McLaren MP4-26 Mercedes

[Owen.C93]

The difference between the wings means that the RB7 RW has 90units of downforce and 90units of drag, but with DRS it has only 50units of Drag, while the MP4-26 has 100units of downforce and 90units of drag, but with DRS it has 70units of drag which is more than the RB.

This means when DRS is unlimited RB7 has the advantage due to less drag, but in the race the McLaren has more downforce on the RW.


At least that's what I think. It's definitely not that simple however.

[Paul]

[Florio]

Does anyone think that the McLaren is likely to return with their 'octopus' exhaust system this season? Or is there as much potential with the RB style exhaust system?

[BreezyRacer]

Does anyone think that the McLaren is likely to return with their 'octopus' exhaust system this season? Or is there as much potential with the RB style exhaust system?

I think they are stuck with copying whatever changes Red Bull make thru the season.

[Shakeman]

Does anyone think that the McLaren is likely to return with their 'octopus' exhaust system this season? Or is there as much potential with the RB style exhaust system?

I think they are stuck with copying whatever changes Red Bull make thru the season.

Have I just logged into Planet F1 forums by mistake?

I'm sure McLaren is busily trying to build in unreliability to their KERS system to better emulate Red Bull.

[PlatinumZealot]

They have already copied, now it is time to beat them in the refinement department. Octpus will not be seen where it is too risky to deploy. Whitmarsh and the engineers had made their decision.

[ell66]

They have already copied, now it is time to beat them in the refinement department. Octpus will not be seen where it is too risky to deploy. Whitmarsh and the engineers had made their decision.

yep, i agree.
Id be willing to bet they might try it again for next years car.

[BreezyRacer]

They have already copied, now it is time to beat them in the refinement department. Octpus will not be seen where it is too risky to deploy. Whitmarsh and the engineers had made their decision.

yep, i agree.
Id be willing to bet they might try it again for next years car.

Well, consider that they DID test 3 different diffusers already since the beginning of the season. The RB copy was the one they used.

[ell66]

They have already copied, now it is time to beat them in the refinement department. Octpus will not be seen where it is too risky to deploy. Whitmarsh and the engineers had made their decision.

yep, i agree.
Id be willing to bet they might try it again for next years car.

Well, consider that they DID test 3 different diffusers already since the beginning of the season. The RB copy was the one they used.

I never said they did'nt. They just couldnt get it working reliably, maybe it would of been a big step forward had they managed it.

hence why i wouldnt be suprised to see them make another attempt at it.

[Richied76]

Also makes a note that as far as forward thinking and exploring designs, the redbull is probably the most "barn door" of the lot. Mclaren droped it on the car and made it work straight away...amagine if they were less ambitious and started on the redbull design. they would have had it totally optimised and have had twise the testing mileage. redbull should be lucky mclaren only copied them because the FIA banned a high tech, high cost material they wanted to use otherwise the "octopus" would have paid a passive part towards the performance of the MP4-26

[PlatinumZealot]

It was rumored that Mclaren used the pyrosic material in testing and the reliability, and most importantly the performance of the car was still below par. There must be other reasons why the octopus did not perform well in testing IMO.

[wesley123]

true, but as they said it could gain them a second, so if they can fix these downsides they would sure put it back on.

[PlatinumZealot]

I think it was the other way around the Octopus was one second slower than the RedBull exhaust... Let me find the article.

McLaren will introduce a 'simpler' exhaust system and new floor for the Australian Grand Prix after its troubled pre-season testing period - and hopes to gain over a second per lap from the changes.

The team has been off the pace and struggling for reliability during the winter, and team boss Martin Whitmarsh said during a Vodafone McLaren Mercedes phone-in conference that he had decided the only option was to shelve the MP4-26's radical exhaust.

"I'm not satisfied with where the car was on reliability or performance in the test," he said. "We have made some fairly dramatic changes, and those changes we will see in Australia. There's some risk in that, but I think it was the right thing to do and we're hopeful that that risk comes off and the car is a lot more competitive in Australia."

"I'd say it is a simpler design than we've had before," he said. "I think the exhaust systems have become quite extreme on quite a lot of the cars. I think we in particular had very extreme solutions.

"But I think that they were not delivering, in my opinion, sufficient benefits for their complexity.

"I believe that the car isn't fundamentally a bad car. I believe that we need to unlock the exhaust-blowing potential.

"We had some very creative ideas, some of which could have worked spectacularly well. But if they were to work spectacularly well then they had to be sufficiently durable to be raceable, and frankly some of our solutions weren't, and that's why I think we had to go back on it. But I think in doing so we found some interesting performance."

Whitmarsh admitted that going straight into the opening race of the season with such major changes on the car was a risk, but felt it was worthwhile given the performance gain he expects to see.

"I think it will still be a challenging weekend, but I'm hopeful that we'll put on more than a second in performance," he said.

"That's not what you like to do after a test like that, but I think it's the right decision, and if it wasn't then I'll have to put my hand up."

[beelsebob]

I think it was the other way around the Octopus was one second slower than the RedBull exhaust... Let me find the article.

McLaren will introduce a 'simpler' exhaust system and new floor for the Australian Grand Prix after its troubled pre-season testing period - and hopes to gain over a second per lap from the changes.

The team has been off the pace and struggling for reliability during the winter, and team boss Martin Whitmarsh said during a Vodafone McLaren Mercedes phone-in conference that he had decided the only option was to shelve the MP4-26's radical exhaust.

"I'm not satisfied with where the car was on reliability or performance in the test," he said. "We have made some fairly dramatic changes, and those changes we will see in Australia. There's some risk in that, but I think it was the right thing to do and we're hopeful that that risk comes off and the car is a lot more competitive in Australia."

"I'd say it is a simpler design than we've had before," he said. "I think the exhaust systems have become quite extreme on quite a lot of the cars. I think we in particular had very extreme solutions.

"But I think that they were not delivering, in my opinion, sufficient benefits for their complexity.

"I believe that the car isn't fundamentally a bad car. I believe that we need to unlock the exhaust-blowing potential.

"We had some very creative ideas, some of which could have worked spectacularly well. But if they were to work spectacularly well then they had to be sufficiently durable to be raceable, and frankly some of our solutions weren't, and that's why I think we had to go back on it. But I think in doing so we found some interesting performance."

Whitmarsh admitted that going straight into the opening race of the season with such major changes on the car was a risk, but felt it was worthwhile given the performance gain he expects to see.

"I think it will still be a challenging weekend, but I'm hopeful that we'll put on more than a second in performance," he said.

"That's not what you like to do after a test like that, but I think it's the right decision, and if it wasn't then I'll have to put my hand up."

The one second referred to here IIRC is relative to the naïve pair of pipes sticking out the back solution they ran as a backup in testing. Whitmarsh when quizzed after Aus stated that he thought the octopus was worth about a second over the setup they ran there.

[PlatinumZealot]

Hamilton said they were two seconds of the pace with the unreliable octopus in testing, and So did Jenson. Maybe It's just me but I cannot see where 3 seconds for the same piece of kit can come from. So I still believe the octopus was 2 seconds behind and the cannon exhaust was 1 second behind the pace, which matches up perfectly. I could be wrong but if you can find the article that would be enlightening.