McLaren MP4-26 Mercedes

[Shrieker]

@ bonjon 1979,

That's pretty much what I thought. Cold air from the second air intake on the engine cover mixing with the hot exhaust gasses to provide a jet like flow to the rear of the car. Complicated, but once gotten to work can provide an advantage. Good to see that McLaren know you can come second at best by just following in the footsteps of others. They're trying to pioneer like they did last year with the F-duct, hope this time they can get a clear advantage out of it.

I always thought the second air intake on the engine cover wasn't for cooling(at least not for kers cooling). In 2009 they had kers in their car and no such cooling solutions were attempted.

[McG]

@ bonjon 1979,

That's pretty much what I thought. Cold air from the second air intake on the engine cover mixing with the hot exhaust gasses to provide a jet like flow to the rear of the car. Complicated, but once gotten to work can provide an advantage. Good to see McLaren know that you can come second at best by just following in the footsteps of others.

It's amazing how different the McLaren looks compared to the Red Bull, looks like McLaren have completely separated from any Newey influence, any trace that he may have left behind.

Although is this quick in a straight line philosophy forced on McLaren?

[Caerdroia]

It's my prerogative to doubt. And in my opinion I've not seen a clear enough picture so surmise that there is, to take several steps back, a problem with McLarens exhaust(s).

Seems to be all the same people coming on bumping their gums, maybe take it to PM or MSN multi chat.

Just to clarify, I was only giving you a source about who asked about PyroSic. From what I've read scarbs doesn't just grab small "facts" like that from thin air. He's mentioned nothing conclusive about McLaren's exhausts.

McLaren themselves have admitted they've had problems with the exhausts in testing. I agree there's been nothing concrete to suggest it's been to do with this "ocptupus" solution (if it even exists) as all of the theory's have stemmed from one article in the autosport magazine.

[Shrieker]

Although is this quick in a straight line philosophy forced on McLaren?

If our 'assumptions' have anything close to what they actually have on the car, then it could be argued that past a certain speed (say, 300 km/h) the system could be configured to reduce the drag on the car. How ? Let's say past 300 km/h the second air intake on the engine cover loses it's 'air sucking' property so much so that the flow on the rear of the car gets disrupted; producing less df, hence less drag.I don't think it'd still provide an advantage similar to that of the f-duct though.

[ringo]

IMO this octopus thing is BS.

It looks more like they are using the floor to channel exhuast gases. Look at the thickness of the floor in some areas, it's clear that there is a void between the flat underside of the floor, and the sculpted pyrosic topside. I suspect McLaren were blowing exhuast gases in to this void and expirementing with different exits. We saw one configuration where it exited infront of the rear tyres, I bet they had others where it exited under the crash structure. I doubt there are any pipes, just the two exhuast pipes blowing in to a hollow floor.

It's likely someone saw the amount of pyrosic on their car along with the u-bend exhuast and requested clarification from the FIA.

+1

[ringo]

@ bonjon 1979,

That's pretty much what I thought. Cold air from the second air intake on the engine cover mixing with the hot exhaust gasses to provide a jet like flow to the rear of the car. Complicated, but once gotten to work can provide an advantage. Good to see that McLaren know you can come second at best by just following in the footsteps of others. They're trying to pioneer like they did last year with the F-duct, hope this time they can get a clear advantage out of it.

I always thought the second air intake on the engine cover wasn't for cooling(at least not for kers cooling). In 2009 they had kers in their car and no such cooling solutions were attempted.

It could simply be the gearbox oil and hydraulics cooler.
I think if they wanted to get air down there, it could come from the front of the splitter or along the lower 5cm of the floor, which is not bound by the 75mm minimum radius and unbroken curve rules.
The octopus box thing doesn't seem to give any real benefit so i don't really buy it. It's too much complication for a simple result.
It's probably just a simple cowling in the floor working just like the cowlings on the redbull, str and ferrari exhuast.

[chepoi]

"Over the winter, we set ourselves some extremely ambitious performance targets for MP4-26," Whitmarsh said. "Vodafone McLaren Mercedes are an uncompromising team and, as with every car we build, we tend to push development to the limit. In some cases, we've pushed over those limits, and the resulting lack of mileage has invariably eaten into our pre-season preparation.

"However, it's called testing for a reason - and testing MP4-26 beyond its limit has, in some ways, been highly instructive. In actual fact, we've gathered a huge amount of useful data about the car, its handling characteristics and its management of the tyres. So while we've further fine-tuned the package for Melbourne, we've once again set ourselves some extremely tough targets for this opening race weekend.

"Do I think our testing pace is representative of the pace we'll show in Australia? No. Do I think we head into the weekend as race favourites? Unfortunately, no. But do I feel that we have the capacity to surprise a few people and be competitive? Very much so."

taken from espnf1.com (http://en.espnf1.com/mclaren/motorsport ... 43542.html)




i like that statement. Whether it's a positive surprise or negative surprise ...we'll see......

=D>

[Formula None]

And on the third day of the Australian Grand Prix, McLaren rose up from the murky depths to smite the unbelievers.

Book of Ron 4:26

[segedunum]

I simply cannot see this octopus exhaust arrangement at all either. It's totally impractical, not to mention that I am certain it would contravene an exhaust rule.

For the theoretical gain you'd get the strange unreliability McLaren would get as a result would make Red Bull's strange issues with what they've done over the past couple of years seem like nothing. They know they'd be lucky to finish any race for a long time, and would probably take them a couple of seasons to get right until the new regulations in 2013 when they'll have to start again.

[Ratatouille]

I think Martin Witmarsh's statement means the following translated into non BS english language:

1) The performance of the MP4-26 with its octopus/Kthulu exhaust configuration is very quick but unreliable.
2) They have fine tuned an alternate solution in order to try to finish the race, which is what I assume to be the blown exhaust with the configuration on the last 2 days of testing.
3) They will try to find a solution to their original design in time for Melbourne, but they are unsure if it will work or if it will be ready in time.

We should remember that Mclaren did try a conventional blown solution during all tests, so I think that is their plan-B right now, how quick the car is with this solution that's another story.

I think they will have to wait until the flyaway races are over in order to test a solution for their original exhaust, after all what's the point of being quick but unreliable?

[hollowBallistix]

The thing is regardless of all the exhaust configurations ect that they ran during testing, it's primarily more important to understand the details of how everything thing works & interacts with one another, it's not about posting a fast time !!!

There are so many "maybe's" regarding the performance of the car, it's not all about setting a fast time in pre-season, they could have been running in full race spec, with full fuel, or it could be the case that the car is a complete dog !! the only people who really know are the ones at McLaren, everyone else can just make assumptions, and assumptions tend to lead to the mother of all --- ups ! never assume anything

It's a week away from Qualifying ! then we will see the respective pace of all the runners, and I for one can't wait !!!

[Ratatouille]

Oh, and the diffuser was running without its vanes after all!

Check Scarbs pictures:

http://scarbsf1.wordpress.com/2011/03/18/1322/

[McG]

Isn't the rumour that they are a second behind Red Bull? People keep getting worried that the car might be a dog, but last years was a second behind and it did well.

[MikeFromCanada]

Isn't the rumour that they are a second behind Red Bull? People keep getting worried that the car might be a dog, but last years was a second behind and it did well.

I don't think it being a dog is the issue. Lewis and Jenson have said it is a step up from the 25. The issue here is the car lasting the entire race. Having done the least amount of laps amongst the teams in testing definitely does not bode well for them.

As far as the octopus goes, if it is indeed true, I'm guessing the reason for Pyrosic (or any other high temperature bearing material) rather than titanium is to create some kind of distinction between the octopus being part of the bodywork and not part of the exhaust system. It's a clever idea to say the least, and would somewhat explain the lack of visible exhaust outlets on the car.

[raymondu999]

Isn't the rumour that they are a second behind Red Bull? People keep getting worried that the car might be a dog, but last years was a second behind and it did well.

I don't think it being a dog is the issue. Lewis and Jenson have said it is a step up from the 25.

I think that's the 4th year in a row Lewis has said that. Even for the MP4-24