McLaren MP4-31 Honda

[Ferraripilot]

I suspect the larger cooling ducting is for Malaysia. If you remember correctly, many of the teams in previous years during preseason testing tested Malaysia cooling spec.

[bhall II]

From my point of view, the whole "size zero" ultraslim Coke bottle thing is overblown. Power units have certain cooling requirements that are non-negotiable, and increasing their power output increases those requirements.

In other words: don't think of the new layout as being too big; think of the old one as being too small.

[FW17]

Engine running hotter with higher harvesting, higher boost and needs more cooling

[mclaren111]

Any idea what caused Alonso to stop ?

[KingHamilton01]

Any idea what caused Alonso to stop ?

From skysports F1:-
Well, we said the afternoon session was underway - but, seven minutes in, and none of the 11 cars have yet taken to the circuit.

The McLaren stopped on track just before lunch, but we haven't had any indication yet as to why. If it was the dry-fuel run we speculated about before lunch then the team should be back in track in fairly short order.

[diffuser]

I suspect the larger cooling ducting is for Malaysia. If you remember correctly, many of the teams in previous years during preseason testing tested Malaysia cooling spec.

I agree...this is very likely an option for extra hot races.

[smr]

Any idea what caused Alonso to stop ?

Alonso had Control Electronics issues apparantly.

[DiogoBrand]

This is either an option for hot races or a compromise they had to do in order to unlock extra performance from their Power Unit. Either way, it was a change that was definitely made with performance in mind, which may or may not be adopted in the future. Just because they're using it for testing doesn't mean it's definitive.
I'm just wondering what some people here expect from McLaren, something like "We need bigger sidepods to extract more power from the PU, but let's not do it because then the car won't be so pretty", or maybe "Let's not test this higher airflow spec because it may upset some fans which won't find the car that pretty this way"?

[taperoo2k]

They are evaluating a tweaked engine cover to improve the airflow to the ICE and ERS for cooling reasons. I don't think it's going to be track specific as such, Malaysia may get a more extreme version though -
http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/honda ... na-676497/

I'd expect a different engine cover for the first race though, which may mean the aero gets tweaked in other areas.

[GoranF1]

https://twitter.com/Luengos1970/status/ ... 4110732289 https://twitter.com/Luengos1970/status/ ... 8773281792

[zioture]

[Jef Patat]

Any idea what caused Alonso to stop ?

https://twitter.com/McLarenF1/status/704688063855902722

[Aaronque]

Still down by 11kph

[Aaronque]

Alonso and button with both 324.3kph top speed

[Jef Patat]

Meaningless figures without tyretype, ...