Vodafone McLaren MP4-27 Mercedes

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

Well Hamilton appears fairly lukewarm with the MP4-27. There where murmurs of it at Jerez, but apparently Kovalainen has spilt the beans on the situation as it currently stands.
Not enough down force in the fast corners.
Their fastest time was set with an aggressive fuel load(lowish) and Lotus still out did them by a second.

There was also a bit of a red herring by McLaren during the unveiling of the 27. Being referred to as the "A" spec iteration.
Knowing Mclaren they will probably have something by the final test that works out the box, but its still a bit of an unnerving read for fans....


http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/hamil ... -reports/?

[ianwit]

These reports a regurgitated misappropriations from original quotes done by part time bloggers with their own agenda

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

These reports a regurgitated misappropriations from original quotes done by part time bloggers with their own agenda

Is motorsport.com that bad? I havent found them to be.

However the original source of the story was a Spanish Marca journo talking to Heikki.
Naturally anything bad for Hamilton would be amplified in Spain due to the Alonso connection(disconnect more apt ).
I still think there to be some mileage in this when you look at the vast amounts of Flow viz McLaren have used at the last test.

Speculation, I concur.

[Shakeman]

These reports a regurgitated misappropriations from original quotes done by part time bloggers with their own agenda

Agreed, according to that article 1+1=5.

An "aggressive fuel load" could be taken either way depending on circumstance and Lotus could be running under weight to catch the eye of sponsors.

There are simply too many variables at play during testing to tell what the relative performances are. Even Oz GP quali may flatter one car and not be representative of season's pace.

We usually find out by the third race in whether a car is a dog and then we'll here comments like "we've got huge updates for the European season coming" which is code for we're playing catch up.

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

But look at the context.

Ferrari who were in the doldrums "allegedly", banged in a time 0.5 seconds quicker than the McLaren.
Dont get me wrong, Im not saying that McLaren are behind, but something is amiss I feel.

Burning floors, flow viz, reports of a disgruntled hamilton.... maybe its a super aggressive sand bag strategy or, perhaps McLaren have got a "B" spec waiting to wreak havoc on the opposition.

[Mr.S]

Well I said it at the start. RBR & Mclaren will be the biggest loosers without EBD. Mclaren as much if not more because Mercedes' hot blowing was far superior to Renault's cold blowing.

The car just does not strike me. Apart from some weird exhaust experimentation which can be fairly easily copied. Nothing stands out. Same car as last year with some modifications.

I understand that there will be multiple changes before the 1st race but I doubt if they can bring a massive benefit. When I see Mclaren's nose I think they have lost a trick. With all these mystery ducts & F-ducts it will take Mclaren considerably effort to make it work. Would require big change in packaging of components at the front.

I want Jenson to win races but THE CAR just does not stand out.

[Shakeman]

JET

It might all be true but we have no way of knowing. The cars' performance are so close it is impossible to read anything into testing. Blimey it's difficult enough to predict performance when there's bit of cloud cover during quali and the track temp changes and all the cars are in a similar trim.

I don't think there's cause for concern yet and there's bound to be bluff and counter bluff involved too.

My own two penneth is that RB will still be the team to beat as it has good DNA from several years. I think it'll take a step change in the rules to break RB dominance of the type that brought it to the fore, or should I say, which upset the McLaren and Ferrari grip.

[gray41]

Can't believe that article has been brought up in this forum, why on earth would Heikki who is a caterham driver tell a journalist that Lewis thinks the car is off the pace and why would Lewis talk about the car to anyone who isn't part of the McLaren family.

If you watch the bbc interview with Lewis he clearly looks like he's hiding his smile when he talks about the car, both Lewis and Jenson only spoke to the media on first day of both their tests.

[simieski]

Nothing stands out. Same car as last year with some modifications.

Well it has 4 wheels and a steering wheel as carry over i guess. Don't lose sight of the fact that they were best of the rest pretty much all year so refinement and evolution would be a much more logical direction to proceed in than a radical redesign of concept.

When I see Mclaren's nose I think they have lost a trick.

I was under the impression Macca had to make minimal changes to a nose concept that is tried, tested and understood. Whereas just about every other team is running what is in essence a compromised version of what they have had previously with a high nose.


I would be surprised if RBR are not the team to beat still off the bat, but just hoping some of the other teams close the gap a bit....That dam one finger....

[Mr.G]

I think they used so much flowvis here, because (as someone mentioned here) they put it on on their las run, so they didn't had enough time to do it on separate runs.

I don't buy this. It's first time they have three colours. If they do it in hurry, they just put one color to whole car. This look planed, as they need to BUY three different colours of flowvis.

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

Yup, I agree with all that Shakeman.

@gray 41

Can't believe that article has been brought up in this forum

I dont see why not, it even gives you the name of the source of the information that directly pertains to the McLaren MP4-27, and exactly where they are lacking(high speed corners).

Lewis talk about the car to anyone who isn't part of the McLaren family.

Drivers talk to each other. And I'm pretty sure they talk to each other about the feel of their own cars.

If you watch the bbc interview with Lewis he clearly looks like he's hiding his smile when he talks about the car.

So we are supposed to read body language as a substitute for news? I dont mean to be pernickety mate, but your alternative is laughable.


In the end, I agree with Shakeman. Nothing of great significance can be gleaned from this after the first test. But there are some potentially worrying signs, and to ignore it and hope for the best is not constructive in my opinion.

[Mr.S]

Nothing stands out. Same car as last year with some modifications.

Well it has 4 wheels and a steering wheel as carry over i guess. Don't lose sight of the fact that they were best of the rest pretty much all year so refinement and evolution would be a much more logical direction to proceed in than a radical redesign of concept.

Without EBD Mclaren were surely behind Ferrari apart from RBR & somewhere near Mercedes. Mercedes did not gain anywhere as much as Mclaren.

I dont want to start the whole argument again. But this IS MY OPINION.

When I see Mclaren's nose I think they have lost a trick.

I was under the impression Macca had to make minimal changes to a nose concept that is tried, tested and understood. Whereas just about every other team is running what is in essence a compromised version of what they have had previously with a high nose.


I would be surprised if RBR are not the team to beat still off the bat, but just hoping some of the other teams close the gap a bit....That dam one finger....[/quote]


Not really Mercedes,Ferrari,RBR & a host of teams tried the high nose last year. With the Blown Diffuser gone everyone is trying to get whatever little downforce they can get out of the car. The high nose always much more air to the rear. You know it.

Jenson actually questioned the low nose recently. Dont know if you have seen it but he says now that EVERY team has gone for a high nose he wonders if they have messed up.

Paddy Lowe has said they are investigating a Step Break up/down nose with the vents RBR are using.

[Mr.S]

Can't believe that article has been brought up in this forum, why on earth would Heikki who is a caterham driver tell a journalist that Lewis thinks the car is off the pace and why would Lewis talk about the car to anyone who isn't part of the McLaren family.

If you watch the bbc interview with Lewis he clearly looks like he's hiding his smile when he talks about the car, both Lewis and Jenson only spoke to the media on first day of both their tests.

And we get warned from calling fanboys??

Look The Article could very well be false. But Heiki was Lewis' ex team-mate & there was no reported conflict. Nobody can say that Heiki is not good friends or in touch with Lewis.

I dont think Lewis will say any secrets to Heiki but I am sure that if they talk during pre-testing they might possibly enquire about the competitiveness of the car of how the loss of EBD affects the car. I am not saying Lewis will ever say that the car is a dog or something of that sort he can say he expected more.

Lewis is never known for being diplomatic. He said before Hungary that they will struggle in Q3 & that the car is horrible & stuff. Then he topped Q2-Q1 & did great in Q3.

Lewis gets dissapointed & makes statements.

[Crucial_Xtreme]

In the most recent AS edition, Gary Anderson says he thinks the McLaren contradicts the latest Technical Directive & doesn't see how they'll be legal. On a more interesting note he analyzes the sidepods.
He compares the triangular sidepods of other teams to the "letterbox" with triangular openings allowing a 40-45 degree undercut. When you get air thru the bargeboard under the sidepod inlet fast the aim is to get the coke bottle section to suck air back towards the rear, this creates a low pressure area under the sidepod but you also create a low pressure area on top of the floor & they end up canceling each other out. A larger sidepod angle increases the surface area & the low pressure area goes out beyond the floor. He claims he isn't criticizing McLaren, only says the car isn't as good as it could be.

[ianwit]

Marka picked up the story from AMuS both of whom have an anti Macca agenda. There are no quotes from Kovy. The 'sources' are rubbish if you look at them properly. There's a timeline of this on the Autosport forum.