Mclaren MP4-30 Honda

[Jef Patat]

cant be bothered reading all the bumpf about paint, but just to say, the leaving out of metallic flakes made the finish lighter. 25l of a new lighter paint supplied by alzo nobel was used with 13 coats sprayed on. but a saving of even the 2 kg quoted is totally irrelevant anyway. if alonso shaved off his beard, they would probably save as much.

Got a source for that?
25l? "lighter paint"? 13 coats? A saving of 2kg is relevant for sure.

Surely the fact the thinner evaporates is why it makes a difference? - less paint is laid on same surface area.
1m² thinned to cover 2 sq m
Paint 1m², thinner evaporates = half the mass on same area vs 1m² of unthinned paint
(with half the mass+thinner left "in the tin")

Solvents (thinners/reducers) are used to influence the spraying/painting viscosity. Your example is correct but if you add thinner in your example you have to leave out something else (pigment, hardeners, catalysts, ...) to keep the same amount of paint. Thinning paint leads to less 'colour coverage' but easier paint application, in the end you will need to apply more layers to get the same result.

That being said I 'm willing to accept that a new paint job/different paint/different colours makes a difference, but 2kg is rubbish.

[damager21]

So it looks like all talks of major upgrade for Spain was PR. These sweet and positive talks were what they did last year as well. McLaren as a team has lost its edge and this year is gone. Alonso retired and looks like Button will too. What a shame.

[AnthonyG]

Noticed these on Button's car, they look like pink square stickers, what are they for?

[RicME85]

heat sensitive stickers iirc

[Abhi719]

So it looks like all talks of major upgrade for Spain was PR. These sweet and positive talks were what they did last year as well. McLaren as a team has lost its edge and this year is gone. Alonso retired and looks like Button will too. What a shame.

Totally true, as they been doing it last year. They kept promising major upgrades, and that they will get to the top again. But they ended up each time the same place. Hopefully its a different story this year

[Dipesh1995]

Driver visor tearoff caused Alonso's brake failure. Covered the brake duct

[CjC]

Driver visor tearoff caused Alonso's brake failure. Covered the brake duct

Rear or front duct?

[Mesteño]

Driver visor tearoff caused Alonso's brake failure. Covered the brake duct

Rear or front duct?

Rear.

[CjC]

Thought as much, makes sense.

To the posters who was expecting a 'huge upgrade' didn't you read/ hear jenson and eric say the days if huge leaps are over (no testing anymore) just incremental steps forward. I think they delivered again another step, just the other teams did too. Look at Ferrari they brought a massive upgrade and fell further behind Mercedes. I think it was a decent weekend, consolidating Q2 with both cars, that's a step forward from Bahrain, Alonso says he would have scored points if it wasn't for a drivers tear off.

[damager21]

Thought as much, makes sense.

To the posters who was expecting a 'huge upgrade' didn't you read/ hear jenson and eric say the days if huge leaps are over (no testing anymore) just incremental steps forward. I think they delivered again another step, just the other teams did too. Look at Ferrari they brought a massive upgrade and fell further behind Mercedes. I think it was a decent weekend, consolidating Q2 with both cars, that's a step forward from Bahrain, Alonso says he would have scored points if it wasn't for a drivers tear off.

Read this http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/118903

"The first 30-odd laps were the scariest 30 laps of my life," said Button.
"The rear just wasn't there. Any time I touched the throttle at any speed, the rear was gone. It just wasn't normal.
"The rear felt like it wasn't connected to the front. It felt like every gust of wind had a massive snap.
"It was pretty horrific for the first half of the race. Switch changes and new tyres at the end helped a bit."
"After today I don't think I expect points at all this year, but hopefully today was an off-day. It didn't feel right," he said.

On the positive maybe same false optimism again
"A two-stop strategy seemed to work better for us this weekend," Alonso said. "The race was going more or less as expected, so I think P9 or P10 was possible today."

[CjC]

I've read it thanks, not long after the race finished. I was aware of the article before I posted my post.

What relevance does it have to what I said?

Edit- in fact I like the way you left out the sentence were button says he was happy with the car and it was like a switch was clicked and the car was suddenly bad for the race

[Alonso Fan]

I've read it thanks, not long after the race finished. I was aware of the article before I posted my post.

What relevance does it have to what I said?

Edit- in fact I like the way you left out the sentence were button says he was happy with the car and it was like a switch was clicked and the car was suddenly bad for the race

Agreed, you never heard Alonso complaining about the balance. Button isn't that bad. I'm sure the setup was messed up or something. They made changes on reliability and drivability. Reliability certainly was up from last race, non of their engines blew up so that's definitely a step. And then I'm sure Alonso would have been in the points. 9th or 10th is realistic for this race especially because both lotuses were out of contention.

Edit: Button said after quali that they put different breaks on for quali, and Jenson couldn't get the hang of them or they were behaving weirdly or something

[aral]

cant be bothered reading all the bumpf about paint, but just to say, the leaving out of metallic flakes made the finish lighter. 25l of a new lighter paint supplied by alzo nobel was used with 13 coats sprayed on. but a saving of even the 2 kg quoted is totally irrelevant anyway. if alonso shaved off his beard, they would probably save as much.

Got a source for that?
25l? "lighter paint"? 13 coats? A saving of 2kg is relevant for sure.



That being said I 'm willing to accept that a new paint job/different paint/different colours makes a difference, but 2kg is rubbish.

yes. johnathan of mclaren. good enough for you? and as for 2kg...have you never felt the weight of say 2.5l of paint? its not rubbish...its PAINT

[Jef Patat]

He told you personally?

Your numbers just don't add up. You don't give a source while two sources have been given before out of which my estimate is no more that 4kg. I just looked it up on a can of paint: dry material contents: in weight: 56 ± 2%, in volume: 36 ± 2%. Applied to your 25l: 14kg of paint on the car? Lets exagerate and half that, still 7 kg. (of which no more than 500g on the monocoque as referenced before, once more here on f1 technical: http://www.f1technical.net/features/684)

[Paul]

This article from 2010 mentions that "Sikkens AkzoNobel managed to get the overall weight of paint on a finished chassis - minus nosecone and wings - down to 1-2 kilos."