McLaren MP4-26 Mercedes

[shelly]

You can not evaluate the disadvantages of the big wing in practice, because you can open the DRS whenever you want, so you have no drag disadvantage and enjoy higher downforce.

Yes you can....You just dont open it, like they do when the fill up and do a race sim at the end of FP2.

Yes of course. IIRC Vettel was fastest in the final race trim run.
But if you look just at the best time sheet and say mcl are doing well with the big wing, you have no indication of race potential

[FrukostScones]

[myurr]

You can not evaluate the disadvantages of the big wing in practice, because you can open the DRS whenever you want, so you have no drag disadvantage and enjoy higher downforce.

Yes you can....You just dont open it, like they do when the fill up and do a race sim at the end of FP2.

Yes of course. IIRC Vettel was fastest in the final race trim run.
But if you look just at the best time sheet and say mcl are doing well with the big wing, you have no indication of race potential

And you don't know the fuel loads, so you have no indication whilst looking at any of the lap times. Whilst it's true that throughout most of the year the teams have run similar strategies there have been a couple of races where one or other team have changed what they were running and have caused surprises in either qualifying or the race.

I'd be amazed if McLaren have really managed to get their sums so wrong that they're close in qualifying but 2+ seconds off the pace in race trim. It's more likely they were fully tanked whereas Red Bull were optimising for the second stint, thinking that this was where the race was going to be won or lost for them.

[shelly]

Yes of course again, we do not know the fuel loads either.

My point is that we have to wait until Sunday to see if McL approach ith the high downforce rear wing will pay off in the race.

[Richard]

Is that lap data for the race sim archived somewhere? Does the FIA let us download that?

http://www.fia.com/EN-GB/MEDIACENTRE/F1 ... event.aspx

and archived here

viewtopic.php?f=13&t=9815&view=unread#unread

[HampusA]

I don´t understand why they do that though?

Assuming the L-pods actually give them an advantage, why not run a small wing and use the L-pods as an extra edge over everyone else?

[Javert]

I don´t understand why they do that though?

Assuming the L-pods actually give them an advantage, why not run a small wing and use the L-pods as an extra edge over everyone else?

I suspect that this car has braking problems so they cannot run too small wings

The shorter cord wing seen in SPA has to be seen like a great step as before they simply couldn't run a smaller wing than the default one (seen in Hungary)

[HampusA]

Interesting.. I wonder why they have this problem though?
Rear end wandering around to much maybe under heavy braking?

Maybe KERS related aswell?

[Lycoming]

I thought their main issue under braking was porpoising. If its an issue with KERS, they should be able to deal with it by playing with brake bias. Still with the braking zones (or KERS harvesting zones) so far apart maybe thats a factor too.

[MikeFromCanada]

Interestingly enough, Button and Hamilton were very bullish regarding McLaren's chances this weekend. They genuinely seem very happy with the car.

[PhillipM]

I would imagine they're running more wing to give the tyres an easier life after the last race...
Even if vettel nicks pole again, the DRS should keep them up there with the RB.

[ESPImperium]

McLaren-Mercedes MP4/26 Chassis History Data:

MP4/26A-01
Hamilton: Jerez Test, Barcelona Test #1, MAL, CHI, CAN ITA
Button: Jerez Test, Barcelona Test #1

MP4/25A-02:
Button: CAN

MP4/25A-03:
Hamilton: AUS, TUR, ESP, MON, EUR, GBR, GER, HUN, BEL
(Chassis presumably written off after accedent with Kobiyashai, front crash structure damage)

MP4/25A-04:
Button: AUS, MAL, CHI, TUR, ESP, MON, EUR, GBR, HUN, BEL, ITA

No data for Barcelona Test #2, also McLaren used the MP4/25B for the first test in Valencia.

[Javert]

McLaren-Mercedes MP4/26 Chassis History Data:

MP4/26A-01
Hamilton: Jerez Test, Barcelona Test #1, MAL, CHI, CAN ITA
Button: Jerez Test, Barcelona Test #1

MP4/25A-02:
Button: CAN

MP4/25A-03:
Hamilton: AUS, TUR, ESP, MON, EUR, GBR, GER, HUN, BEL
(Chassis presumably written off after accedent with Kobiyashai, front crash structure damage)

MP4/25A-04:
Button: AUS, MAL, CHI, TUR, ESP, MON, EUR, GBR, HUN, BEL, ITA

No data for Barcelona Test #2, also McLaren used the MP4/25B for the first test in Valencia.

Interesting that the first two chassis have a good average of wins and competitiveness while the most used chassis haven't been so successful

[ESPImperium]

Each chassis has a win,

01 - China
02 - Canada
03 - Germany
04 - Hungary

I dont see any argument there.

However Hamilton and Button have each got diffrent chassis groups this year due to their heights, however 01 and 02 are more for "fly aways" generally and 03 and 04 are more for Europe.

I belive that 05 is a general use chassis that can be set up for either driver, but will be un used thru the season unless a major shunt happenes to eithe Hamiltons remaning tub (01) or Buttons two tubs.

[Richied76]

you guys meaning to tell me you NEVER saw what was actually happening at spa? The redbulls were bouncing on the limiter for pete's sake, where as hamilton would only be 200rpm or so from it. Hamilton was geared so that when he had a chance to overtake a RB he had plentyfull topend coming from the DRS indused slip stream.

Mclaren big wing, higher topend gearing, but rely on overtaking. look at sector 2 at spa, mclaren where up there with red bull, who apparently have better DF. redbull are always set up to be reving there nads off when the drs is active. mclaren are 99.9% of the time behind them on the grid so it makes perfect sence to gear your car so its able to overtake. Yes it slows them down in over all laptime which is maybe why there never on pole.

Lewis had massive top end on the sauber with momentum but the second it was past, drag was bogging it down just as the sauber was hitting its limiter.

Honest, get some in car highlights of spa and LISTEN to different cars

Hope i explained it so people can get what i'm ranting on about