McLaren MP4-26 Mercedes

[Robbobnob]

The air intake behind the airbox on the Mclaren is for an Oil-radiator.

I can only assume that because of their unique sidepods, packaging dictates that behind the airbox is the only available place

[myurr]

The air intake behind the airbox on the Mclaren is for an Oil-radiator.

I can only assume that because of their unique sidepods, packaging dictates that behind the airbox is the only available place

Could be completely wrong, but I believe that at high speeds air spills out from the snorkel so having the additional cooling there may even tidy up the airflow to the rear wing.

[eddie]

Regarding the spring-less suspension, would it be possible to build flex into the actual CF wishbones, thus using the actual wishbones as springs ?

[Owen.C93]

Looks like a little bit of black shrouding on the exhaust to tidy it up, it now looks almost identical to preseason RB lol.

[beelsebob]

Looks like a little bit of black shrouding on the exhaust to tidy it up, it now looks almost identical to preseason RB lol.

Interesting looking at that it appears to still be the long-chord rear wing. Their short chord one uses a switching mechanism in a long black housing like RBR's – that one still has the lever for the long chord.

[dren]

The suspension isn't springless, it just doesn't have the typical torsion springs in the rear. You don't really need the torsion springs when you have a heave spring and an antirollbar. There are dampers too.

There certainly is some spring rate to the CF links, how much and how they model it I have no idea.

[raymondu999]

Looks like a little bit of black shrouding on the exhaust to tidy it up, it now looks almost identical to preseason RB lol.

Interesting looking at that it appears to still be the long-chord rear wing. Their short chord one uses a switching mechanism in a long black housing like RBR's – that one still has the lever for the long chord.

McLaren like to test new stuff in FP1/2, so we could see it showing up there. IIRC Button was using it in FP2 Silverstone

[Owen.C93]

Looks like a little bit of black shrouding on the exhaust to tidy it up, it now looks almost identical to preseason RB lol.

Interesting looking at that it appears to still be the long-chord rear wing. Their short chord one uses a switching mechanism in a long black housing like RBR's – that one still has the lever for the long chord.

They'll use old wings for pit stop practice anyway to avoid damage. No doubt they will be testing it in FP and make a decision after that.

[marcush.]

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/93944

Hamilton mnot happy with the current car...thinking it needs more downforce...drivers are drivers ..last year he was full of praise for a car that hardly matched the Bulls on speed ..and now he start already to moan about mp4-27 for lagging behind....

[MikeFromCanada]

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/93944

Hamilton mnot happy with the current car...thinking it needs more downforce...drivers are drivers ..last year he was full of praise for a car that hardly matched the Bulls on speed ..and now he start already to moan about mp4-27 for lagging behind....

To be fair, the title of the article (as usual) is misleading. He's being realistic. The RB8 will be a natural progression fromt he RB6, which was a progression from the RB5. COmpare that with the MP4-25 and 26 which were both essentially new designs (for the most part), and he's right in thinking that Red BUll will more than likely have a head start next season. What he did say is that the time to catchup to them may be less because the MP4-27 will be more an evaluation, and hopefully take less time to figure out/get the bugs out.

Nothing more than a driver being realistic IMO.

Though him hinting that the 27 will be an evalution of the 26 should spark a debate. I think it's safe to bet the L-Shaped side pods will return.

[TheWiseOwl]

Interesting looking at that it appears to still be the long-chord rear wing. Their short chord one uses a switching mechanism in a long black housing like RBR's – that one still has the lever for the long chord.

Happy now?

[marcush.]

It´s not ok to doubt the ability of Oatley and Lowes team not being able to come up with something on a par or even beetter than an evolution of a horse that has been run for three years already.
Logic would say there is a point when the concept you are refining is leveling out and the return for each hour spoent is minimal.
On the other hand a fundamentally flawed car can be improved big time -by putting the areas right that were wrong.

The interesting bit here is :MP4-26 is a very different animal to the RB7 not sharing much in concept and achieving laptime and elapsed time in the race very differently.
Who knows if ultimately the Mclaren concept has more scope for development and RB7 hits a brickwall -or as jet mentioned has reached the end of the road of development? Sure Mclaren have gained a LOT on RedBull recently and we have not seen RedBull having answers to attach to the car .As predicted the KERS lonely Cowboy solution of RB technology will not only bite them now when Mclaren and Ferrari have their machines on full song it will hurt again next year as they lack the strength in depth to master the KERS as needed.

[beelsebob]

Happy now?

Much better

[ringo]

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/93944

Hamilton mnot happy with the current car...thinking it needs more downforce...drivers are drivers ..last year he was full of praise for a car that hardly matched the Bulls on speed ..and now he start already to moan about mp4-27 for lagging behind....

he's speaking the truth though. The EBD is a big band aid for the car.

[beelsebob]

he's speaking the truth though. The EBD is a big band aid for the car.

Interestingly, the BBC have an article where he's saying he thinks that next year they'll have a big deficit to RBR at the start of the year, but that the current design will mostly translate to next year. Odd that if it's so reliant on EBD it would translate well.