Vodafone McLaren MP4-27 Mercedes

[PlatinumZealot]

Must be Hungary setup, because the Lotus was ultra Soft!

[GrizzleBoy]

I think the McLaren's strengths are that it can carry good amounts of lateral load, enabling it to carry a lot of speed through. But I don't think its nose is as strong as in 2010 and 2011, where it had a very confident turn in that could get a bus through the Loews hairpin.

I don't think in short and sweet, dinky little corners which require a strong turn in it's the best. I think it abuses the rears under traction too.

I'd agree.

Looking at Lewis' pole lap in Melbourne, I'm always amazed at the turn in during turns 11 and 12. Mostly 11 though.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLKU4bfxEE8[/youtube]

Watch from 1:00.

You can see him literally throw the car into turn 11 and the back steps out almost the perfect amount. He tries it again in in turn 12 and while the back doesn't come round, there is a very obvious "jolt".

I have so much on board footage of the McLaren (and others, Webber, Grosjean, Schumi) from Hungary including all of Lewis' P3, Q1, Q2 and Q3 laps that I want to upload for the forum but youtube seems to be blocking it automatically probably due to the F1 watermark.

One thing I noticed is that in one of the sessions, Lewis was set up to be very oversteery and he was looking very ragged (but still fast). He boxed, went back out and the car was much more balanced and set the fastest lap.

The idea of the hard front end is exactly to allow the soft rear end. The soft rear is desirable because it gives you traction out of corners and rear tyre life. The hard front stops the car from rolling.

Stiff fronts also give better initial turn in response at the cost of less actual grip through a long turn (understeer).

When you have a driver like Button who does not like to throw the car around like his team mate, its probably understandable why he has an issue with understeer many times.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jP92xDNCoCM[/youtube]

Watching the pole lap in Hungary, you can see a bit of what Jenson is talking about.

The car does seem to be very understeery, but it slides through the high speed turns and also manages to over steer in other slower corners.

The high speed turns 10 through 13 (after the chicane) are also pretty much an extended version of Melbournes turn 11 and 12 and it goes pretty well through there too, especially the full throttle turn 12.

[raymondu999]

I don't think in short and sweet, dinky little corners which require a strong turn in it's the best. I think it abuses the rears under traction too.

I'd agree.

Looking at Lewis' pole lap in Melbourne, I'm always amazed at the turn in during turns 11 and 12. Mostly 11 though.

Just to clarify - I said I *don't* think that. Lol. T11-12 I'm not surprised - I've said the car can carry lateral like no other, especially through the fast corners. But in slow hairpins I'm not sure the turn-in is as strong as they used to have

[Kiril Varbanov]

McLaren have run the philosophy of a very soft rear end and a very hard front end for several years now.

Not all the time, 2010 as the car with the longest wheelbase they had to make the suspension rock-hard at both front and rear end, though I assume, being adjustable, these were altered per race.

[raymondu999]

It was all hard in 2010 except for Monaco, where they were running a soft rear.

Then an upgrade package in Singapore made them try a softer suspension setup, but it just burnt through the softer tyres in short order

[simieski]

The idea of the hard front end is exactly to allow the soft rear end. The soft rear is desirable because it gives you traction out of corners and rear tyre life. The hard front stops the car from rolling.

I was under the impression that the popular theory behind the very stiffly sprung set up was to keep the car in what was a somewhat narrow aerodynamic optimum performance window, but this idea is incorrect or secondary to the points you made?

[raymondu999]

That was the theory in 2010 - because they had a double diffuser the size of a Sumatran rhinocerous it apparently starved of air at higher ride heights

[simieski]

Ok, thanks for the explanation Ray.

[SDG31]

Sky sports news have just published an interview with Sam Michael where he says that Mclaren are looking at DDRS.

http://www1.skysports.com/formula-1/new ... -DRS-plans

[zoro_f1]

upload them [here] and we can download them later... ... it's not like youtube to whatch it while we are on the forum but at least will not be blocked.

I have so much on board footage of the McLaren (and others, Webber, Grosjean, Schumi) from Hungary including all of Lewis' P3, Q1, Q2 and Q3 laps that I want to upload for the forum but youtube seems to be blocking it automatically probably due to the F1 watermark.

[ell66]

I think the McLaren's strengths are that it can carry good amounts of lateral load, enabling it to carry a lot of speed through. But I don't think its nose is as strong as in 2010 and 2011, where it had a very confident turn in that could get a bus through the Loews hairpin.

I don't think in short and sweet, dinky little corners which require a strong turn in it's the best. I think it abuses the rears under traction too.

Im not to sure, there traction isnt to bad but its the bumpy circuits they seem to struggle on, i remember in 2010 the car was stiff and even poorer than this years car in places like monaco but on smooth circuits like abu dhabi they excelled.

[PlatinumZealot]

I remember the car was hella stiff in 2009 singapore. So stiff that Heikki declared the car undriveable.

It was more supple at other races in 09 though

[Coefficient]

Sam Michael has confirmed that Mclaren have 2 versions of DDRS in development. Will we see them at Spa/Monza?

[CjC]

Sam Michael has confirmed that Mclaren have 2 versions of DDRS in development. Will we see them at Spa/Monza?

2? i heard they might have 1...?

[Neno]

Sam Michael has confirmed that Mclaren have 2 versions of DDRS in development. Will we see them at Spa/Monza?

2? i heard they might have 1...?

they dont have either one, but they have in plan some similar device, but nothing like mercedes or lotus system. they commented that their enginers testing in cfd, wind tunnel if such system having benefit for using in race. but sure it's too early to say will they devolop such device, because it's not something what you can easly put on the car such new front wing or rear wing. it takes time, even if spa is 5 weeks away, it not they can devolop such system and race immedialty with him (reffering on lotus system testing on 2 grand prix before).