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

[London424]

Much better morning for McL...Sauber are looking fairly handy so far.

[RevsPerMinute]

I would love to have seen Ron spit his coffee out when he saw that Force India roll out of the garage.

[marshall100]

I thought most of the FI sponsors had something to do with the fact VJ owned the brands?

[Some Gump]

Yep, if you look at the small photo of the Fi above, most are Mallya brands, and telmex comes with a driver handicap.

McLaren could equally put stickers for their own car brand on the car, it still wouldn't be proper sponsorship - Mallya can easily push one part of his empire to support another, but depending on what you read that might not be a long term strategy...

[London424]

McLaren are up and doing longer stints now. Seems to be able to do 12 lap runs.

Not particularly fast (~1 sec+ slower than the Ferrari that is also doing longer lap runs) but it's a million times better than the rest of pre-season.

ETA: They've also just passed 70 laps for the day.

[London424]

Merc have just come out to play properly

Soft tyres - 1.22. 792

[Dr Z]

I see that the Merc has just bolted on a set of soft tyres and gone miles quicker than anything else on circuit. Welcome to 2014. Part II.

[Some Gump]

Nice. Quite a statement, and basically confirms what we all worried - another 2 car race for at least the first half of the season.

[F1GTRUeno]

Some Gump said:

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?

Just me or does the McLaren look truly, truly awful from the side?

So out of proportion. Long mid section, tiny wheels, stupid long overhang.

[andburg]

2.5 seconds faster than pole...not surprising, I think they'll go faster, they've been quoting 3 seconds a lap and i expect them to do it!

[DanielSan]

Button on 95 laps! It's working still!

[Munter]

DanielSan said:

Button on 95 laps! It's working still!

I wonder if they are just running around on the ICU and doing as little as possible with the energy recovery stuff. Hence more laps but...not so fast.

[London424]

Munter said:

DanielSan said:

Button on 95 laps! It's working still!

I wonder if they are just running around on the ICU and doing as little as possible with the energy recovery stuff. Hence more laps but...not so fast.

Something funny is going on with it, as when they crank up the pace to do a fast lap, the next lap is down is 10 seconds or so slower...heating issue?

ETA: and as I say that it's stopped on track.

[Some Gump]

I'm thinking cooling issue rather than recharging issue. Ers alone surely can't be 10s a lap? I thought it was under 2...

[DanielSan]

Well on that pace no one is touching Mercedes again this year.

[paolow]

Some Gump said:

I'm thinking cooling issue rather than recharging issue. Ers alone surely can't be 10s a lap? I thought it was under 2...

Lets not forget that McL poached Neweys right hand man from Red Bull and the car has (I stand to be corrected) THE most tightly packaged rear of the current crop by a long margin. Have they been over ambitious with the thermal aspects of the design?
Having said that when the car has broken down (and lets face it theres quite a sample to draw from) it hasnt been apparent that excess heat is the issue but rather separate system failures.
Of course - you don't need flames for heat - I wonder if the systems are overheating and shutting down through failsafes and the various seal problems is where things are getting hotter than predicted and failing / warping...
In fact - having re-read the above its quite apparent Ive no real clue what I am talking about and am simply guessing what is with the McL - but one thing is for sure - they are at least moving in the right direction. Remember the first test? It sounded like a mk1 impreza with a missing plug lead. At least now it goes round the circuit in a reasonable fashion...
Must have been big sighs of relief at Mcl when it broke the ton - I wonder if they said "you know what - we managed 100 laps - lets wind it up and see what breaks - we will have to change the engine anyway" and then spirits dropped another lap later..

[s3fella]

DanielSan said:

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 Even if they have done less than the Force India...

Edited by DanielSan on Friday 27th February 11:55

I beleive Peniston Oils may be interested in sponsoring Alonso.

[rsole]

Talking of Mclaren and Honda, it would appear their performance isn't just a little below par for the F1 Cars. I was in traffic jam on the Autoroute today only 10kms from Monte Carlo. Turned out it was a broken down Honda race car transporter.

[Vyse]

Apparently Nico didn't use DRS during is 1.22 lap today.

[007 VXR]

Vyse said:

Apparently Nico didn't use DRS during is 1.22 lap today.

bloody hell,
I still think they had a sec+
last year that they never had to use. So this year should be very easy for them.