Is McLaren really off the pace?

[thestig84]

Hmmm what type of pie we lining up to feed to our favorite doubters!?

[Poleman]

Hmmm what type of pie we lining up to feed to our favorite doubters!?

A delicious yaw-pie would be absolutely perfect for this occasion.

[Alexgtt]

And here endeth the thread.

Just Sunday Service to go.

[N12ck]

maybe we should change the name of this thread now, i suggested this a while back, but i think its more fitting now, because very clearly mclaren are on the pace,

maybe :
'McLarens Pace'

That way we aren't trying to answer the initial question of are they off the pace as very clearly they are not.

[volarchico]

^^ +1. I like keeping this thread open, because it seems there's always talk about McLaren's pace (bashing/praising) and it's better to stuff it all into this one thread instead of sprinkling it about hte MP4-26, and the McLaren 2011, and the race threads!

[raymondu999]

Does this mean we get to start opening the 2nd part? "Is McLaren really on the pace?"

[gray41]

maybe change it to how far ahead will mclaren be at the end of the season pace?

[marcush.]

Mclaren have produced the sort of performance i had expected from Mercedes this year....
To me they are really a revelation of good fighting spirit and delivering the goods.thumbs up to matching RedBull on qualy speed when both RB drivers had nothing to complain really . =D> =D> =D>

[Richard]

They've recovered from bad positions before (09), so they know what to do and how to recover. They also know what success feels like so know recognise what feels right.

[PlatinumZealot]

At this stage I would say Macca are about 0.5 seconds behind the bulls on race pace.

[volarchico]

Or the title could be changed to "Is Hamilton off pace on hard tires at Malaysia?" with an unequivocable and resounding answer: yes!

[speedsense]

At this stage I would say Macca are about 0.5 seconds behind the bulls on race pace.

When the KERS is working or when it isn't?
I believe this is the first time Newey has run KERS in a race. If I remember correctly Newey choose not to run it at all in 2009 and saved the weight. Will this lack of experience with it bite RBR this year? Both cars KERS failed during this one...
Mclaren on the other hand has had relatively few issues with KERS and ran it all year (except one race?) in 2009 and so far this year.

Hamilton was only .10 behind Vettel in Qualifying, and was held up by Heidfield allowing Vettel to get away. As the race unfolded, Hamilton had tire wear issues and judging by the trap speeds was running higher downforce (Hami's..303 KPH) than Button (310 KPH) and higher than RBR (305 khp for both). These are traps for Qualifying...
I don't see the .5 disadvantage.

[raymondu999]

Nah. I'm still thinking we should start the thread, "Is McLaren really on the pace?"

[PlatinumZealot]

At this stage I would say Macca are about 0.5 seconds behind the bulls on race pace.

When the KERS is working or when it isn't?
I believe this is the first time Newey has run KERS in a race. If I remember correctly Newey choose not to run it at all in 2009 and saved the weight. Will this lack of experience with it bite RBR this year? Both cars KERS failed during this one...
Mclaren on the other hand has had relatively few issues with KERS and ran it all year (except one race?) in 2009 and so far this year.

Hamilton was only .10 behind Vettel in Qualifying, and was held up by Heidfield allowing Vettel to get away. As the race unfolded, Hamilton had tire wear issues and judging by the trap speeds was running higher downforce (Hami's..303 KPH) than Button (310 KPH) and higher than RBR (305 khp for both). These are traps for Qualifying...
I don't see the .5 disadvantage.

There was a time when Hamilton was cutting the gap that had made the Mclaren seem like it was a match, but the strategy from RBR was for Vettel to control the gap to Hamilton allowing him to come close to about 4 seconds (wearing his tyres more) then to punch it before the pitstops. That was when Hamilton was on the hard and Vettel soft (Second stint? third stint?). I think Vettel even pulled out some seconds of pace over EVERYBODY on the field towards the end of that stint.

Or the title could be changed to "Is Hamilton off pace on hard tires at Malaysia?" with an unequivocable and resounding answer: yes!

The time when Hamiton was on the "dud" hards is not really worthy of comparison. When you use Button's times in his last stint to compare,the RedBull still seems to have much more in reserve. Button was never a threat even though Button said he was flying and Vettel said he was cruising. On a typical race day Button's pace is not that much slower than Hamilton's, so I say he gave a true reflection of the car's pace and that's as fast as the '26 will go. So I still feel RedBull still have 0.5s in reserve, especially in the latter stages of a race.

http://mclarenf-1.com/index.php?page=ch ... =1&hid=3_4

[Paul Oz]

I think its going to get very interesting over the next few races! IMHO with such a radical car, such little testing mileage and huge focus to get the exhaust bodged before Melbourne... theres no way theyre anywhere near the potential of that car yet. The speed that theyve closed the gap in just a couple of weeks could indicate that too...