McLaren MP4-26 Mercedes

[SiLo]

Let's just hope they can develop with success this time, instead of having to go back on themselves like last year.

[Mchamilton]

vettels advantage was 0.778s over lewis hamilton in qualifying, at the same track last year, red bull were only 0.229s ahead of the best of of the rest. that means at albert park the red bulls gap has increased by 340% , imagine what the advantage is going to be at somewhere like malaysia, catalunya or hungary.. scary

[Coefficient]

vettels advantage was 0.778s over lewis hamilton in qualifying, at the same track last year, red bull were only 0.229s ahead of the best of of the rest. that means at albert park the red bulls gap has increased by 340% , imagine what the advantage is going to be at somewhere like malaysia, catalunya or hungary.. scary

I'm not so sure. The Red Bull is clearly a mighty car over a lap but I think they are in a strange situation really. They don't seem to be able to run the car in its ultimate configuration for more than a handful of laps because the tyres won't last if they do. We saw in Melbourne that Vettel did a disappearing act at the beginning but then Hamilton was matching him and ran longer than him. Vettel had to turn the wick down to get the tyres to deliver him to his planned stop.

If Mclaren can get half a second closer in pace their tyre longevity will put them well and truly on terms with RB7 over a race distance. Also, I think we can expect to see a few mechanical gremlins creeping into RB7 as the team are forced to use KERS more and more as the season wears on and MP4 26 and F150th reign them in.

[747heavy]

If Mclaren can get half a second closer in pace their tyre longevity will put them well and truly on terms with RB7 over a race distance.

Maybe, maybe not
who says/knows what will happen if you "ask" 0.5s/lap more of your tyres?
perhaps your "tyre longevity" disappears as a result - No?
You assume, that there improvement would come at "no cost" (in terms of tyre life), I think this is debattable.

[marcush.]

I don´t think laptime alone is a good differentiator for tyre life expectancy.You can safely say that those tyres take more punishment at the start of the race simply due to the extra mass of the car.So on the same car with the same setup and driver effort you could be reasonably sure of a quicker degradation than on lower fuel levels..(if the balance is retained).But comparing two chassis ,setup alternatives ,driver feel and driver selfcontrol it is not the lap time but the ability to stay close to 100% grip exploration WITHOUT (ever) going over the max (wich will wear out the tyres).

[hollowBallistix]

vettels advantage was 0.778s over lewis hamilton in qualifying, at the same track last year, red bull were only 0.229s ahead of the best of of the rest. that means at albert park the red bulls gap has increased by 340% , imagine what the advantage is going to be at somewhere like malaysia, catalunya or hungary.. scary

The gap the RBR's pulled in qualifying last year was usually significantly more than the rest of the teams, that;s when they did put it on pole, however this doesn't always translate into a race win !

Again, I would imagine the RBR's to be fast in qualifying, but during the race they won't be anywhere near as dominant.

But we shall see a week Saturday & Sunday !

[Just_a_fan]

vettels advantage was 0.778s over lewis hamilton in qualifying, at the same track last year, red bull were only 0.229s ahead of the best of of the rest. that means at albert park the red bulls gap has increased by 340% , imagine what the advantage is going to be at somewhere like malaysia, catalunya or hungary.. scary

Most of this appears to be lifted straight off Autosport. A little reference to them might be considered polite...

[Richard]

...

Most of this appears to be lifted straight off Autosport. A little reference to them might be considered polite...

+1

Also, posting the same comment in 4 threads isn't clever either. You should post race information in the respective race threads, ie Melbourne.

[segedunum]

I'm not so sure. The Red Bull is clearly a mighty car over a lap but I think they are in a strange situation really. They don't seem to be able to run the car in its ultimate configuration for more than a handful of laps because the tyres won't last if they do. We saw in Melbourne that Vettel did a disappearing act at the beginning but then Hamilton was matching him and ran longer than him.

I wish people would stop misinterpreting races with this 'race pace' nonsense. The fact is that you are never going to see a dominant car a good thirty seconds or a minute down the road now because teams have to conserve fuel and preserve the engines and gearboxes for further races. They can't afford to take too much out of the engines because of the loss of power that results and they can't afford to have a DNF anywhere with them or the gearbox. So, they build a reasonable gap between themselves and those behind and they simply manage it and drive well within their limits.

To cut a long story short, how far Hamilton and McLaren was behind Vettel and Red Bull, or that they even matched them at certain points, is no reflection on what Red Bull and Vettel would have been able to pull out to maintain their gap. Qualifying is where you are, all things being equal. Whatever happened Vettel would still have been ten to fifteen seconds ahead at the end.

If Mclaren can get half a second closer in pace their tyre longevity will put them well and truly on terms with RB7 over a race distance.

This is oft repeated as well. As long as your car isn't moving laterally a lot, then if your car is slower, you are going to wear your tyres less. As soon as you start adding performance, as McLaren will have to do, you wear the tyres more. It's not a zero sum game. Everything moves.

[Hangaku]

I'm not so sure. The Red Bull is clearly a mighty car over a lap but I think they are in a strange situation really. They don't seem to be able to run the car in its ultimate configuration for more than a handful of laps because the tyres won't last if they do. We saw in Melbourne that Vettel did a disappearing act at the beginning but then Hamilton was matching him and ran longer than him.

I wish people would stop misinterpreting races with this 'race pace' nonsense. The fact is that you are never going to see a dominant car a good thirty seconds or a minute down the road now because teams have to conserve fuel and preserve the engines and gearboxes for further races. They can't afford to take too much out of the engines because of the loss of power that results and they can't afford to have a DNF anywhere with them or the gearbox. So, they build a reasonable gap between themselves and those behind and they simply manage it and drive well within their limits.

To cut a long story short, how far Hamilton and McLaren was behind Vettel and Red Bull, or that they even matched them at certain points, is no reflection on what Red Bull and Vettel would have been able to pull out to maintain their gap. Qualifying is where you are, all things being equal. Whatever happened Vettel would still have been ten to fifteen seconds ahead at the end.

If Mclaren can get half a second closer in pace their tyre longevity will put them well and truly on terms with RB7 over a race distance.

This is oft repeated as well. As long as your car isn't moving laterally a lot, then if your car is slower, you are going to wear your tyres less. As soon as you start adding performance, as McLaren will have to do, you wear the tyres more. It's not a zero sum game. Everything moves.

Different numbers for different teams though. Yes, the number will move, but the rate at which the numbers shift is arbitrary. Who knows how they will swing? I don't, but neither do you

[bot6]

Well Seg, that's kind of the point isn't it?

Race pace = pace at which you go during the race = what makes you win (or lose) the race!

At the end of the day, that's what scores points right?

As far as conserving tires and fuel, that doesn't make "race pace" irrelevant, quite the opposite. If you have to do those things and therefore can't completely pull away, it means if you push harder you will chew up your tires and empty your fuel tank and eventually you're going to have to slow down anyway (if you want to finish the race that is).

So race pace (taking into account tire wear and fuel consumption) is relevant. It's not nonsense. It's what wins races.

But of course winning races is nonsense right?

[hollowBallistix]

Well Seg, that's kind of the point isn't it?

Race pace = pace at which you go during the race = what makes you win (or lose) the race!

At the end of the day, that's what scores points right?

As far as conserving tires and fuel, that doesn't make "race pace" irrelevant, quite the opposite. If you have to do those things and therefore can't completely pull away, it means if you push harder you will chew up your tires and empty your fuel tank and eventually you're going to have to slow down anyway (if you want to finish the race that is).

So race pace (taking into account tire wear and fuel consumption) is relevant. It's not nonsense. It's what wins races.

But of course winning races is nonsense right?

+1

It's the old fable of The Tortoise and the Hare !!

What good is a car if it can only do a few fast laps but can't maintain overall pace during the actual race ? examples of this in MotoGP all the time, Danny Pedrosa being the skinniest runt ever on the bike can ring it's neck and usually chuck in the pole lap or usually one of the fastest laps, but come race day you have the likes of Rossi qualifying maybe 3 or 4 places behind him managing to stalk, prey & win from those positions because he can manage the bike better and put in a more consistent pace during the entirety of the race.

So saying race pace is irrelevant is just plain stupid ! but we still have no idea if RBR's race pace is good enough or not because they haven't been pushed yet for an entire race.

Saying that the car in front doesn't win by 30 odd seconds these days is also rubbish, if they have the pace then they will, Webber came in 24 seconds ahead of Alonso in the Spanish GP last year, if they were capable of this every time then they would have done this every single time !

[Richard]

MotoGP .... Danny Pedrosa being the skinniest runt ever on the bike ... likes of Rossi ... RBR's race pace ...Webber ...Alonso ...Spanish GP

Please note the thread title!

[hollowBallistix]

MotoGP .... Danny Pedrosa being the skinniest runt ever on the bike ... likes of Rossi ... RBR's race pace ...Webber ...Alonso ...Spanish GP

Please note the thread title!

Using it as a comparison to prove that it's nonsense not to consider "race pace"

back on track, anything been said of what material their planning on manufacturing the floor & diffuser out of for Malaysia ?

[Mchamilton]

...

Most of this appears to be lifted straight off Autosport. A little reference to them might be considered polite...

+1

Also, posting the same comment in 4 threads isn't clever either. You should post race information in the respective race threads, ie Melbourne.

i did, and i posted it in the respective car threads which i was detailing, perhaps not entirely relevant to a technical thread but nvm.