*** Winter Testing #3 - Barcelona ***

*** Winter Testing #3 - Barcelona ***

Author
Discussion

tight fart

2,869 posts

272 months

Thursday 26th February 2015
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I get that testing is for testing but it's a good job McLaren aren't making aeroplanes.

Some Gump

12,671 posts

185 months

Thursday 26th February 2015
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I agree that it's not good, but what would be the point in a conservative car?

It's better to try to win and fail, than settle for a steady 8th place. We already have Force India for that.

DanielSan

18,748 posts

166 months

Thursday 26th February 2015
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Some Gump said:
I agree that it's not good, but what would be the point in a conservative car?

It's better to try to win and fail, than settle for a steady 8th place. We already have Force India for that.
Fair point. Let's just hope it's at least fast then hehe

007 VXR

64,187 posts

186 months

Thursday 26th February 2015
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REALIST123 said:
As you say the engine hasn't been run hard yet, and still it keeps failing. Not good, to say the least.
Dont forget, this is not the engine that will be in the car on the 15th, its a test engine (no 3)

Vaud

50,290 posts

154 months

Thursday 26th February 2015
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Test engines are all non-Parc Ferme and unregulated, IIRC.

Test mileage is, but the engine usage isn't. It doesn't even have to be a compliant chassis or engine?

entropy

5,403 posts

202 months

Thursday 26th February 2015
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007 VXR said:
Dont forget, this is not the engine that will be in the car on the 15th, its a test engine (no 3)
But does it have the same dodgy seal/patched up in time and work?

007 VXR

64,187 posts

186 months

Thursday 26th February 2015
quotequote all
entropy said:
007 VXR said:
Dont forget, this is not the engine that will be in the car on the 15th, its a test engine (no 3)
But does it have the same dodgy seal/patched up in time and work?
I bloody hope not laugh

revrange

1,182 posts

183 months

Friday 27th February 2015
quotequote all
Some Gump said:
I agree that it's not good, but what would be the point in a conservative car?

It's better to try to win and fail, than settle for a steady 8th place. We already have Force India for that.
Well there is an argument that they just needed to provide a stable platform for the Honda, its great they are bringing a load of new aero parts to the test and first race, they will look good sat in the pits!

Do have to question how much of this didn't get sorted on the dyno before hand, GA makes the point mercedes managed to do that, so should have Honda.

May come good for them, but RBR had another plus last year, other teams using the same unit and getting mileage in, helped Renault. honda don't have that.

I would guess we will soon here the it won't be until the Spanish GP you will see the changes we need to turn things around press release coming out

tonybhr

343 posts

134 months

Friday 27th February 2015
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andyps said:
History is full of areas where Ferrari have not followed the rules in F1, or have had them changed in their favour. I don't think that is good for the sport, or business of F1 and I don't think it would be for others to do the same - Red Bull seem to want to follow the same path.

I agree that there needs to be as many competitive cars as possible but I wouldn't watch something if the rules were not applied appropriately as it then becomes a sham. Mercedes domination last year can hardly be blamed for falling viewing figures - they may have been the superior team but they allowed their drivers to race each other, and they did that providing great racing. The domination of Ferrari in particular when Schumacher was winning was not good to watch as it was certain that there was no racing within the team, and the same pretty much applied to Red Bull with Vettel so after 9 years of that sort of dominance it is very short sighted to blame Mercedes. Look at the deals Ecclestone has done which have taken races off free to air channels in many countries (including half the races in the UK for live broadcast of course, partly due to the BBC but mainly down to the fees demanded) to easily understand why viewing figures are down.
Well said. Although I hope that McLaren pull off a miracle and get their cars sorted I'm glad they have done things ethically.

Richard-G

1,669 posts

174 months

Friday 27th February 2015
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RenOHH said:
REALIST123 said:
You don't really need Anderson to see the obvious though, do you? wink
Just putting some weight behind my views! All hell broke loose in the Jerez thread when some of dared to say McLaren-Honda had messed it up.
yes all hell broke loose because you were too premature to state they had 'messed up' at jerez. Now you have a point, its an inescapable fact that they are in trouble. If they just had the engine issues then, Honda would (im pretty sure) manage to get these fixed by Oz. However they also have Alonso!! out for an indefinite amount of time. All in all just about everything that could've gone wrong has gone wrong.

however, Jerez was still too early to state they had messed up, you couldn't of predicted accurately what would follow so it was a 50/50 assumption.

Vaud

50,290 posts

154 months

Friday 27th February 2015
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Richard-G said:
However they also have Alonso!! out for an indefinite amount of time.
Where has that been stated? He missed this test; that is all that is certain.

MartG

20,622 posts

203 months

Friday 27th February 2015
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Seems Mercedes have an innovative solution to the nose camera mounts....not popular with the other teams

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/mercedes-finds-a...

Richard-G

1,669 posts

174 months

Friday 27th February 2015
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Vaud said:
Richard-G said:
However they also have Alonso!! out for an indefinite amount of time.
Where has that been stated? He missed this test; that is all that is certain.
http://www1.skysports.com/f1/news/24184/9732692/fernando-alonso-briefly-knocked-unconscious-in-test-crash-confirms-ron-dennis

a direct quote from Ron Dennis confirms they don't know his return date yet on autosport but i cannot post it as my free views have run out.

i think its 50/50 if he will make OZ and with Malaysia the week after he might miss the first two. its not in the hands of Mclaren and Fernando in any case.


DavidY

4,458 posts

283 months

Friday 27th February 2015
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DanielSan said:
I think Mclaren have done a bit less mileage, but Red Bull had never run a race distance before Melbourne last year so they're in roughly the same position. Mclaren said last week they haven't opened the taps full on the motor yet so we don't even know it's relative pace. The only thing we know so far is it doesn't look like it'll reach the finish in Australia or Malaysia a few days later.
Everybody said that about the Ferrai semi-automatic gearbox in 1989, and Mansell came first in it's debut race...A wise man wouldn't write McLaren off on pre-season testiung.....

anonymous-user

53 months

Friday 27th February 2015
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007 VXR said:
REALIST123 said:
As you say the engine hasn't been run hard yet, and still it keeps failing. Not good, to say the least.
Dont forget, this is not the engine that will be in the car on the 15th, its a test engine (no 3)
I'm not sure that's a comfort. Does that mean the race engine is, as yet, untested?


Some Gump

12,671 posts

185 months

Friday 27th February 2015
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As an aside, the VJM008 broke cover today. Only when I saw the photo, my initial bit was "ooh, Ron got a sponsor!".

So, has McLaren chosen to have the same livery as Force india to make the back row more homogenous at Melbourne?



DanielSan

18,748 posts

166 months

Friday 27th February 2015
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How can Mclaren be in such a dire situation that even Force India have more sponsors?

35 laps managed this morning by Button, it's progress at least hehe Even if they have done less than the Force India...

Edited by DanielSan on Friday 27th February 11:55

Vaud

50,290 posts

154 months

Friday 27th February 2015
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DanielSan said:
How can Mclaren be in such a dire situation that even Force India have more sponsors?
It's not a volume game. Too many sponsors devalues your brand.

Vocal Minority

8,582 posts

151 months

Friday 27th February 2015
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Also the vast majority of the sponsors plastered over the FI are VJ Mallya related and Sahara own the other half of the team.

So they are the owners brands.

DanielSan

18,748 posts

166 months

Friday 27th February 2015
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Vaud said:
DanielSan said:
How can Mclaren be in such a dire situation that even Force India have more sponsors?
It's not a volume game. Too many sponsors devalues your brand.
st performances devalue your brand, that doesn't seem to worry Mclaren though...