasters too.

* delete as applicable for your own particular fanboy prejudice

[Richard]

Awesome! Now we can see exactly what is happening around that slot in the rear wing.

Looks like a 3 element wing from the rear. There is a bottom bit covered in paint, a clear central zone, a paint covered top zone.

I'm not too convinced this flow viz is such a good idea, other teams can see how your aero is working. Why not use a UV paint?

Anyway, it works for us!