Post here all non technical related topics about Formula One. This includes race results, discussions, testing analysis etc. TV coverage and other personal questions should be in Off topic chat.
What the hell is McLaren doing. The drivers ain't positive about their cars and still has technical problems with the car that has been testing for all the winter. Not to mention that they have no new sponsors for this season, while Renault has already tied a deal with Spanish telecomunication giants Telefonica. What are they going to do when the ban on tobacco sponsoring starts in 2006?
McLaren's new PR strategy is to let results speak for themselves - LOL
In terms of sponsors they've extended their deal with Siemens, HENKEL(formerly aka LOCTITE), and lately SPARCO is exclusively providing their drivers with innovative race suits.
The truth about complicated issue of tobacco sponsorship post 2005/2006 is that the tobacco giants will continue to be involved in F1 after-all...
ok, you got me there with the continuing involment in the tobacco sponsorship in 2006, but what about the decrease in US currncy that cuses F1 teams to lose money, McLaren are reported to lose $25m while Williams will lose only $15m, and McLaren is paying higher wages to their driver.
I'm really suprised to hear Kimi Raikkonen saying that he doubts McLarens capability @ Melbourne... All this while when testing i thot McLaren was probablys just sandbagging, but with Kimi making statements like these with less than 2 weeks to the season opener is quite a shock... I'm wondering if there's any truth about what he's just said... On a more +ive note, Ron Dennis & DC were happy with how the tests hv gone so far! What the hell is going on at the McLaren camp???Aaaarrghhh!!
Not saying that McLaren are, but is it possible that they sorted out the car back when the other teams had not introduced there new cars yet and this entire thing with Kimi not liking the car and predicting doomsday for the team in melbourne is all a ploy? would it be possible for a team to do such a thing?
possible but not likely, i don't see how they would gain anything by this so called "ploy" . . . its not like the other teams are going to be like, "well, we were gonna make our car faster, but mclarens no good, so lets just relax and not test this week. eh guys?" if anything, i could see them wanting to show a good pace, so scare otehr teams into risking more on there cars, like sacrificing some reliability to get a little more preformance. this would at least make some sence. don't get me wrong, i love mclaren, my fav team after renault . . . i just don't know what there doing right now.
Becker4 wrote:possible but not likely, i don't see how they would gain anything by this so called "ploy" . . . its not like the other teams are going to be like, "well, we were gonna make our car faster, but mclarens no good, so lets just relax and not test this week. eh guys?" if anything, i could see them wanting to show a good pace, so scare otehr teams into risking more on there cars, like sacrificing some reliability to get a little more preformance. this would at least make some sence. don't get me wrong, i love mclaren, my fav team after renault . . . i just don't know what there doing right now.
McLaren's car is quite unique in design from the other cars. As a result, if their testing times were significantly better than everyone else's, everyone would SERIOUSLY look at the design features of the McLaren to see what they can copy before Melbourne. On the OTHER hand, if McLaren pretend to be slow during Winter Testing, the other teams won't know how good McLaren's design concepts are without trying them themselves first. As a result, copying the MP4-19's design would be that much harder.
That would be a MAJOR reason to "Sandbag" it during testing.
Testing is what it is. Its expensive, time consuming, and draining on the team. Teams who test have specific goals and programs to complete.
I don't think any team that considers sandbagging or psyching out another team to be part of their goals or programs could also consider themselves to be a competitive team.
I'm sure lots of people will disagree with me and cite evidence of perceived "psyche-outs" but I don't think any team would do it to the detriment of their testing program.
So I'm sure all the McLaren fans would rather be hearing Kimi grunt in agreement with suggestions that his testing times are really fast and DC saying that with this car, this will be his year, but they're not, and its because they're not happy with the car's performance.
On the other hand, I also think discounting McLaren is a big mistake. They may have a lot of work to do to be a real championship contender, but they are certainly capable of it.
I do not believe that sandbaging is a very clever idea! After all you can never sort out a F1 car. There is always something else to try, to improve. The only idea I think makes sense is always test with full fuel loads. This is the "maximum amount of sandbagging" that an F1 team can perform given the cost of testing.
Sand bagging can also be acheived by gearing and engine mapping, still allowing them to test aerodynamics, tyres and engine preformance but without ultimately demonstrating the out right pace of the car.
After the reliability issues we have seen in recent years and knowing how much of a perfectionist and a competitor Ron Denis is I cannot believe he would allow the team to under perform this year. I could believe he would mask the true potential of the car though
I believe your are right about gearing and engine mapping. However, I think "wrong" gearing would be probably easy to spot by the other teams and the journalists and there wasn't anything reported about that. I agree with you that Ron Dennis is a perfectionist and would not allow the team to underperform, but what if the problems are indeed from the engine side as reports suggest. Then, there is nothing Ron could do. I only hope that we do not have another 2001 or 2002 coming up.
KJ, that is a very good point, and im sure it is true, to a certain extent. however, i still don't think it is reason enough for mclaren to "sandbag" - because, as you said, mclarens contender this year is very unique, with many new and radical design ideas and solutions. these ideas, by themsleves, don't make the car faster - they only have the POTENTIAL to make the car faster. testing these solutions, and finding out how and where they work the best, if at all, is what will make this car faster. and if you are sandbagging during testing, you can never truly be certain of what these design features are capable of. it seems to me that a team HAS to take the risk of revealing how fast there ideas are, or else they will be shooting themselve ini the foot for the season to come. other solutions propsed, though, such as always running with a full fuel laod, are, i agree, the closest thing to sandbagging a team can afford. does this mean that the new mclaren car is behind the pace and won't be a contender this year? i sure hope not, and i really think that of all the teams out there, mclaren is the most capable of pulling it all together and producing a great season. i know its getting cliche to say, but we will just have to wait and let the season unfold.
What I don't understand is why Kimi would come out and say detrimental things abt. the car - even if they're true, it's very unproffesional and detrimental to team morale. Ron Dennis should give him a kick up the backside!!
It's could be a way of Kimi putting public pressure on the team to improve the car (A pissed-off Ron Dennis walking around the factory kicking heads would be far more effective method), or RD is indeed trying to psyche out the opposition.
Or, the car really is --- and RD wants everyone to think he is sandbagging to cover it up whilst they're madly trying to fix it....
Anyway, 2 days to go and still McLaren haven't officially launched - have they?
