McLaren's new car
Discussion
This week seems to be the week that the F1 season basically begins, with the major new cars being launcheed.
On Wednesday the new McLaren F1 car will be launched.
I was very intrigued to see this story already appear, however:
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/97233
On Wednesday the new McLaren F1 car will be launched.
I was very intrigued to see this story already appear, however:
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/97233
autosport said:
McLaren ready for legality fight over new MP4-27
McLaren is bracing itself for a battle over the legality of its new MP4-27, AUTOSPORT can reveal.
According to McLaren Applied Technologies managing director Geoff McGrath, the new car, which is launched tomorrow, will feature obvious design innovations which could potentially attract protests from rivals.
These are the result of the team's aim to be less conservative in the interpretation of the Formula 1 regulations than it has been in previous years.
"There are technical innovations on the car which will be immediately obvious when you see them," said McGrath, who added that McLaren is "getting ready for a fight" over its new machine.
McGrath admitted that McLaren has paid the price for being overly cautious in previous seasons. The team has finished behind Red Bull in the constructors' championship in the past three years and must start the season strongly if it is to end that run.
"We've started way behind in the last couple of years — that's the really disappointing thing," he said. "But when we're behind, you can see that historically we always catch up faster than anyone else.
"Until we go to the first test in Jerez [which starts on February 7], the engineers won't know for sure if they got it right."
It is understood that McLaren is focusing on single-lap speed with the MP4-27, which it hopes will allow it to take more pole positions and control races from the front.
McGrath added that beating qualifying master Sebastian Vettel will be crucial if McLaren is to be successful in 2012, particularly as its analysis indicated that the raw pace of last year's MP4-26 was superior towards the end of the season despite Red Bull and Vettel's run of poles.
"He must be a brilliant driver, because by the end of last season we definitely had the best car and he was still whupping us," McGrath said.
"We're trying to figure out exactly what he's doing that's so good. How does he pull out that fast qualifying lap every time? We think it's driver skill. There's no trickery on the cars, he just gets more out of it than we do."
McLaren is bracing itself for a battle over the legality of its new MP4-27, AUTOSPORT can reveal.
According to McLaren Applied Technologies managing director Geoff McGrath, the new car, which is launched tomorrow, will feature obvious design innovations which could potentially attract protests from rivals.
These are the result of the team's aim to be less conservative in the interpretation of the Formula 1 regulations than it has been in previous years.
"There are technical innovations on the car which will be immediately obvious when you see them," said McGrath, who added that McLaren is "getting ready for a fight" over its new machine.
McGrath admitted that McLaren has paid the price for being overly cautious in previous seasons. The team has finished behind Red Bull in the constructors' championship in the past three years and must start the season strongly if it is to end that run.
"We've started way behind in the last couple of years — that's the really disappointing thing," he said. "But when we're behind, you can see that historically we always catch up faster than anyone else.
"Until we go to the first test in Jerez [which starts on February 7], the engineers won't know for sure if they got it right."
It is understood that McLaren is focusing on single-lap speed with the MP4-27, which it hopes will allow it to take more pole positions and control races from the front.
McGrath added that beating qualifying master Sebastian Vettel will be crucial if McLaren is to be successful in 2012, particularly as its analysis indicated that the raw pace of last year's MP4-26 was superior towards the end of the season despite Red Bull and Vettel's run of poles.
"He must be a brilliant driver, because by the end of last season we definitely had the best car and he was still whupping us," McGrath said.
"We're trying to figure out exactly what he's doing that's so good. How does he pull out that fast qualifying lap every time? We think it's driver skill. There's no trickery on the cars, he just gets more out of it than we do."
That's obviously admitting that Vettel is the man that makes the difference, seeing the lap comparison overlays is obvious he nails it every time, makes no mistakes, is prepared & able to push the car harder compared to his counterparts.
I'd love to see Vettel jump in someone else's car & see if he can do the same, my bets are he could.
I'd love to see Vettel jump in someone else's car & see if he can do the same, my bets are he could.
ajprice said:
Did anything more ever come out about the alleged Red Bull exhaust blowing into the wheelrims to heat tyres? They reckoned that was what got him away from the 'DRS zone' 1 second gap in the first few laps of a race, maybe it heated the tyres on the out lap too.
That would help for traction I guess, but would surely shift the balance of the car towards understeer, at least initially, with colder fronts?Anyway, I bet there is a man called McGrath in Woking getting an astronomical b
king right now!Edited by Vocal Minority on Tuesday 31st January 13:47
DeadMeat_UK said:
What's really interesting is that autosport appear to have taken the story down now!
Glad it has been posted here as I saw the link on the latest news feed in iGoogle for the story on Autosport but it wasn't there. Wonder why it has been pulled? Presumably due to the comments about Vettel which maybe wouldn't go down well in the team.andyps said:
Glad it has been posted here as I saw the link on the latest news feed in iGoogle for the story on Autosport but it wasn't there. Wonder why it has been pulled? Presumably due to the comments about Vettel which maybe wouldn't go down well in the team.
Yep, that couldn't have gone down too well with the drivers. I suspect though it was more likely an embargo? Vocal Minority said:
ajprice said:
Did anything more ever come out about the alleged Red Bull exhaust blowing into the wheelrims to heat tyres? They reckoned that was what got him away from the 'DRS zone' 1 second gap in the first few laps of a race, maybe it heated the tyres on the out lap too.
That would help for traction I guess, but would surely shift the balance of the car towards understeer, at least initially, with colder fronts?This Geoff McGrath bloke is MD of McLaren Applied Technologies which arent the race team so it's odd that he'd be making comments to Autosport at all, or have such insider knowledge to be able to make such comments. Also the wording of the quotes suggest its either off the record comment/opinion thats been aired "accidentally", or even that Autosport have been duped by someone claiming to be this bloke and have published it before checking out the validity. Personally given how it basically says the Mac drivers are crap and blows smoke up a competitor's arse I suspect some light hearted skullduggery from another team here.
This sounds like a clear wind-up from someone, be it an imposter or a rival team, or just tongue in cheek humor.
Would love to learn more about how it came to be published on Autosport, I caught it when it was still live and thought it was absurd.
Would love to learn more about how it came to be published on Autosport, I caught it when it was still live and thought it was absurd.
Edited by FisiP1 on Tuesday 31st January 17:59
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