Is McLaren really off the pace?

[speedsense]

It's called testing for a reason - and testing MP4-26 beyond its limit has, in some ways, been highly instructive," said Whitmarsh in a team preview.

Interesting statement that....beyond it's limits....

[volarchico]

Yeah, I was thinking that was an interesting phrase too, but still ambiguous. Did they test beyond the limits on purpose? Or did those limits spring up on them as a surprise?

[Just_a_fan]

"surprise a few people" means nothing in terms of performance expectation. Any team could have use the same statement and still be correct.

PR communication skills at its best

Nice bit of selective quoting there...

He said "But do I feel that we have the capacity to surprise a few people and be competitive? Very much so". [my highlight]

That's a big difference because he qualified the position "in terms of performance expectation" (as you put it).

[Just_a_fan]

Yeah, I was thinking that was an interesting phrase too, but still ambiguous. Did they test beyond the limits on purpose? Or did those limits spring up on them as a surprise?

We know they had some reliability issues at the back end and we know (believe, at least) that they have been trying to sort their clever exhaust system. If the system broke (as seems to be the case) then they took the bits past their limits. And that wouldn't have been on purpose (although one could argue that testing is partly about finding the limits of new bits and therefore by definition any failure is on purpose).

[CHT]

"surprise a few people" means nothing in terms of performance expectation. Any team could have use the same statement and still be correct.

PR communication skills at its best

Nice bit of selective quoting there...

He said "But do I feel that we have the capacity to surprise a few people and be competitive? Very much so". [my highlight]

That's a big difference because he qualified the position "in terms of performance expectation" (as you put it).

competitive? relative to which team? Ferrari RBR or HRT?

[raymondu999]

A competitive backmarker/midfielder/frontrunner/racewinner are very different things. That is the beauty of his statement. It's ambiguous to the extent that he's right either way

[Just_a_fan]

"surprise a few people" means nothing in terms of performance expectation. Any team could have use the same statement and still be correct.

PR communication skills at its best

Nice bit of selective quoting there...

He said "But do I feel that we have the capacity to surprise a few people and be competitive? Very much so". [my highlight]

That's a big difference because he qualified the position "in terms of performance expectation" (as you put it).

competitive? relative to which team? Ferrari RBR or HRT?

Well, it wouldn't be surprising to anyone if they were competitive compared to the back half of the field so it must mean a few surprises in the front half of the field. Which would suggest in the top 4. Still not great but surprising after their testing performances.

[N12ck]

I have read on that, and Lewis has said they are only a second off the pace, so im thinking top 5 performance, or maybe if they are sandbagging and are going on about surprises maybe have the fastest car but are bluffing (ideal circumstances obviously for a mclaren supporter) but they are the 2 scenarios.

[Dragonfly]

English is not my primary language and it seems to me there's too much Ronspeak™ in Whitmarsh statement to make some conclusions.

[segedunum]

Indeed. Team Principals only talk themselves up like that when they're under pressure.

[Paul Oz]

if theyre only a second off the pace, with so many issues in testing, and with such a radical car that they can't really have gotten anywhere near its potential.... looks promising!

[freedom_honda]

well according to James Allen's twitter, Whitmarsh said that radical changes on the McLaren should make it a sec faster than during testing. If that's true, we are in for a good weekend in Australia.

[CHT]

well according to James Allen's twitter, Whitmarsh said that radical changes on the McLaren should make it a sec faster than during testing. If that's true, we are in for a good weekend in Australia.

Mclaren has decided to canned their radical exhaust system in favour of something simplier for melbourne. I think they should be good enough to challenge the best of the rest.

[raymondu999]

If their old exhaust system would contribute to making the car 1 sec faster, wouldn't that mean their new solution contributed to making it slower, interestingly? Could we be facing CFD number mismatches already?

[segedunum]

It's just more PR nonsense spinning from Martin. They invested God knows how much in a new exhaust system and now they expect to be a second a lap faster than they were in testing with a 'simpler' exhaust system, which they also tried during testing incidentally? They did, afterall, try several different layouts.

Martin is simply having to fight fires around the sponsors here and dampen the panic down ahead of Melbourne. There'll inevitably be more fire-fighting afterwards when we see just how far behind they actually are.