Mclaren MP4-30 Honda

[McMrocks]

It's PR, of course he's gonna say he's happy with it. He can't come out and say, damn this is one big heap of...

Exactly, this is media talk.

I don't believe they are that happy with the car. They have stated they haven't run the car on full power, so i doubt they can say how fast it is compared to their competitors.

And:
To finish first, first you have to finish

[dren]

I believe it. You can typically tell with Button when he likes or dislikes a car. It sounds like the car performs well and drives like the Mercedes, it just has to be made reliable. This echos what McHonda was saying before testing; focus on performance, then fix reliability.

[Jef Patat]

He says they didn't push it yet. He's speaking about the driveability. Not comparing it to other cars, but their own progress. He's not talking about how fast the car is. Why can't he be happy with the driveability of a (according to some) slow car?

There's no need to complain about misinformation.

[TAG]

I believe it. You can typically tell with Button when he likes or dislikes a car. It sounds like the car performs well and drives like the Mercedes, it just has to be made reliable. This echos what McHonda was saying before testing; focus on performance, then fix reliability.

Seriously? This is what he said about the MP4-28.

Jenson Button has said McLaren has left absolutely no stone unturned with the new MP4-28, which the Brit hopes will help him and the Woking-based team end Red Bull Racing's run of success.

“ this year's car is the best we've ever made – I know the engineers have left absolutely no stone unturned in wringing every ounce of performance from every available area.”

[Thunder]

Sound real to me. He is talking about driveability and the feeling for the Car. He is nowhere saying the Car is at the Target Performance wise. Alonso says the same so ar least driveability shouldn't be too much of an issue.

[Richard]

Seriously? This is what he said about the MP4-28...

... before he drove it.

Yes we all agree that all the PR always say their team's car is great, hence those statements are worthless. So why are we bothering to discuss it?

This thread is meant to be about the actual features of the car, not a game of PR charades. The one vaguely relevant thing from that Button interview is that he infers the Honda PU has a similar driveability to the Merc PU..... although this isn't the Honda PU thread either!

[Alexgtt]

Come on everyone...........it's flippin testing and a brand spanking new PU. Look at RB this time last year. Judging by that, it's not been anywhere near as worrying. Q3 Aus and we'll all know and not before. Nothing new, it's all smoke and mirrors. Do we think Sauber will fight for pole in Q3.....................?? Come on.

[santos]

Come on everyone...........it's flippin testing and a brand spanking new PU. Look at RB this time last year. Judging by that, it's not been anywhere near as worrying. Q3 Aus and we'll all know and not before. Nothing new, it's all smoke and mirrors. Do we think Sauber will fight for pole in Q3.....................?? Come on.

Last year on the second test (the first at the Bahrain), Red Bull made 183 Laps... Mclaren should be doing more laps by now.

[bauc]

I believe it. You can typically tell with Button when he likes or dislikes a car. It sounds like the car performs well and drives like the Mercedes, it just has to be made reliable. This echos what McHonda was saying before testing; focus on performance, then fix reliability.

Seriously? This is what he said about the MP4-28.

Jenson Button has said McLaren has left absolutely no stone unturned with the new MP4-28, which the Brit hopes will help him and the Woking-based team end Red Bull Racing's run of success.

“ this year's car is the best we've ever made – I know the engineers have left absolutely no stone unturned in wringing every ounce of performance from every available area.”

Just for reference, Jenson made that comment at the launch of the Mp4-28, so he hadn't even had a one lap in it which is quite the opposite here with the mp4-30, where the comment was given few days ago.

[FW17]

Personally I don't Care for their reliability as it Can be fixed through the year

[-o< That they Have as much or more HP than MERC; Williams in 2001 were spectacular even though the Engine kept popping.

[the EDGE]

Come on everyone...........it's flippin testing and a brand spanking new PU. Look at RB this time last year. Judging by that, it's not been anywhere near as worrying. Q3 Aus and we'll all know and not before. Nothing new, it's all smoke and mirrors. Do we think Sauber will fight for pole in Q3.....................?? Come on.

Last year on the second test (the first at the Bahrain), Red Bull made 183 Laps... Mclaren should be doing more laps by now.

Actually that's not true, they did 21 laps at the first 2014 test in Jerez, 116 at the second test (first in Bahrain) and then 183 laps at the final test (also Bahrain) and from what I can remember most of them were done on the final 2 days

Also, at the second test they were 6 seconds off the pace and running totally without ERS

[Del Boy]

I am confused.

I believe that only McLaren have the equipment to challenge Mercedes this year. Last year Red Bull proved that a great chassis isn't enough, you need a great PU as well. The Renault looks similar to last year and Red Bull chassis isn't going to bridge the gap. Ferrari look to have made a step with their chassis and the PU but they still look a little behind and even with their development tokens I don't believe they can catch Mercedes. So we are left with McLaren Honda and because of the chronic un-reliability we know as much today as we did on January 28th.

Here is what I take from the reports about the MP4-30. The car looks fast, its tightly packaged, its got a split turbo, it has son of Adrian hallmarks and design features. Honda made great turbo engines back in 80's and they are a great engineering organisation.

So all in all the car has pedigree, however here's my confusion; McLaren, FA and JB are saying they haven't been pushing, the engines turned down, the aero is not at full speed because of the engine etc. Which gives me some comfort because they haven't exactly been lighting the timing screen up. And then Alonso spins the car at turn 3, well they must be pushing quite hard to spin the car in testing?

[proteus]

I have one question, mp4-29 was based on more shaky regulations of height of the nose tip. This year the regulations are stricter and jet, mp4-30 has no slope from the driver, to the nose. Now here comes my question: Is this designed to please the driving style of Alonso (Ferrari had the same principle, when Alonso was driving for them), or is this purely the decision of the Prodromou, or from any other designer?

[frosty125]

I imagine it is a PP thing the Red Bulls have had a high chasis as well to aid airflow underneath the car but it also creates a sharp curve over the front of the nose this is in part why Red Bull use an S-Duct and why many people expect the MP4-30 to feature one.

[bw1235]

I have one question, mp4-29 was based on more shaky regulations of height of the nose tip. This year the regulations are stricter and jet, mp4-30 has no slope from the driver, to the nose. Now here comes my question: Is this designed to please the driving style of Alonso (Ferrari had the same principle, when Alonso was driving for them), or is this purely the decision of the Prodromou, or from any other designer?

http://falso9blog.com/wp-content/upload ... 9-side.png

Someone more versed than me will probably chime in here.

I doubt that any of this was done for the sake of driving style of Alonso, but to re-balance the front and rear downforce via the configuration of the front chassis and nose.

The -30's chassis from bulkhead back to cockpit is higher to maximize flow under the floor and around the sidepods, providing potential benefits to the diffuser and rear downforce. The camera perspective looks very slightly higher on the -30, otherwise the difference would be more apparent.

As others have stated, the nose of -30 seems intended to create a bit more front downforce from the flows around the nose, while compromising the total airflow under the chassis that the short-nosed 2015 cars have (Williams, Merc).

I would expect that a big part of the aero program has been to evaluate whether to continue developing this nose concept, and many have speculated that shorter noses would show up after additional crash testing. Given the initial driver feedback we've heard reporting some inherently good balance I'm not so sure that'll be the case. I agree with frosty that the S-duct may be next to appear.