Is McLaren really off the pace?

[FW17]

Cat out of the bag

Jenson Button is not sure the full potential of the McLaren MP4-26 will be unlocked for the start of the season in Australia.

[Just_a_fan]

Cat out of the bag

Jenson Button is not sure the full potential of the McLaren MP4-26 will be unlocked for the start of the season in Australia.

Source?

[akshat21]

Cat out of the bag

Jenson Button is not sure the full potential of the McLaren MP4-26 will be unlocked for the start of the season in Australia.

Source?

Source:
http://en.espnf1.com/mclaren/motorsport ... 42000.html

[akshat21]

Though in all fairness, he hasn't actually said that the car is off pace. He says that since they haven't done as many laps as say Ferrari and RB, the full potential of the car is still not realized.

[Richard]

I guess [favourite driver] will show his awesome prowess in management of [tyres/engine/KERS/apex/ gravity/socks/caffeinated sugar solution/girlfriend's knickers] to lead his [useless/brilliant] team to an outstanding [WDC/4th/13th place] - well done [team/driver]!

[FW17]

[WDC/4th/13th place]

I somehow doubt that Renault or Mercedes is going to finish ahead

[horse]

Cat out of the bag

Jenson Button is not sure the full potential of the McLaren MP4-26 will be unlocked for the start of the season in Australia.

Never believe anything a driver says about anything. Frankly, they are either misinformed or misinforming.

Oh, and,

I guess [favourite driver] will show his awesome prowess in management of [tyres/engine/KERS/apex/ gravity/socks/caffeinated sugar solution/girlfriend's knickers] to lead his [useless/brilliant] team to an outstanding [WDC/4th/13th place] - well done [team/driver]!

LOL.

[myurr]

Cat out of the bag

Jenson Button is not sure the full potential of the McLaren MP4-26 will be unlocked for the start of the season in Australia.

Look I know you're trawling the internet looking for sources to suggest that McLaren are off the pace, but Button just says what has been said elsewhere in this instance. He explicitly says that the car has a lot of potential but they haven't done enough milage in testing to make sure that they are able to extract that potential. He also said that it's not too late and that the next test may make a big difference.

[Richard]

He explicitly says .....

He just giving out the standard positive message issued every year by every team in every testing session.

[FW17]

Look I know you're trawling the internet looking for sources to suggest that McLaren are off the pace, but Button just says what has been said elsewhere in this instance. He explicitly says that the car has a lot of potential but they haven't done enough milage in testing to make sure that they are able to extract that potential. He also said that it's not too late and that the next test may make a big difference.

Almost in the similar lines as.......

Schumacher said. "The European season is about to kick off and now we will see how our developments look in relation to those of the other teams. Every team will come to Barcelona with a revised car and so of course do we. I see a lot of potential here especially as our team has been reacting very well over the past four races,"

[Alge7a]

Look I know you're trawling the internet looking for sources to suggest that McLaren are off the pace, but Button just says what has been said elsewhere in this instance. He explicitly says that the car has a lot of potential but they haven't done enough milage in testing to make sure that they are able to extract that potential. He also said that it's not too late and that the next test may make a big difference.

Almost in the similar lines as.......

Schumacher said. "The European season is about to kick off and now we will see how our developments look in relation to those of the other teams. Every team will come to Barcelona with a revised car and so of course do we. I see a lot of potential here especially as our team has been reacting very well over the past four races,"

It's not the drivers words that worry me, but Brundle saying the Mclaren looked " shocking" in comparison to RB and Ferrari was definitely not heart warming.

[myurr]

Look I know you're trawling the internet looking for sources to suggest that McLaren are off the pace, but Button just says what has been said elsewhere in this instance. He explicitly says that the car has a lot of potential but they haven't done enough milage in testing to make sure that they are able to extract that potential. He also said that it's not too late and that the next test may make a big difference.

Almost in the similar lines as.......

Schumacher said. "The European season is about to kick off and now we will see how our developments look in relation to those of the other teams. Every team will come to Barcelona with a revised car and so of course do we. I see a lot of potential here especially as our team has been reacting very well over the past four races,"

Yes - as in it's standard driver press speak and you can't read anything into it one way or the other. I'd hardly say the cat was out of the bag!

[ringo]

To be fair Ringo, last year's tyres really were strong. But this year will see (I suppose) a much greater impact by tyre wear. Bearing in mind that being able to stretch each stint by 1 lap is worth a bigger percentage now than it was last year.

I don't think it's going to be as simple as getting one more lap out of the tyres.
Too many factors to suggest everyone's going to come to an agreement and trundle in a conga line.
I think most of the race is going to be all out racing, no one will have the time of day to relax. We have KERS and ARW remember?

Almost as if some of you are looking for some kind of krytonite in 2011 for the Mcalren driver. It aint gonna happen. Like 2010 testing wont represent the tyre behavior or management for the rest of the year.
If this car is rubbish one will make the best use of it.

It's starting to look like a rubbish car, but if they said that they were aiming for 2010 levels of downforce that somewhats has me confused on the actual pace of this car. They must have surely been aware of how accurate their simmulations were before the car was released. Their tyre sims may be the problem.

[raymondu999]

Yes I know. I actually assume think that as everyone will have the same degradable tyres, and how badly counter strategies worked in Canada etc, that everyone will just go into the same strategy as everyone else. Maybe options, pit after 1/6th distance, pit again at half distance, and nurse it home.

[segedunum]

It's been pretty clear that testing has not gone very well so far. Autosport gives the inside track:

They say there's no such thing as a free lunch, but they're wrong. Last week there were supposed to be two – one at Williams on Thursday and another at McLaren on Friday.

But, at 36 hours' notice, McLaren's, which was to have been a sit-down with technical director Paddy Lowe, was cancelled. The last time something was called off that late it signalled Honda's Formula 1 withdrawal!

He wanted to know why McLaren had cancelled their press lunch. Because, someone said, the MP4-26 seems to have been oinking its way around Barcelona chewing up tyres without much grip and Paddy Lowe, ex-Williams of course, is probably a bit too busy to waste a couple of hours talking about it...

The $64m question at this time of year, of course, is the pecking order.

"Very subjectively, I'd say you've got Ferrari and Red Bull at the front at least four tenths faster than anyone else, then I think you've got a pack which is Renault, Toro Rosso, Williams and even Sauber, then another three or four tenths back to Mercedes and McLaren, then another step back to the last three. That's definitely what the picture was in Barcelona.

That's as clear as it gets I think.