McLaren MP4-26 Mercedes

[HampusA]

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If you don´t have a car that´s working perfect then you can´t gain any experience from it which means your car will not be as fast as the others.

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[FW17]

Mclaren has 10 test days with a new new car. A sensible tech programme will not involve running 5 different solutions in those 10 days and screwing yourself up.

It happened last year when they were so damm undecided on th blown diffuser that it took them the better part of 10 races to perfect it.

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[HampusA]

Mclaren has 10 test days with a new new car. A sensible tech programme will not involve running 5 different solutions in those 10 days and screwing yourself up.

It happened last year when they were so damm undecided on th blown diffuser that it took them the better part of 10 races to perfect it.

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If you have 5 different solutions for an exhaust for example. It doesn´t matter how many wind tunnels or how many computers you have. You cannot be sure that the things will work as planned. So that´s the reason they are trying all these solutions to come up with one good package.

Add the reliability problems that come with it and boom, you lose valuable time.

This is not something they do for fun you know. This is how it is and they are probably working day and night to clean this up.

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I just find it very amusing to say the least. Have some faith in the team instead. ....

[forty-two]

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[Formula None]

Another shot of the inward facing exhaust slit.



Question though, why is the outer edge metallic? Is part of the exhaust being directed out (away from centerline) in addition to inward and over the floor? Remember the out 50mm of the floor is a free zone so they can have as many holes and slots as they want in that area (I think that's why they can get away with the sculpted floor edges that you see these days, they're only like 50mm in width measured from the outside of the floor).

[forty-two]

Another shot of the inward facing exhaust slit.



Question though, why is the outer edge metallic? Is part of the exhaust being directed out (away from centerline) in addition to inward and over the floor? Remember the out 50mm of the floor is a free zone so they can have as many holes and slots as they want in that area (I think that's why they can get away with the sculpted floor edges that you see these days, they're only like 50mm in width measured from the outside of the floor).

Could they be blowing the exhaust outboard UNDER the metallic edge?

[Formula None]

That's what I'm wondering. They can have a hole in the floor at the outer 50mm AFAIK, but I'm not sure what effect this would have (blowing down and seemingly out). The metallic strip might just be part of the shaped exhaust piece getting exposed in that area.

[mclaren777]

Have we figured out where the hole for the starter motor goes?

[Formula None]

I think its just opened up to the floor ahead of it:



What the RB7's starter slot connects to is my question.

[Owen.C93]

It's likely alot of the cooling goes along the bottom to exit near the starter hole

[zgred]

[Florio]

I was a little confused by McLaren stating that

Lewis wrapped up four days of running at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya, spending the day focusing on tyre development over a series of long runs.

Clocking up an impressive 107 laps – MP4-26’s biggest single-day mileage – the team worked through a lengthy tyre development programme, eschewing outright laptimes in order to more fully understand how the Pirellis behave throughout a race stint.

Test team manager Indy Lall said: “It was very encouraging to log over 100 laps with MP4-26 today – an impressive conclusion to our four days in Barcelona. We’re still working through a very lengthy development programme – today wasn’t about pure performance, it was about conducting a disciplined series of long-runs – but it’s been a positive end to our test here.”

Seeing as they spent the whole of Valencia focusing on the tyre wear, and understanding the tyres as a whole, why would they need such extensive research seeing as their whole agenda at Valencia was tyres? I know different cars, suspensions and characteristics but I would of expected that they were focusing on race simulations etc.

However I understand they all have different testing schedules, but can anyone enlighten us onto why they'd still be needing tyre testing?

[Giblet]

A REMINDER:

This thread is to talk about the elements of the car, not to field your opinions on how good or bad you think Mclaren are at developing and testing their chassis.

[HampusA]

I was a little confused by McLaren stating that

Lewis wrapped up four days of running at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya, spending the day focusing on tyre development over a series of long runs.

Clocking up an impressive 107 laps – MP4-26’s biggest single-day mileage – the team worked through a lengthy tyre development programme, eschewing outright laptimes in order to more fully understand how the Pirellis behave throughout a race stint.

Test team manager Indy Lall said: “It was very encouraging to log over 100 laps with MP4-26 today – an impressive conclusion to our four days in Barcelona. We’re still working through a very lengthy development programme – today wasn’t about pure performance, it was about conducting a disciplined series of long-runs – but it’s been a positive end to our test here.”

Seeing as they spent the whole of Valencia focusing on the tyre wear, and understanding the tyres as a whole, why would they need such extensive research seeing as their whole agenda at Valencia was tyres? I know different cars, suspensions and characteristics but I would of expected that they were focusing on race simulations etc.

However I understand they all have different testing schedules, but can anyone enlighten us onto why they'd still be needing tyre testing?

Easy peasy. Two points,

1. Tyres are the most important part to get right on your F1 car. After all it´s the only part that touches the track. So if you don´t know the tyres it doesn´t matter what fancy stuff you put on the car.

2. Tyres are the most studied part of Motorsport yet it´s still the most unknown part in Motorsport. Therefore it´s better to learn about the tyres rather then aerodynamics etc.

[ell66]

I was a little confused by McLaren stating that

Lewis wrapped up four days of running at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya, spending the day focusing on tyre development over a series of long runs.

Clocking up an impressive 107 laps – MP4-26’s biggest single-day mileage – the team worked through a lengthy tyre development programme, eschewing outright laptimes in order to more fully understand how the Pirellis behave throughout a race stint.

Test team manager Indy Lall said: “It was very encouraging to log over 100 laps with MP4-26 today – an impressive conclusion to our four days in Barcelona. We’re still working through a very lengthy development programme – today wasn’t about pure performance, it was about conducting a disciplined series of long-runs – but it’s been a positive end to our test here.”

Seeing as they spent the whole of Valencia focusing on the tyre wear, and understanding the tyres as a whole, why would they need such extensive research seeing as their whole agenda at Valencia was tyres? I know different cars, suspensions and characteristics but I would of expected that they were focusing on race simulations etc.

However I understand they all have different testing schedules, but can anyone enlighten us onto why they'd still be needing tyre testing?

you serious? they have to avulate tyres on the new car, not to do so would be madness.