Blimey! What on earth is going on with all the hate in this thread?
If its not against each other it's against the car.
I saw a few pages back somebody said the car was "fat conservative and ugly" and followed up this with it's "not a winner."
Now, I realise we are all entitled to our opinions, and if you believe it is fat then fair enough. That being said,
shaddock kindly put up a very helpful picture that - to me - shows the 27 isn't much "fatter" than the 25. So I for one think its more a matter of perception...on first glance the 25 looked fatter to me that it really was because of the way it's shaped (a bit more bulky high up towards the rear of the engine cover.)
Considering we know the car will have some updates as a result of testing and indeed that there is no diffuser of note (that we can see) on this show car (an area we can be sure the teams are keep on recovering lost downforce) how on earth can we say things as "its conservative". The chances are equally possible that we haven't seen the true inovations yet. As for what makes a car conservative - The RB7 was conservative, tightly packaged yes, but a fairly simple - yet devastatingly effective - shape. I seem to recall that was a pretty decent car.
Perhaps we have gotten carried away expecting more nutty ideas from Mclaren? After the F-Duct and the L/U-Sidepods were we expecting too much? Are we disappointed because they haven't fitted a plamsa-powered booster system?!
The car isn't a shocking departure from the norm, no. But that does not mean it's "conservative" and even if it is, is that necessarily a bad thing? The RB7 wasn't a shocking visual spectable at first glance, but that worked well. The MP4-26 was, so was the Williams FW27, and the Ferrari F92A....and none of those were particularly brilliant.
I am NOT saying a big departure from the norm is therefore bad. (The F-Duct on the MP4-25 was pretty handy) but just saying that trying something radically different is a gamble, which doesn't always pay off.
One might argue that Mclaren have gambled the last few years and it hasn't paid off. Maybe its time for a new approach?
By the end of the year the MP4-27 was very quick. Possibly as quick as the Red Bull perhaps? So a massive leap forward is not needed. Some might call it "conservative" others might call it "refined" or "uncluttered".
I quite like it, as a Lewis & Jenson supporter I am quietly confident - there doesn't appear (yet) to be anything that could do toooo wrong (octopus exhaust anyone?) if it is a refinement of the 25 or the 26 then thats ok...cos they were handy little numbers. Nothing here suggests to me that they have not closed the gap to the Red Bulls (equally nothing suggests that they have though.)
In short...I can't wait till the first race!
Silence is golden when you don't know a good answer.