McLaren MP4-26 Mercedes

[ell66]

But their trapspeeds are not that impressive yet ?

really marcus? you realise it was a wet session with very little running? the DRS wasnt even in use was it.

[raymondu999]

During the dry 25 minutes in the middle of FP2 EVERYONE used DRS. Or at least the McLarens, Red Bulls and Mercs did. Can't remember if Ferraris did, but they probably did.

[ringo]

...
The redbull shape is the optimum.
...

Good Lord, is this still a Technical forum?

Looking for mounds of tehcno babble?

Optimum shape sounds simple but there is a lot behind it. That's what counts.

Redbull has the better chassis.. period. Mclaren's chassis hasn't changed significantly since the beginning of the year.

Mclaren has the better team around the tyres and engine and that's where we have been seeing most of their progress.

[raymondu999]

Come to think of it though; Red Bull and McLaren have both kind of "stagnated" in a way, haven't they? I haven't seen many (visible) upgrades on either car for a while now. Except for the new Rear wing on the McLaren, naturally

[Owen.C93]

Come to think of it though; Red Bull and McLaren have both kind of "stagnated" in a way, haven't they? I haven't seen many (visible) upgrades on either car for a while now. Except for the new Rear wing on the McLaren, naturally

It's not like last year with new front wings and changes to the double diffuser every race is it? A few changes to the packaging and the rear wing and some tweaks to the front wing and that's about it.

[raymondu999]

Just means that the teams are starting to converge on the optimum design (for specific components such as the front wing) for their respective packages, really.

[wesley123]

or they are reaching the end of the development cycle on pieces.

For example the McLaren front wing is a development of the wing introduced mid 2009, I doubt there is any more to add to.

For other pieces, it just seems it changes per year, for example in 2008 there were way less updates then 2007, spotting different front and rear wings almost every race. 2006 was similar too to 2007, while 2005 seemed less

[raymondu999]

Yeap. We're on the 3rd year of this regulation cycle. I would love to have a slight regulation mixup (nothing as big as 2008) just to see a better development race

[Banki]

Hamilton's car damaged better i think. His front wing touched the asphalt at the Bus stop

[raymondu999]

Hamilton's car damaged better i think. His front wing touched the asphalt at the Bus stop

It wouldn't have damaged much tbh; The lower end of the endplates scrape the ground a lot

[myurr]

Hamilton's car damaged better i think. His front wing touched the asphalt at the Bus stop

It wouldn't have damaged much tbh; The lower end of the endplates scrape the ground a lot

The even have titanium skid blocks there to allow the wing to scrape without damaging it.

[marcush.]

MCL the team with loads of porpoising with big time amplitude this year ..any slo mos of this ?Is it sidewall oscillation?

[Lycoming]

the porpoising seems quite a bit worse here than it was at turkey. How much might something like that cost them? the tire is moving around a lot, but the extra friction cant hurt in the braking zones...

[raymondu999]

I don't think it's so much about the friction as it is about the downforce, as the front downforce will kind of oscillate with the front ride; making it easier to lock the fronts

[Lycoming]

Hamilton was locking the fronts a lot at the bus stop...