Mclaren Mercedes MP4-25

[Richard]

whoa....15 pages of discussion about a car that has not been launched yet...I wonder what will happen when the car is eventually launched!

Hopefully this will get renamed "Prelaunch Vodaphone McLaren Mercedes MP4/25" and we'll have a nice new clean thread when the car is rolled out???

[Pandamasque]

Hopefully this will get renamed "Prelaunch Vodaphone McLaren Mercedes MP4/25"

...or just The Goonygate.

PS: Unless it was an excuse to cut personnel I find it galactically idiotic to sack anyone over a blurry picture of blurry men (probably) working with dark blurry objects claimed to be parts of mp4-25 (This is just a wild guess of course, but oh! my! gawd! could that mean that the new mclaren f1 car is already being built and is made of CF?!?! ).

[ringo]

It was on twitter if i am not mistaken. So it would not be a leaked picture.
Why do they call these events "gate" is it a British thing? cause the definition in that context is not in the dictionary.

They just wanted to fire him. If anything they saw that he was looking for work elsewhere and found it convenient to sack him.
I wonder if they still pay him till his contract is up, or did he breach it?

[Pup]

Seems a simple request, guys. Lighten up a bit.

I have asked repeatedly to have my account deleted, and all of my posts removed, and only get denied ot ignored.

I have to say that if they did it for anyone else, I would have to flip my lid...

My post was actually responding to a different request by Goony, which was being mocked.

[deus1066]

Why do they call these events "gate" is it a British thing? cause the definition in that context is not in the dictionary.

It comes from the Watergate scandal in the US.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... %22_suffix

[Fil]

Unless it was an excuse to cut personnel I find it galactically idiotic to sack anyone over a blurry picture of blurry men (probably) working with dark blurry objects claimed to be parts of mp4-25 (This is just a wild guess of course, but oh! my! gawd! could that mean that the new mclaren f1 car is already being built and is made of CF?!?! ).

yeh i posted that photo up, and it came from McLaren's official Twitter feed. The very same Twitter account that announced Button's official signing moments before it was officially announced at McLaren's press conference!

The power of Twitter.. i find most of my F1 news on there now. Following 40-odd F1 journalists allows me to get news their editors choose not to run, or scoops that they post to their contracted websites, plus of course following the teams' official Twitter accounts too. its awesome!

[gridwalker]

Unless it was an excuse to cut personnel I find it galactically idiotic to sack anyone over a blurry picture of blurry men (probably) working with dark blurry objects claimed to be parts of mp4-25 (This is just a wild guess of course, but oh! my! gawd! could that mean that the new mclaren f1 car is already being built and is made of CF?!?! ).

yeh i posted that photo up, and it came from McLaren's official Twitter feed. The very same Twitter account that announced Button's official signing moments before it was officially announced at McLaren's press conference!

The power of Twitter.. i find most of my F1 news on there now. Following 40-odd F1 journalists allows me to get news their editors choose not to run, or scoops that they post to their contracted websites, plus of course following the teams' official Twitter accounts too. its awesome!

That sounds like an awesome idea : my twitter account is pretty much solely tech news and an info feed for my current university course.

Would you care to share a list of useful F1 related twitter feeds? There is way too much cr@p out there to filter through ...

[mstar]

did goony get sacked for posting on here??

[Fil]

mstar, sadly something along those lines..

The power of Twitter..

That sounds like an awesome idea : my twitter account is pretty much solely tech news and an info feed for my current university course.

Would you care to share a list of useful F1 related twitter feeds? There is way too much cr@p out there to filter through ...

sure, just find me on Twitter and check out who i'm following. not all are great, but there's a couple real good ones. i think once testing starts there could be some great scoops from some, post-season seems pretty quiet atm.

[mstar]

but how they know who is goony? man this is sad.

back on topic any dates for the car launch?

[Giblet]

Unless it was an excuse to cut personnel I find it galactically idiotic to sack anyone over a blurry picture of blurry men (probably) working with dark blurry objects claimed to be parts of mp4-25 (This is just a wild guess of course, but oh! my! gawd! could that mean that the new mclaren f1 car is already being built and is made of CF?!?! ).

yeh i posted that photo up, and it came from McLaren's official Twitter feed. The very same Twitter account that announced Button's official signing moments before it was officially announced at McLaren's press conference!

The power of Twitter.. i find most of my F1 news on there now. Following 40-odd F1 journalists allows me to get news their editors choose not to run, or scoops that they post to their contracted websites, plus of course following the teams' official Twitter accounts too. its awesome!

well done fil. That was the first legit reason for Twitter I have heard. Twitter just went from useless to useful in my books. It always seemed like facebook solely in it's narcsassistic qualities in wanting lots of followers, but a few properly chosen people to follw is where it has usefullness for me.

I got sick of hearing about it and started ignoring it.

[i70q7m7ghw]

If anyone is interested in reading goony's now deleted posts, you can find them in the Google cache

WHY would you do this? ISNT my life ruined enough for you? your life must be pretty bad if your trying to make yourself feel better due to my misfortune

find a mirror and have a --- word

goony

What did you expect to happen when you posted such sensitive and detailed information about yourself and the McLaren team? I'm sure McLaren have a company monitoring web trends etc. involving their brand and were on you instantly. I know a company that used the McLaren logo on their website under a 'customers' section, a letter promptly arrived asking them to remove it or face legal action.

Your mistake was not necessarily to leak information, it was to make it so damned obvious who you were!

I wouldn't worry about deleting your posts. If they were the basis for your dismissal McLaren would have kept a hard copy as evidence if you decided to take it to a tribunal.

[Confused_Andy]

This thread needs some:

[ISLAMATRON]

McLaren is taking a more aggressive approach to the design of its 2010 car that it has with recent contenders, as it eyes a return to world title glory next year.

On the back of its impressive recovery this campaign, where it went from pre-season tail-ender to race winner by the middle of the year, McLaren says the lessons it took on board in 2009 are being applied to the design of its MP4-25.

"It's still too early to be able to say with any confidence how competitive we'll be, but all we can say with any certainty is that we've approached this year's car more aggressively than we perhaps have in the past," said McLaren's engineering director Paddy Lowe.

"We've used the knowledge we gained from heavily developing MP4-24 to stand us in good stead with the 25.

"We feel we're making very good progress, but, equally, we know there are some very capable teams out there too - I'd be surprised if Red Bull Racing and Ferrari don't come out with very strong packages, and I think Mercedes GP will produce another extremely quick car. You don't write anybody off in this business."

Lowe also believes that the fact the design of the 2010 McLaren was pretty much set in stone before Jenson Button's arrival was confirmed will not be a factor in favouring incumbent Lewis Hamilton.

When asked if it was possible the car design would suit Hamilton more, Lowe said: "Not at all. In fact, the opposite is true: you tend to design a racing car to be as neutral as possible. The only way a car is specifically designed for a driver is ergonomically, and, like I say, we're confident that won't be a problem for Jenson.

"You're trying to provide the driver with the broadest possible performance plateau upon which he can improvise to best suit his style. You'd be surprised, too, at how drivers' different approaches very often culminate in a similar lap time, so, in that respect, we're confident that our drivers will be a good match.

"Besides, you usually find that the competitive instinct takes over: when you make a Formula 1 car faster, it invariably works for both drivers. We only engineer for performance - not for individuality"

Lowe's stance about Button's smooth style not leading to any problems with the McLaren has been backed by managing director Jonathan Neale.

"We're lucky in that Lewis and Jenson both have fairly neutral driving styles – as does Pedro – so it's unlikely to be a problem for us next year," he said.

"Without the variables of fuel-load and fuel-effect, people have suggested that tyre degradation will be the next most important performance-limiting factor during a race, but we don't think that's likely to be the case.

"If you look at previous examples of a guy who's kind to his tyres, and a guy who isn't, it's rare for the guy who pushes his tyres to slip backwards in a race. I think what you see is that a driver's speed comes from a broad range of variables – and it's invariably the characteristics of the car that create a degradation issue, rather than the drivers."

And rather than express any fears about the competition between Hamilton and Button hurting McLaren's chances next year, Neale believes the varied strengths of the two drivers could help the team be more competitive.

"I'm absolutely convinced that they'll be a fantastic and competitive partnership," he said. "The reality is that they'll both bring different skill-sets to the table, and from January onwards we'll be able to very rapidly bring their wealth of knowledge and experience to bear on a number of issues – particularly during pre-season testing.

"In some ways, it multiplies our opportunities in a grand prix too: there could well be tracks where Jenson's skill-set is better-suited to the challenge, and equally, tracks where Lewis could excel. In the past, Jenson has demonstrated considerable talent at high-speed circuits, and we're looking forward to building that into our arsenal.

"As long as we provide both drivers with equal opportunities and equal machinery – something we've always done at this team – then we hope they'll be competitive everywhere."

[axle]

Lets highlight this bit for those who can't grasp that the car dynamics aren't developed to suite a particular driver...

When asked if it was possible the car design would suit Hamilton more, Lowe said: "Not at all. In fact, the opposite is true: you tend to design a racing car to be as neutral as possible. The only way a car is specifically designed for a driver is ergonomically, and, like I say, we're confident that won't be a problem for Jenson.