George-Jung wrote:How do you know they have wasted two days? Perhaps they have learned lots of important stuff..
IMO - Because testing isn't done by a singular entity with a singular use-case. It's more modular than that. You have various aspects of the car; you have a very (new) complex PU, you have the aerodynamics, the packaging, not least also the driver too who is part of the whole equation in working with the team etc. The way I see it, testing isn't just about some binary test-case - it's an opportunity for each devision that is working on the car to see their parts in action and the car work as a package. If one part fails and the car is sitting in the garage most of the time, how are the other parts of the car that also benefit from testing and gaining data benefiting at all? They are not.
At least if you have a running car, you are not only accumulating data off the running PU, but other important variables as well: Aerodynamic aspects, heat issues, how the packaging is working in practice, even balance of the car.
Now, I'm not saying this to make it sound as if McLaren/Honda are doomed. But on a scale from 1-10, 10 being the best-case, they are not even close on the upper half of the scale with how they are going. There is still time though - but if and how far they are behind, really depends on how well their car in the lab and in theory starts working in the real world - and how close that will be to the competition that is racking up lap after lap, gaining lots of data and have a year of running experience under race-conditions... right now, since 2 days.
