2018 McLaren F1 Team - Renault

[godlameroso]

Supposedly about 1.5 seconds.

[Postmoe]

EB has stated that the breakdown on Friday was due to them fitting the Turbo/MGUH that was on the car on Tuesday when it broke down then and it failed almost straight away

This is weird. It is the way any one of us would proceed with a road car ─keep the parts that doesn't seem broken and cross fingers so the turbo didn't get starved when oil pressure droped─ but in a F1 team, during testing, I find it rather masochistic.

Only explanation is they needed to understand how long the tubo/MGUH would last so they took that risk. A team already knowing the engine wouldn't have done that, but obviously... they're in the opposite situation.

[ivanlesk]

https://twitter.com/F1/status/972540660795564032

OT, but Williams

[Big Tea]

EB has stated that the breakdown on Friday was due to them fitting the Turbo/MGUH that was on the car on Tuesday when it broke down then and it failed almost straight away

This is weird. It is the way any one of us would proceed with a road car ─keep the parts that doesn't seem broken and cross fingers so the turbo didn't get starved when oil pressure droped─ but in a F1 team, during testing, I find it rather masochistic.

Only explanation is they needed to understand how long the tubo/MGUH would last so they took that risk. A team already knowing the engine wouldn't have done that, but obviously... they're in the opposite situation.

Or could it be their own modified unit, not an off the shelf, and they either did not have one with the same spec mod, or as you say literally wanted to test it to destruction?

[Raleigh]

https://twitter.com/F1/status/972540660795564032

OT, but Williams

No panic, Williams best lap was on Softs. Also I think Mercedes might be able to do better than 7th fastest time

There are teams going for headline times because they have everything to prove after disappointments (Ferrari/McLaren etc), others are just getting on with their testing programs.

[mclaren111]

Sky F1's Review:

McLaren
Fastest lap: 1:17.784, Fernando Alonso, Day Eight, Hypersofts
Laps completed: 619
Back in the hunt to be 'the best of the rest' after Fernando Alonso restored optimism with his late-night burst in Friday's final hour.

Alonso described Day Eight alone as a "rollercoaster" and certainly the five on-track breakdowns that the MCL33 suffered during week two in Barcelona triggered both alarm bells and headlines.

But McLaren say there is nothing fundamentally wrong with the car and their philosophy appears to be aggressive in the design phase and then work it backwards towards reliability rather than vice versa.

Really hope this is going to work

[godlameroso]

Some BBQ bodywork is nothing for McLaren. Last year during the Spanish GP, Alonso was 1.8 seconds off the pace. If the Renault power unit is worth a second that places him just under a second off the pace, which is more or less where I have him. Mind you BBQ test chassis is further from MCL33s final form than Mercedes test chassis was from its final form. If Alonso can get within .7 he can score a few podiums, hell knowing him if the car is within half a second he could probably take the championship to the last race.

[restless]

too much hype detected

[marvin78]

Yeah. Alonso is a magician. Not a driver.

[Andres125sx]

Agree, Alonso is not a magician, probably that´s the reason he said "if the car is within half a second"

Just in case you missed that

[marvin78]

I did not.

[Bisonas]

So i finnaly find out about Alosno fast laps....6 lap stint, last one about 0.250 faster after sector 2 then deleted.

Also the fast lap from Magnusen on SS was a 2 lap stint.

I heard Eric at some interview on skysport saying that Alonso also did a race sim the last day.
The laps count though don't add up to support this claim.
BSF = Before session Finale
1h:55m BSF, he had 34 laps, and went out with the soft tyre to supposedly start a race sim.
1h:35m BSF, F1today "Fernando Alonso is doing a longer run on the soft compound. His lap times: 1:25.1, 1:24.3, 1:24.5, 1:23.9, 1:24.5, 1:24.1, 1:23.7, 1:23.8, 1:23.9, 1:23.8 and 1:23.6." (he was still lapping)
1h:33m BSF Autosport Live "Alonso pits but heads back out, and now the 50-lap mark has been reached"
so he did around 12-13 laps on soft, he put medium assuming after 1-2 laps on medium he reached 50 laps total.
From then i was watching his lap count and tyres at F1 mobile app and f1today.
We dont have much info on times after that point. f1debrief didnt post anything regarding alonso.
He did several laps on mediums i can't recall how many, i think about 8-9 laps and then he had an issue, he had a slow in lap into the pits. he stayed around 15 mins in garrage and he went out, again on mediums, to supposedly continue his race sim. (i dont know if he put a new set on at that time or he was on his old mediums but he went out again on mediums for sure)
we where reaching 1h:00 BSF and alonso was lapping.
0h:59m BSF Autosport Live : Lap count update: Alonso 67
so he had done 17-19 laps on mediums at that point and had a 15m delay in the pits due some issue (i guess) in between. (we dont have any times from those laps on the medium tyres)
He did another 26 laps until the end that we know little about.
He did some more laps on the mediums for sure, i don't remember how many more.
From now on i dont remember how many times he pitted or if he put another type of tyre before the HS.
we know that,
0h:38m BSF Autosport "Alonso now gets in on the action with a new PB of 1m19.127s."
0h:35m BSF Autosport " Alonso improves again, leapfrogging Leclerc with a 1m19.177s" (which is wrong)
Those times seem to good to be true if he was on race sim and on mediums. So i guess he wasn't on mediums or he wasn't on race sim at the time. I don't remember on what tires he was when he was lapping in the low 1.19s.
At some point he put HS and i think he did 2 kinda small stints on them. Not sure if 1 or 2 stints. I have a feeling it was 2. I was expecting f1debrief to post the times of Alonso and i wasn't paying that much attention .
if it was one stint it was the one Goran mentioned i guess.
if the "last one about 0.250 faster after sector 2 then deleted" is true, then its good news but i think ti would have been mentioned on someone analysis, somewhere if that was true.
i think he did tried to do a race sim and started like one. He had some issues, he had some delays in the pit, he continued lapping he burned some fuel, maybe they removed some fuel on some pit visit also, and he put the HS on a kinda low fuel stint to get the feeling and to keep everyone guessing.
Its impossible to know.

[GoranF1]

So i finnaly find out about Alosno fast laps....6 lap stint, last one about 0.250 faster after sector 2 then deleted.

Also the fast lap from Magnusen on SS was a 2 lap stint.

I heard Eric at some interview on skysport saying that Alonso also did a race sim the last day.
The laps count though don't add up to support this claim.
BSF = Before session Finale
1h:55m BSF, he had 34 laps, and went out with the soft tyre to supposedly start a race sim.
1h:35m BSF, F1today "Fernando Alonso is doing a longer run on the soft compound. His lap times: 1:25.1, 1:24.3, 1:24.5, 1:23.9, 1:24.5, 1:24.1, 1:23.7, 1:23.8, 1:23.9, 1:23.8 and 1:23.6." (he was still lapping)
1h:33m BSF Autosport Live "Alonso pits but heads back out, and now the 50-lap mark has been reached"
so he did around 12-13 laps on soft, he put medium assuming after 1-2 laps on medium he reached 50 laps total.
From then i was watching his lap count and tyres at F1 mobile app and f1today.
We dont have much info on times after that point. f1debrief didnt post anything regarding alonso.
He did several laps on mediums i can't recall how many, i think about 8-9 laps and then he had an issue, he had a slow in lap into the pits. he stayed around 15 mins in garrage and he went out, again on mediums, to supposedly continue his race sim. (i dont know if he put a new set on at that time or he was on his old mediums but he went out again on mediums for sure)
we where reaching 1h:00 BSF and alonso was lapping.
0h:59m BSF Autosport Live : Lap count update: Alonso 67
so he had done 17-19 laps on mediums at that point and had a 15m delay in the pits due some issue (i guess) in between. (we dont have any times from those laps on the medium tyres)
He did another 26 laps until the end that we know little about.
He did some more laps on the mediums for sure, i don't remember how many more.
From now on i dont remember how many times he pitted or if he put another type of tyre before the HS.
we know that,
0h:38m BSF Autosport "Alonso now gets in on the action with a new PB of 1m19.127s."
0h:35m BSF Autosport " Alonso improves again, leapfrogging Leclerc with a 1m19.177s" (which is wrong)
Those times seem to good to be true if he was on race sim and on mediums. So i guess he wasn't on mediums or he wasn't on race sim at the time. I don't remember on what tires he was when he was lapping in the low 1.19s.
At some point he put HS and i think he did 2 kinda small stints on them. Not sure if 1 or 2 stints. I have a feeling it was 2. I was expecting f1debrief to post the times of Alonso and i wasn't paying that much attention .
if it was one stint it was the one Goran mentioned i guess.
if the "last one about 0.250 faster after sector 2 then deleted" is true, then its good news but i think ti would have been mentioned on someone analysis, somewhere if that was true.
i think he did tried to do a race sim and started like one. He had some issues, he had some delays in the pit, he continued lapping he burned some fuel, maybe they removed some fuel on some pit visit also, and he put the HS on a kinda low fuel stint to get the feeling and to keep everyone guessing.
Its impossible to know.

Alonso always during testing does a partial race sim, he is so expirienced that its enough for him i guess.

[adrianjordan]

Pit stops are practised at the factory, they've done hundreds.
But that it's not the same thing as in the pitlane with multiple things going on around you and different pressure.

It should be automatic by the time they get to the track. Who gets which wheel off which rack and takes it where etc does not vary from the dummy setup in the factory to the real thing, but someone either put the wheels in the wrong rack, or the rack in the wrong place. The car slipping off the jack should have been practiced so many times the slip would have happened in practice and and the plate been modified.

Its not just one or two things, it is a whole string of them, which could be excused it it was a new team but organization is the very thing Mclaren have always prided themselves in.
Each one individually is excusable and mostly trivial and is what practice is for, but Mclaren have never been like this even at their worst.

I can't help but wonder what job you do...

Personally I can relate to the pitstop team from my own job.

I'm a paramedic and the most high pressure job we do are cardiac arrests. Like pitstops we practice them ad nauseum in the classroom until everything is automatic and muscle memory (hell in London Ambulance Service they even call it "Pitstop bootcamp"). Yet when we get to the real thing and the pressure is on, it never goes as smoothly as it does in the classroom.

I have no reason to believe the same goes for pitstops.

[Big Tea]

Pit stops are practised at the factory, they've done hundreds.
But that it's not the same thing as in the pitlane with multiple things going on around you and different pressure.

It should be automatic by the time they get to the track. Who gets which wheel off which rack and takes it where etc does not vary from the dummy setup in the factory to the real thing, but someone either put the wheels in the wrong rack, or the rack in the wrong place. The car slipping off the jack should have been practiced so many times the slip would have happened in practice and and the plate been modified.

Its not just one or two things, it is a whole string of them, which could be excused it it was a new team but organization is the very thing Mclaren have always prided themselves in.
Each one individually is excusable and mostly trivial and is what practice is for, but Mclaren have never been like this even at their worst.

I can't help but wonder what job you do...

Personally I can relate to the pitstop team from my own job.

I'm a paramedic and the most high pressure job we do are cardiac arrests. Like pitstops we practice them ad nauseum in the classroom until everything is automatic and muscle memory (hell in London Ambulance Service they even call it "Pitstop bootcamp"). Yet when we get to the real thing and the pressure is on, it never goes as smoothly as it does in the classroom.

I have no reason to believe the same goes for pitstops.

Well I just hope that if I am in trouble in the area I don't get you .

I am retired now but was a test engineer and had ONE shot at very expensive kit belonging to other people.
Yes, I made mistakes (anyone who says they don't is deluded) but I was never cast as the keystone Kops.

Did you watch the program where Williams had a guest wheel man for the race? That is the sort of preparation expected from a professional top team. My farther (was) and brother-in-law (is) are both first response paramedics so yes, I do know the training that goes into it. If you had a stretcher to lift a patient that did not have a stop to prevent it slipping off the lift, what would be your opinion? If you gave a patient the wrong fluid in the drip, what would happen to you? There are both equivalents of that pitstop. Poor design of a new unit, and the items delivered to the wrong place.

Anyway, what you and I do is besides the point. We are looking at a professional setup that must have done this thousands of times, so the first time nerves does not wash. Procedures Should be in place and Should be followed, as you must know.

(I'M sure you are a very good paramedic BTW)