Vodaphone McLaren Mercedes MP4-24

[chasefreak]

Are Mclaren having troubles with their car, or just waiting for latest modifications to their car?? They've been slow this week, and still running an '08 rear wing. It's a bit of a worry for me, since most teams are fine tuning their '09 setup.

it's a worry factor for all mclaren fans. we assume that they are up to something.
as a fan i will assume the above. but as a realist i think they are in deep trouble

[lkocev]

Are Mclaren having troubles with their car, or just waiting for latest modifications to their car?? They've been slow this week, and still running an '08 rear wing. It's a bit of a worry for me, since most teams are fine tuning their '09 setup.

it's a worry factor for all mclaren fans. we assume that they are up to something.
as a fan i will assume the above. but as a realist i think they are in deep trouble

Guys its a little early to be worried, test times rarely trully reflect performance of cars, because all the teams are doing different programs and running in different trim. I suspect that perhaps McLaren are doing alot of running in race trim, and possibly other teams are running in a more qualifying-like trim. They may even be running with lots of fuel in the car too, an could be optimizing the cars centre of mass around a relativley full tank. I'm probably wrong, but you never know, even at this stage I wouldnt read too much into test times...

[Strax]

I cannot believe that McLaren opted to run a 2008 wing so late, with just a few test days remaining and testing banned after the first race. This is not a regular year. Only a few test days remain. Something does not look right.

[Clubber]

As I see it, there are two options:

1. McLaren are in trouble and have a big issue (say unpredictable aerodynamic behaviour) with the 09 wing that they've been frantically redesigning, necessitating using the 08 wing

2. They've got something up their sleeve which they don't want to reveal until the last minute - the 09 wing they're using now may just be an approximation to test with 09 dimensions, looking at airflow, etc but then they'll bring the 'proper' one out at the last minute.

I sincerely hope that it's 2 as it'd be great to have both Ferraris, Alonso and Hamilton (I don't rate Kov or Piquet as good enough to be up there) and ideally Kubica and Vettel all similarly paced in terms of their cars, providing a really close season.

[kilcoo316]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsp ... 923935.stm

Lewis Hamilton admits McLaren have a great deal of work to do if they are to be ready for the Australian Grand Prix.

The reigning Formula One world champion is currently testing McLaren's new MP4-24 in Spain, ahead of the season-opening race in Melbourne on 29 March.

"I haven't arrived here thinking I'm world champion, I've arrived thinking I've got a great team I need to push as hard as I can," said the 24-year-old.

"We've got a lot of work to do to make sure we're ready for Australia."

[Roland Ehnström]

Stupid article IMO, trying to make a story out of nothing. Every team has a lot of work to do at this stage, and every driver would answer that question in the same way.

[Vasco]

Kovy reckons that he is 99% sure that McMerc will race with KERS in Australia. Seems like the only team that feels confident with their KERS.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/73542

[siskue2005]

Kovy reckons that he is 99% sure that McMerc will race with KERS in Australia. Seems like the only team that feels confident with their KERS.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/73542

you forgot about Ferrari

[Moanlower]

Kovy reckons that he is 99% sure that McMerc will race with KERS in Australia. Seems like the only team that feels confident with their KERS.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/73542

you forgot about Ferrari

And Renault. Questions is, will it be an advantage with the known tyre problems?

[Kester]

/edit- Hamilton just had a crash at Jerez, pulling his rear wing right off the car. The translation was poor, and it seems it only came off the car after he went backwards into a tyre wall, not that it failed out on track.

Anyone know if he is using 08 or 09 spec today?

[Roger the knife]

edit- translation was poor, seems it only came off the car after he went backwards into a tyre wall.

Reference to Hamilton's crash at Jerez

[Kester]

Sorry yeah, will re-edit.

[quidam]

This car is Confidential A1

http://directo.thef1.es/tests/gallery/images/004.jpg

[modbaraban]

[axle]

I think we'll see a major update from McLaren at Barca, they don't seem to have changed much since launch and they are too big to be not working on a new package.

Also is that an additional KERS cooling intake under the RHS (as you look at it) sidepod intake?