A few things about the McLaren here: The exhaust at the launch was plastic The car will look different at Jerez, and different again in Melbourne McLaren's goal is to recover the downforce lost through EBD ban by Melbourne, and the team believe they have a good chance of achieving this. On that third point - are any McLaren fans worried that they haven't recovered that downforce yet? We don't know how fast the 2012 cars are, but the RB8 is likely to be faster than the RB7 and the F2012 would have to be a monumental disaster to be worse than the F150.
1. Yep... The exhaust covers were nothing but covers, so there will be changes there throughout testing. Not sure how those will work yet. Scarbs had some interesting input on that regarding blowing over the brake ducts etc. 2. I'm pretty sure there will be a lot of changes before the first race. I could be wrong but I think Button referred to it as the MP4-27A. What that means (if I heard that right) I have no clue... I'm hoping that it doesn't include a 27B with a stepped nose. 3. McLaren seem pretty confident that they have made up some of their downforce deficiencies... So I'm hopeful. Usually if they are worried, they say so... Even though people think they are playing down their hand or sandbagging. They have had it wrong for 2 years so you'd have to hope they have a grip on it by now. I think the McLaren looks the best at launch than it has for a few years, and sometimes a clean tidy car turns out to be successful. Am I convinced they have it right this year? Not yet. Am I worried? Yep... bagging myself! So far McLaren seem to be breaking with convention when looking at the other cars, which makes me think one of two things. They have either aced it and built a dominant contender, or they have missed the boat yet again. Only time (and a few laps in anger) will tell.
If Red Bull are launching a totally new car then Is it likely to be a championship winner out of the box? Have his others? I always seem to remember they were a little fragile.
The problem or benefit of this nose is if it is the right/wrong way it will be very difficult for other teams/McLaren to change due to the shape of the predefined chassis.
http://www.planetf1.com/driver/3213/7491437/Boss-Launched-McLaren-was-plastic- The launched McLaren was plastic. Well, some of it was.
So.... What was the point of launching it? They had no new livery, no new sponsors (Lucazade getting a bigger spot) and a loss of a few sponsors...
I'm just glad that the MP4-27 at least looks better than this bucket of Elephant whomp! http://www.enterf1.com/2009/launch-photos/mclaren.asp Gordon Bennett... That thing was a disaster!
tedkravitz Ted Kravitz On McLaren low nose, Newey says it makes sense for them to do that, is part of their longterm direction, doesn't expect big performance diff
After the test today the amount of funnelling under the McLaren nose is insane. They are clearly working that air to go somewhere and hopefully at not a too great a cost with regards to drag.
Button on his McLaren Happy Jenson Button reckons McLaren in much better shape than 12 months ago Button added that the difference between today's running and the start to McLaren's 2011 build-up was dramatic. Button admitted he had expected the ban on exhaust-blown diffusers to have had a greater effect on the 2012 cars' performance and handling than seems to be the case.
Hopefully Jenson will pump some low fuel runs tomorrow, but its probably a bad idea because if they suddenly pump a 1:17, the car will attract too much attention from rivals. Good weather for the next 3 days also, feeling positive.
To be honest, none of the teams are stupid, they'll expect Red Bull, Ferrari and Mclaren to be the ones to watch, so will no doubt be already analysing their cars in great detail.
That's much better than the initial view of the last 3 cars that McLaren have built. Seems promising. They can save the low fuel banzai runs till the final test.
Jenson may not have been using KERS or DRS during long stints. Plus there are aero tests etc to be taken into account. If he was 10 seconds off the pace I would start to question the speed.
It's testing, lets wait and see. At least they are doing times comparable with the rest of the field and are getting plenty of laps in. Compared to last year its a good start.
Hamilton seemed to be all smiles about it yesterday, praising the pace. I don't know what to believe, the Kovi rumour with no confirmable substance (I was walking my dog when..) or the company line that seems contrived to refute it and please the sponsors. Both drivers seem fairly upbeat, which is a contrast to last year, and Vettel seems to be talking them up. Of course we won't know the outright pace of anyone until the lights go green (or out, as the case is), but things look good for them, on the surface anyway.
Well, testing seems to be more like the "stick to the program" type procedure than the "Oh crap, where do we find 2-3 seconds in this skip?" type affair of the past couple of years, so you'd have to think that there's no major issues with the car. Unless they've done a stellar job of keeping a lid on it. Blimey... I'll be glad when the first qualifying session is kicking off.
