Do they have something in the pipeline? please tell me they do! they were suffering with rear tyre deg in bahrain, was this because they now have too much front end?
Button was complaining of understeer so I don't think they have too much front end. No idea why they were overheating the rears, I assume it's something inherent in the rear suspension rather than an oversteering car, they suffered badly in Valencia last year when it was hot, so it's probably just the hot weather they can't cope with. I still think McLaren have the best car, there won't be many races as hot as that, the others will be playing catch up in Mugello.
Mclaren would gain an easy 17sec a race (0.28 a lap over 60 laps) if they could just sort their bloody pit stops out!
Its comments like this that really scare me at McLaren. Button has said that McLaren aren't trying out any huge update packages so the workload can be carried out by test drivers. "I don't really think we will be a benefit because there aren't any massive updates to try. No big updates on the only test during the whole season? Maybe their just gonna run pit stops for the whole 3 days lol
I suppose it shows confidence - that they're happy with the car and with development at this stage, which adds credence to AG's opinion that they're still fastest. We have had four quite extreme races and if they have identified the issues that led to poor pace then it's just a matter of running through different setups to extract the best from what they have in 'normal' conditions. Paddy Lowe said there's not much point in even going to Mugello but they might as well since the option's available.
Mclaren have the pace for sure but the problem is tyres and PIT STOPS.. Whitmarsh said himself after Bahrain that teams are managing to find the sweet spot in set ups to accomodate the tyres. The pit stops is just pathetic, can't believe that a wheel gun has cost a possible win in China and a bagful of points in Bahrain.
Like the Mercedes team, McLaren are introducing a new, lighter, carbon fibre-housed gearbox for the Spanish GP. Because Button retired from the Bahrain GP and Schumacher took a gearbox-related grid penalty there, they can both use the new gearbox without penalty in Spain. Rosberg and Hamilton will have to wait until the Monaco GP to use it, although I'm not sure why Hamilton's gearbox (new in China) doesn't have to last five races.
Hamilton's should have to last five races surely, didn't he get a free change in Bahrain after an enforced change in China? He'll have used four gearboxes in six races, binning two (the ones he used in China and Spain) which were probably perfectly OK. So much for trying to cut costs and be environmentally friendly.
If its a big weight saving, especially on the extremity of the car, it may be worth the hit to change it if someone has to wait 4+ races.
I never read that Hamilton received another new gearbox anywhere other than Adam Cooper's Twitter feed, tbh, so he may have gone back to his China gearbox for FP3 onwards in Bahrain, thus avoiding another penalty. In any event, I think the new gearbox he received the penalty for only has to complete the five races his original gearbox was meant to:
Indeed. I saw some discussion about that rod on F1Technical a couple of weeks ago and they got as close as brake temperature management. It seemed to work effectively in China. It isn't possible that it's interfering with wheel alignment during pit stops, is it?
That's an interesting possibility - but if this is the case, it is a clearly flawed design. It is also possible that someone on the left-rear is not so good at adjusting (or otherwise coping with) it as his opposite number…
Watch Jenson Button managing his tyres in Budapest: [video=youtube;79iIsEjwjxo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79iIsEjwjxo[/video]
Autosprint reports that McLaren were testing a new nose in Mugello please log in to view this image Big fail by the media not spotting that earlier. Quite a difference compared to the old nose.
Verily. It's almost stepped, in a non-stepped kind of way. Where before there was a continuous curve from the top of the bulkhead to the tip of the nose there's now a dip that levels off to a plateau at the tip. In-season testing is quite irritating in the sense that they can try out all sorts of wacky ideas that may never make it to a race but I wonder if McLaren were investigating any inadvertent potential advantage of the stepped nose? The tip looks a little higher, though, so I suppose they're just evaluating its benefits in relation to under-body airflow.
