Is McLaren really off the pace?

[bot6]

Come on guys, could you stop attacking each other on a personal level, and focus on actually adding something to the discussion?

This is getting old...

[Poleman]

...

And yet you won't predict zero wins for the team... so either you don't really believe that the concept is as flawed as you like to tell everyone, or you're scared of being wrong and us being able to point out in the future that one of your sage like predictions was demonstrably wrong.

Its ok myurr people can think whatever they want...Some dont like the L pods?So be it...Who cares to be honest?Everyone has their opinions.However i believe this is something that should be stated once and thats it...The L pods dislike/flaw issue is going around in a constant basis.We shall wait and see...

Maybe "some" fans here find annoying that the majority of the people in this forum are spending time on a specific L shape pod car thread, discussing and speculating over some preety unique technological developments filling a nice 150+ page thread every year,rather than admiring a tightly packaged Newey creation.

Funny thing is "they" (me included),have this question in their back of their mind: What if this is actually working?

[segedunum]

Indeed we shall. There's been a few anecdotes from people like Martin Brundle and I've studied a few YouTube videos of it in testing but we won't know exactly until we see how it looks on a large television, maybe in high definition.

Yep, I admit I don't like uneven surfaces on cars like that. There's potentially a lot going on there for my liking for one specific purpose and I just don't think it is ever something somebody like Chapman, Murray, Barnard or Newey today would have on their cars. Gordon Murray was the king of the lowline car. I can't help but wonder what he thinks of the current McLaren?

I just wish McLaren would get their act together to be honest. I suppose that's where my frustration comes from.

[Florio]

I think you have to appreciate that they aren't simply just evolving, but investigating new possible approaches.

Everyone moans that they want to see innovation. Then when they do and it isn't a killer at first, they moan about why they have gone down an unknown route.

[CHT]

they look like they are about 1 sec off the pace of the leader at the moment.

[ringo]

1 second is actually quite good for a start.

Redbull and Ferrari are on another planet.

[wunderkind]

Comparing the cockpit footages of Button, Vettel, and Webber. The Red Bull seemed to have better turn-in to a corner (but maybe the McLaren drivers are not trying as hard, yet) and the Red Bull drivers could floor it out of the corners earlier than Button could.

Vettel and Webber are definitely trying to go one up against one another.

[Vasco]

1 second is actually quite good for a start.

Redbull and Ferrari are on another planet.

I would say Redbull are on another plant, Ferrari and Merc seemed quick, but nowhere near as planted as the RBR. Lets see how FP2 plays out.

[Ciro Pabón]

They are in planet Justadrink

[CHT]

I read that all teams were running on the same prime (hard) tyres this morning, so chances are the top teams are unlikely to be doing their qualifying fuel load this morning.

It will be interesting to see what will be the time gap when top teams switch to option tyre this afternoon.

[2011F1]

A look at the new McLaren diffuser

[wunderkind]

Hope McLaren's form will continue into the qualifying session.

[segedunum]

I would say Redbull are on another plant, Ferrari and Merc seemed quick, but nowhere near as planted as the RBR. Lets see how FP2 plays out.

Indeed, I'm afraid so. I saw the lap in first practice where Alonso did a time a few hundredths off the Red Bulls and he absolutely struggled to get it. He was wide at virtually every fast corner and the car was moving around a fair bit. The Red Bulls then effortlessly pulled out several more tenths.

Subjectively the McLaren seems miles better than it was in testing and much more stable, but there is no way RB and maybe not Ferrari have gone as fast as they can go yet. Whether they've copied the RB exhaust or not McLaren pulled out some stops there so hats off to them. I'll be interested to see where they are in relation to Ferrari because Ferrari don't look as formidable as a lot of people were predicting.

[Alexgtt]

Is it me or have the McLaren slayers all gone quiet?

Doesn't look the handfull it was predicted to be. Quite encouraging to see both Jenson and Lewis at the sharp end. I have to say it doesn't look like RB have shown their hand yet though.

[Poleman]

You can say that for McLaren too,you cant be sure that they went as fast as they can go too.Point is that in both sessions i didnt see the McLaren being the midfield car fighting with Renaults and STR's as a lot of people here were predicting.Maybe they are still "off" the pace but definately not OFF the pace.