McLaren MP4-26 Mercedes

[Javert]

I think honestly the Octopus will not be seen again this season.

IF they reach a good refinement of this package (RB-style exhausts) and see they are still 0.5 seconds behind RB, maybe they will give another chance to it (if it gives advantages)

Or if Vettel & RB wins the Championship in mid-season, they could use the final races
to test Octopus

[marcush.]

they run the combo that is the most competitive and can be reliably run.
It´s not that easy -as both Ferrari and williams seem to have trouble getting it right..
so Mclaren really learned a lot from their -hot -experiments methinks

Funny Newey admitted they declined to even look at the Renault conceept ,even though he´s not absolutely sure if the RB layout has more potential...but thinks that they need to develop their own thing further and not diverting recources towards other teams ideas...interesting.

[BreezyRacer]

I think honestly the Octopus will not be seen again this season.

IF they reach a good refinement of this package (RB-style exhausts) and see they are still 0.5 seconds behind RB, maybe they will give another chance to it (if it gives advantages)

Or if Vettel & RB wins the Championship in mid-season, they could use the final races
to test Octopus

Keep in mind that there isn't any testing anymore, except Friday's P1 and P2 sessions. It would be crazy to try to test that in a single P session, so in my mind it's done. At least the McLaren design staff can sleep well at night now, talking about how fast it would have been but reassure-ed they don't actually have to try to make it work.

[feynman]

It's just a floor, a bunch of bananas, and maybe a box for the octopus to live.

Pretty sure you could turn that round between FP1 and FP2 if you had to. Titanium and carbon floors were getting swapped-out between sessions.

Maybe once the engineering models properly catch up to the new tyres, so you don't have to pound quite so many miles to pinpoint the cliff, I reckon you'd have time available to try out some experiments on a dirty track.

If there is as much time locked in it as they believe, enough that they chose to flush away a complete pre-season debugging it, I reckon it'll have to reappear somewhere.

[Giblet]

I believe Whitmarsh said something along the lines it was too expensive and resource intensive to produce against any potential gains.

[Florio]

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.

I thought the problem was more based on the fact that as well as the reliability, it just didn't give a consistant balance? Similar to the EBD introduced in Silverstone last year, as soon as their not on the throttle, the balance just goes, and even the throttle maps for it didn't suffice.

[Holm86]

I really believe that half way through the season McLaren will be faster than RedBull.

Im basing this on the RB7 is almost the same as last years car. Just alot tighter and more refined. So i believe at some point they wont be able to develop their car as much.
The McLaren is a totally new concept and has alot of development in it yet. And they are not that far off at this moment.

Whether or not they will bring back the octopus im not sure. If they wont i guess we will see a revised beamwing at some point.

[BreezyRacer]

I really believe that half way through the season McLaren will be faster than RedBull.

Im basing this on the RB7 is almost the same as last years car. Just alot tighter and more refined. So i believe at some point they wont be able to develop their car as much.
The McLaren is a totally new concept and has alot of development in it yet. And they are not that far off at this moment.

Whether or not they will bring back the octopus im not sure. If they wont i guess we will see a revised beamwing at some point.

I would take that bet. RB don't even have KERS working and they are clearly the fastest and most balanced chassis out there. And they know where to look for more speed as they fully understand where their speed comes from. Just about any RB aero revision works as advertized, right out of the box. McLaren? Not so much.

It may close up a bit towards mid season but for the next races bank on Red Bull and maybe Renault at the slower tracks. McLaren will always be in the top 5, IMO, and that ain't bad. They just have a history of producing aero tweaks that don't work whereas RB and Renault do well in that department. It will be an interesting season, as now a faster "race pace" car has a much better chance of rising to the top.

[beelsebob]

I really believe that half way through the season McLaren will be faster than RedBull.

Im basing this on the RB7 is almost the same as last years car. Just alot tighter and more refined. So i believe at some point they wont be able to develop their car as much.
The McLaren is a totally new concept and has alot of development in it yet. And they are not that far off at this moment.

Whether or not they will bring back the octopus im not sure. If they wont i guess we will see a revised beamwing at some point.

I wouldn't be surprised if Turkey was the race where McLaren overtook them (even in qualifying pace).

[beelsebob]

I really believe that half way through the season McLaren will be faster than RedBull.

Im basing this on the RB7 is almost the same as last years car. Just alot tighter and more refined. So i believe at some point they wont be able to develop their car as much.
The McLaren is a totally new concept and has alot of development in it yet. And they are not that far off at this moment.

Whether or not they will bring back the octopus im not sure. If they wont i guess we will see a revised beamwing at some point.

I would take that bet. RB don't even have KERS working and they are clearly the fastest and most balanced chassis out there. And they know where to look for more speed as they fully understand where their speed comes from. Just about any RB aero revision works as advertized, right out of the box. McLaren? Not so much.

It may close up a bit towards mid season but for the next races bank on Red Bull and maybe Renault at the slower tracks. McLaren will always be in the top 5, IMO, and that ain't bad. They just have a history of producing aero tweaks that don't work whereas RB and Renault do well in that department. It will be an interesting season, as now a faster "race pace" car has a much better chance of rising to the top.

If by history you mean "last year they didn't work so well". Compare to 2009, where every single upgrade they brought worked wonders. They turned a dog of a car into arguably the fastest car on the grid.

[l4mbch0ps]

Im gonna have to agree with beelsebob and others - Mclaren, in my experience, have the BEST record of bringing up dates that work. Especially DURING a season, Ferrari and MAYBE Renault are the only teams capable of matching the development pace.

[raymondu999]

If by history you mean "last year they didn't work so well". Compare to 2009, where every single upgrade they brought worked wonders. They turned a dog of a car into arguably the fastest car on the grid.

While a lot of updates did work in 2009, I have to disagree that "every" one of them. The updates all until Nurburgring were, let's face it. Rubbish. It was only starting from Nurburgring that the updates started to take shape.

[feynman]

None of the pre-Nurburgring 2009 upgrades did anything (check Hamilton's pit radio, Turkey), and none of the end of year upgrades brought anything much either. The only upgrade that worked was the outwash front wing, which they should have had on the car in the first place, not when the season was half-finished.

Last year all sorts of front and rear wings showed up, didn't work as planned, didn't race. The blown diffuser took what felt like forever to become adequate, and they were arguably outdeveloped on the f-duct, eventually having to start copying others innovations.

I really hate the "2009 myth", it is pure fantasy

[Javert]

None of the pre-Nurburgring 2009 upgrades did anything (check Hamilton's pit radio, Turkey), and none of the end of year upgrades brought anything much either. The only upgrade that worked was the outwash front wing, which they should have had on the car in the first place, not when the season was half-finished.

Last year all sorts of front and rear wings showed up, didn't work as planned, didn't race. The blown diffuser took what felt like forever to become adequate, and they were arguably outdeveloped on the f-duct, eventually having to start copying others innovations.

I really hate the "2009 myth", it is pure fantasy

So you're saying they gained 2,5 seconds in 2009 only due to their "outwash" front wing ?

We all know McLaren has had grave issues with their simulator / CFD in 2009 and that --- their championship.

2010 has been a better year in this sense, with McLaren being the most efficient team with non-blown diffuser ... They had serious trouble in heat simulation so the EBD idea was not realised very well

This year their simulator seems to have worked well, regarding to general car mechanical grip and front/rear downforce. We can say it didn't work well with Octopus, this being a so complex system that they eventually decided to bin it ...

Year after year, their simulations seems to improve nicely ... So we can expect good things from Woking

[Richied76]

........