Mclaren MP4-30 Honda

[ollandos]

Fernando Alonso has done a short stint on the Pirelli winter tyre. He left the pits with a lot of smoke, but his McLaren kept on going. His times: 1:26.7, 1:26.7, 1:27.1 and 1:27.4.

[jericho]

Promising times i say!

Hopelfully they can fix the problem by tomorrow and get some miles under their belt

[Postmoe]

Would be this one of the few cases when laptimes in development thread are highly justified?

I tend to think that this will be the case as it's not about performance today but about a team struggling to attain proper functioning.

[Facts Only]

Can't be that bad if McLaren tweets such a Pic.
Probably just excess Oil.

Oil levels wrong again? McLaren engineers showing their frustration by burning it in front of the engine guys?

The Gas Ring seals (like small piston rings on the turbine shaft) are designed to work when there is pressure in the turbine and compressor housing (it creates a sort of boundary layer cushion). If the engine didn't instantly fire up and had to be cranked for a few seconds oil would seep into the turbine and compressor housings. That smoke cloud looks pretty big but only a few drops of oil would do that.

It is possibly to use rotary lip seals on the compressor side but the turbine side is just way too hot to use anything but metal seals.

Edit: For reference here are some IHI Gas ring seals on ebay: (Honda are using an IHI turbo I believe)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/IHI-RHF55-RHF5H ... 1687386247

They are actually sprung so when inserted the gap closes up like a piston ring.

[Jef Patat]

For the fans of the topic: another nice pic of the emptiness at the rear

http://www.formule1.nl/media/uploads/me ... 6663.4.jpg

[bauc]

What a great photo, it looks superb as a desktop background on my PC - Thank you for posting this.

[Jef Patat]

What a great photo, it looks superb as a desktop background on my PC - Thank you for posting this.

Then... guess who has the same background as yours

[mikeerfol]

What a great photo, it looks superb as a desktop background on my PC - Thank you for posting this.

Then... guess who has the same background as yours

Me!

[kenny5]

Another Soundbit with a Ferrari running in Front:
https://twitter.com/publogic/status/568346753252126720

That cornering still reminds me of the Blown Diffusor Days.

Yes I see why you'd say that, the off throttle sounds odd at best...I'm sure there is trickery going on some how, can't wait to find out what

The Off throttle sounds quite a bit like a Japanese WRC engine from the mid noughies...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XblrFPdkwM

Back then, it was thought that they were fuelling the engine off throttle to keep the turbo spinning and reduce lag.
Im not sure on the legality of off throttle fuelling in F1 now -- was it banned in the exhaust sealed diffuser days??

I guess off throttle fuelling would be useful - to use the ICE to charge batteries-- and maximise overall power from ICE within the fuel flow limit....

[Mesteño]

For the fans of the topic: another nice pic of the emptiness at the rear
http://www.formule1.nl/media/uploads/me ... 6663.4.jpg
http://www.formule1.nl/media/uploads/me ... 6663.4.jpg

Wow, I think a mechanic fits laying in that hole under the gearbox. Superb photo of the back with those reflections.

[deschrijver]

What a great photo, it looks superb as a desktop background on my PC - Thank you for posting this.

Then... guess who has the same background as yours

Me!

me too =D>
Great looking, also easy to see the space under the gearbox.

[ME4ME]

Picture from Alonso's facebook page:



I find it interesting that Mclaren run two measuring racks. Traditionally most teams only run one, since the second should give mirrored data which is pretty pointless. But that's on the straights. Maybe Mclaren figures it's worth putting on another rack so they can trace pressure behind the wheels in corners (were data may not be just mirrored) as well, and see what's happening on either side. "Usable performance instead of absolute performance" comes to mind..

[Thunder]

Interesting Picture. That is last years Frontwing.

[ringo]

Is the Honda engine team completely responsible for the engine, or do you have some in-house McLaren guys adopting some of the engine's responsibilities?
I am starting to think that the PU is quite complex and some things can be overlooked because of the structure of the team assigned responsibilities. However if the PU team is solely Honda guys, then there should be no blame on mcalren for any of the mishaps that take place.

[Juzh]

Is the Honda engine team completely responsible for the engine, or do you have some in-house McLaren guys adopting some of the engine's responsibilities?
I am starting to think that the PU is quite complex and some things can be overlooked because of the structure of the team assigned responsibilities. However if the PU team is solely Honda guys, then there should be no blame on mcalren for any of the mishaps that take place.

Isn't mclaren responsible for the ERS system?