I know what you mean but ultimately this is all immaterial as Vettel will probably have the WDC sewn up by summer break.
Tell me about it, I had them down as Sandbagging through the pre-season, so much so I predicted JB for the title... well done Jonny
Its Anger for me, just can't quite fathom their decision with regards to their approach to 2013 car, I hope I'm proven wrong but right now, can't see it getting better any-time soon! Denial was during Pre-season when I thought they were sandbagging... Grief will kick in @ China when Vettel makes it 3 wins out of 3 whilst coasting for most of the GP...
Check out Believe in Lewis on the race thread, he's really optimistic that Red Bull aren't really ahead. Maybe we need to believe in Believe in Lewis
It does seem mclaren have messed up. I don't believe they are sand bagging anymore. Ok so red bull started badly last as did Ferrari but playing catch up won't be the same this year. The surprise might be tyres but might be a nasty surprise. I do believe Alonso can win the title this year and hope he does.
In overhauling the design of their car with the pullrod suspension, they took 2 steps back in order to go 3 steps forward, as they feared a development 'plateau' (Read in between the lines as "the development was already starting to plateau"). Only problem with that little tactic, is that (assuming all leading cars were roughly equal at the end of last season) all other teams have taken 1 step forward, meaning McLaren have to take 3 steps forward just to catch up, by which time other teams may have taken another 2 steps forward,........... and so on so forth, so that maybe after taking 7 or 8 steps forward do they end up with car that is equal in performance with the others, by which time they are 3/4 of the way through the bloody season and 100+ points behind!!! And even if their catch up rate was much higher than the others, say catching up with RedBull/Merc/Lotus after quarter of a season only, they won't catch up with Ferrari, seeing as Ferrari have a whole season's worth of development on them on that troublesome pull rod architecture. Stupid decision to take the car in a different direction, especially as next year the cars will be forced to be radically different anyway due to the new regs so very little can carry over. YET ANOTHER example of how McClaren have forgotten how to win. 'Twas not the technology that plateaued, but the thinking!!. Totally incompetent.
From McLaren's comments building up to this season it seems they're focusing on winning the development race, start with a **** car and make it not ****. It's admirable it really is. If their focus had been on changing homologated aspects of the old car that was restricting development it would make sense, but from what they've said they just aimed to have a car they could develop. Having a strong car from the start would've been ideal this year, reaching a development plateau where their car was so fast they could focus on the big regulation change certainly wouldn't have been a bad thing. Only McLaren could spend four months working on a car only to end up with something slower than what they had before.
http://adamcooperf1.com/2013/03/16/...e-mclaren-unrealistically-fast-in-jerez-test/ Don't know if that's been posted elsewhere but i thought it was interesting. While ignoring another incredible error, what's notable is that for all their talk of potential the car has never actually run well at any point on any setup they've tried. How desperate did they have to be to try and run that ride height again on a street circuit? It's embarrassing, but i really think the best thing they can do is to bring back the 27.
That's interesting JC, it might also indicate that on smooth tracks, meaning a lot of the Tilke-dromes I suspect, Mclaren might have found something to get some pace back.
If the pace continues as it has been throughout the rest of the season heads must roll, it's simply not good enough from a team with their kind of resources
If it wasn't for Jenson's experience in realising the slicks wouldn't work and flicking back to inters immediately, they might well have found themselves qualifying 15th and16th. It never rains but it pours for those ******s at McLaren.
3 seconds off the pace in the dry was what got me. Fair enough he'd done one more lap and had grained tyres, but even still.... my god. The moment in the race where Hamilton laps Button is going to be so painful.
