Aero/Chassis & tyre wear

[Crafty]

Something I can't quite figure out and was wondering if someone can help out.

Typically we see a McLaren on the pace of other cars (there or thereabouts), except they suffer from a higher rate of tyre wear, which results in the driver having to nurse the car to look after the tyres.

This was quite evident in Korea where Hamilton changed to inters and within a few laps was on the radio saying he'd opened the diff and taken wing angle off because he could already see wear on the left front.
He was able to keep up with Alonso and was sometimes quicker, but whilst his tyres wore and eventually got used up (costing him time) Alonso was able to maintain the pace due to a lower wear rate.

This scenario seems to replay itself quite often, leaving me wondering what would be causing the high wear rate keeping in mind that the car is lapping around the same pace as its rivals.

Is this more attributable to the chassis ? geometry differences ? or is the cars aero and those complex front wings the McLaren has something to do with it ?

[Jersey Tom]

I'm sure they'd like to know too.

Could be the drivers, the alignment, inflation pressure, steering setup, aero, or any combination of things.

[Belatti]

Does the same happens in Button´s car? Does it happen in every "type" (if you allow me the word) of circuits?

[riff_raff]

Korea was a new circuit. So the teams and tire supplier had very little accumulated setup data.

[autogyro]

IMO, the McLaren is much harder sprung than either the RB6 or the Ferrari.
This is because they lagged behind ride height control development and were forced to compromise.