Is McLaren really off the pace?

[Alge7a]

i started this thread and quite rightly its been pointed out that Mclaren are on the pace. Im surpised by that. And was thrilled until Hamilton hit the cliff so dramatically on his used tyres. Why two sets of hards by the way? anyone? Still not worked that out, other than he ran out of softs. It seems that RB sacraficed some qualy pace to gain a better race pace. It paid off and shows how strong this team is getting in both design and stratergy. If they had gone for the flat out qualy pace we might have seen the RB half a second ahead of McL, as was expected. I dont think McL are as close as they think. And if they dont get there soon the confidence building in team and driver might be unstoppable, especially as Hamilton is showing strain since his last championship was a while ago now.

[PlatinumZealot]

He was as fast as Button on the softs so it was no big deal. The drivers that we have are cutting the difference on the Bull. The car is not on the pace IMO. When the car is on the pace Button will fight Vettel for pole. And I do believe Button is faster than Vettel.

[raymondu999]

There is no basis for pace comparison for Button VS Vettel. They've never even had a common teammate.

[N12ck]

is this not meant to be a thread about mclarens pace, not JB's pace relative to Vettels? Mods can you clean it up please

[raymondu999]

It was merely a response to the statement in n_smikle's post

[ringo]

from autosport

The Briton added that he had been encouraged by how close McLaren had got to Red Bull in Malaysia, but suspected that this may have been due to Red Bull losing pace rather than McLaren gaining it.

"I think the performance we had in the first and second stints was good, and if I hadn't been stuck behind [Nick] Heidfeld I would have been able to keep very close behind Sebastian [Vettel] and fight at the pitstops.

"Normally you have to open up the cooling, which loses downforce and efficiency. We didn't have to do that. Maybe others had to do that, maybe Red Bull, and in doing so I think they lost a bit of speed.

[Tamburello]

What Vettel was showing out on track was that he had pace to burn, whilst the McLarens were pretty much flat out, within the limits of the tyres. Yes, he might have kept up with Vettel in the first stint, but what would his tyres have looked like?

[Tamburello]

i started this thread and quite rightly its been pointed out that Mclaren are on the pace. Im surpised by that. And was thrilled until Hamilton hit the cliff so dramatically on his used tyres. Why two sets of hards by the way? anyone? Still not worked that out, other than he ran out of softs.

He used up too many sets in qualy and was stuck with used sets for the race. Out of the top 6, Vettel used up the least in qualifying, followed by Button.

[PrancingBull]

Interesting interview on the BBC F1 website at the moment, featuring Hamilton talking about the penalty he received after the last race. He's also asked about their gap to the RBs: he says that the apparent jump to within a tenth of the RB pace could be due to the exceptional heat experienced in Malaysia. Basically, McLaren didn't have to alter their car to improve cooling, whereas many of the other teams, including (he suggests) Red Bull, had to make compromises in that department. So, perhaps the improvement wasn't quite what it seemed.

He concluded that they would be working again tomorrow (Fri) on getting the failed updates to work.

[PlatinumZealot]

There is no basis for pace comparison for Button VS Vettel. They've never even had a common teammate.

I use LH for the first two stints and JB for the last two stints. I think that is a fair way to compare the pace of the Macca in Malaysia don't you think. Unless of course you believe that Jenson's pace is slower than the true pace of the car?

[raymondu999]

Huh? You were talking about Button being faster than Vettel. Not Hamilton and Button.

[PlatinumZealot]

Oh that, hehe.. Button is no slouch you know. He is a tested driver who is fast as the fastest once his car is planted.

[CyleB]

havent been following the topic but i think its safe to say not anymore

[raymondu999]

Oh that, hehe.. Button is no slouch you know. He is a tested driver who is fast as the fastest once his car is planted.

Yes, but Vettel is no slouch either. They have also never been teammates, nor have they had common teammates. If they had a common link by some weird "He's my ex teammate's ex teammate's ex teammates" thing I can't be bothered to think about it anymore as it confuses me too much

[PlatinumZealot]

I believe Button is faster than Vettel. Is it wrong for me to believe that? hmmm?