McLaren MP4-26 Mercedes

[PlatinumZealot]

The race pace of he car is not good when the track is hot. RedBull and Ferrari were pulling away at more than 1/4 of a second per lap in the early parts. Not good.

[ringo]

Mclaren desparate for upgrades now.

The car is maxed out. It can develope no more.

They can't seem to find a way to get more downforce on the back of the car.

Once again, this goes back to the side pods and floor.

The redbull simply has the best chassis. No wing upgrades can get mclaren that, since the body cannot change.
There is one optimum design and Newey has it.


However, i think if they must take a gamble, it has to be with the cooling sytem.
This was a proposal after the winter testing slump.
They may need to look into it, as i think the 10% ebd map will affect them more than any other team and put them back behind ferrari.



Push the insides further up and take a gamble with the radiators' shape, so the manifolds can come in closer to the center of the car, so we can do this on the outside:



The car needs the downforce over the body and better flow round the tail if they want a stronger rear.
The sickle shaped radiators could work really well.

[raymondu999]

The race pace of he car is not good when the track is hot. RedBull and Ferrari were pulling away at more than 1/4 of a second per lap in the early parts. Not good.

Wasn't it hot in Monaco/Spain/Malaysia too? I could be wrong.

[wesley123]

simply wont work, you are loooking at a complete redesign there. Apart from that you are simply lacking radiator area(although not in plan view), yuo are moving the whole packaging forward.

Yopu are forgetting a few things there;
-KERS in the sidepods, making the rad shape impossible
-You are moving thw whole exhausts forward, how are you going to do that without moving the negine forward? apart from that you will reduce the fuel tank size requiring tub homologation. with that, the time gained will be lost by fuel saving.

The McLaren package is just going well, but the main advantage by the red bull is just underbody downforce and the rake, that whole package together is just better. I am convinced that, with the red bull rake and exhaust blowing, that combi and the mclaren bodywork you will have a better package

[ringo]

It will work. It has nothing to do with KERS. The radiator area is the same as before.

Yes it is a complete redesign. That's the point isn't it?

The whole KERS system is not in the sidepods. There is ample room to make this adjustment. Remember the mclaren radiators are lying flatter, so there is some amount of wasted space under them.

The fuel tank size wont change either. The engine wont move either.
The manifold pipes will simply be longer. I couldn't be bothered to draw that, but that is the main aspect here.
Lenghten the pipes to put the bundle more towards the center of the car, so the sidepods can be cut back to the extreme.

A new pipe bundle, the new radiators, and a tighter side pod.

Mercedes and Mclaren nee to make big steps. The baby steps can't accomplish anything.

[myurr]

It will work.

You have no idea if it'll work or not. Feel free to speculate, it is what we're all on here for, but blanket statements like that aren't helpful especially if they're used to dismiss differing opinions.

As an aero guy you should know that the aerodynamics inside the car are as important as those outside and that the whole car has to work together as one. The changes you propose will take weeks if not months of designing, plus you then have the lead time on numerous components, reliability testing, etc. Such a change would be unlikely to make it onto the car much before the end of the season.

I do think though that McLaren should throw a bit of caution to the wind and start running and racing experimental parts for next season. The rules will be fairly static so why not throw some of their more radical ideas at the car, collect data, and then refine them for next year. Maybe even run next years exhausts on the Friday. We know McLaren have a more traditional exhaust they can run or adapt.

[Daffron]

McLaren won the last race and are the only team other than Red Bull to win a race this season, but because they had a poor weekend and finished 4th they need to completely redesign the whole car?

There have been a number of races this season that the McLaren has been the fastest car.

[myurr]

McLaren won the last race and are the only team other than Red Bull to win a race this season, but because they had a poor weekend and finished 4th they need to completely redesign the whole car?

There have been a number of races this season that the McLaren has been the fastest car.

Whilst true, Vettel is three race wins ahead and has a dominant car. Yes the gap has closed, yes McLaren can take the fight to Red Bull more often than not, yes Silverstone may jumble things up a bit, but they'll still be three whole DNFs behind Vettel. For that reason I think they can afford to take some big risks, both as it gives them a chance of a big step forward in performance and as it will lead into refined ideas for next year.

[ringo]

It will work.

You have no idea if it'll work or not. Feel free to speculate, it is what we're all on here for, but blanket statements like that aren't helpful especially if they're used to dismiss differing opinions.

Well Wesley just told me it wouldn't.

That's not speculation now is it?

[myurr]

@ringo - ah, but I wasn't unfairly singling him out like I did to you!

Completely agree that it goes both ways.

[onewingedangel]

None of us have any idea to what extent the mp4-26 concept was compromised by the change of exhaust system - do the U-shaped sidepods bring the benefit they were intended to, and was the 'octopus' intended to be used to overcome the drawbacks of the long U-shaped sidepods?

[PlatinumZealot]

No, because the RBR style exhaust made the car one second faster!

[myurr]

Anyway, isn't the overheating of the tyres in the race much more likely to be suspension geometry related than aero - same reason they're normally good at switching the tyres on in normal temperatures, and Button was the class of the field in the damp but drying conditions in Canada. Same reason Ferrari were right on the pace today, they're softer on their tyres so in the hot temperatures their setup comes into its own but they usually struggle on harder rubber in cooler conditions.

I personally think that the McLarens were okay over a single lap but that they need to work on their hot weather setup to prevent the tyres burning out in those conditions.

[peroa]

I think they just panicked in FP's when they couldn't get the tyres working and that is the result of it, went too agressive and the track was way hotter today.
Better to be 1 second behind in Q than in race pace.

[murtoidf1]

How can you draw lines on a car and then say that's what they should have done?! Madness when you're talking about a huge team like McLaren or any team for that matter

Saying they should undercut the side-pods more.... Don't you think they'd want to do that too? It's not like that part of the car is empty! Everything is packed with stuff, whether it be KERS, Radios. the ECU, or the numerous stuff I cant think of off the top of my head.

They've obviously decided that L shaped side-pods were the best route, and was a result the stuff that would be in the Groove that makes the L shape, has now been displaced and put somewhere else in the side-pod. Thats why they arent undercut as much - isn't that obvious?

If they had the capability I'm sure all teams would have a sidepods that were as small and undercut as can be - but it's just not possible.

Someone here mentioned that the L shaped sidepods offer no downforce at all, but they are extremely drag efficient. Those coupled with the octopus exhausts Cheap Downforce ( in terms of drag ) and you can see why they tried to hard throughout testing to get it to work.

They've just went for a different philosophy to red bull - and have already been compromised by the lack of octopus exhaust.


As for why the car was a second faster with the tacked on red bull style exhausts? It was because the octopus exhaust was cracking etc, and not actually working...