Just chatting.

[loneranger]

I have an old friend who has been in motorsport at the top level and still uses his International Competition License.
He just dropped by to offer me some free GFOS tickets.
Anyhow he has been at the Silverstone testing all this week and knows a lot of the people involved. He tells me that the McLaren is a lot more seriously faster than the others (in anyones hands) than is generally realised and that this is the major part of Lewis Hamilton's success.

[ewenm]

loneranger said:

I have an old friend who has been in motorsport at the top level and still uses his International Competition License.
He just dropped by to offer me some free GFOS tickets.
Anyhow he has been at the Silverstone testing all this week and knows a lot of the people involved. He tells me that the McLaren is a lot more seriously faster than the others (in anyones hands) than is generally realised and that this is the major part of Lewis Hamilton's success.

If it's mostly the car, why isn't Alonso trouncing him?

[loneranger]

ewenm said:

If it's mostly the car, why isn't Alonso trouncing him?

It seems that Alonso and Hamilton like completely different cars. Alonso likes to lean on a lot of stabilising understeer whilst Hamilton likes a loose back end that he can move round on the throttle.

Maybe the McLaren is far better suited to Hamilton's driving style than it is to Alonso's. That is the most likely explanation.

[Fidgits]

hmmm.

As someone who honestly believes Button is the best driver out there, and also has quite often said negative things about Hamilton, i'll choose to take this thread with a pinch of salt methinks

[130R]

Obviously he wouldn't be winning races in a Spyker, but it's not just the car. He has made the double and reigning world champion look like the rookie in the last 2 races. How many times was Alonso off the track in Canada and again at Indy? The major part of Lewis Hamilton's success is that he is a flipping good driver as he has proven in all the other series he has raced in (the gap between GP2 and F1 isn't that big)

[loneranger]

130R said:

Obviously he wouldn't be winning races in a Spyker, but it's not just the car. He has made the double and reigning world champion look like the rookie in the last 2 races. How many times was Alonso off the track in Canada and again at Indy? The major part of Lewis Hamilton's success is that he is a flipping good driver as he has proven in all the other series he has raced in (the gap between GP2 and F1 isn't that big)

Maybe the reason that Alonso's driving has become all agricultural is that he doesn't have the understeer to lean on. Maybe the loose back end is catching him out.

Remember that the car he won two world championships in did so because it had two competetive advantages.
1) It had a big rearward weight bias to give more traction off the grid. This meant they could make places if not on the front row.
2) The engine had a great fuel efficiency. This meant they could spend less time refuelling in the pits.

Now it seems to me that the main reason that this year's McLaren is so fast is all aero. Just look at it. No coincidence that the other front runners, Ferrari and BMW, also have very good aero.

McLaren have done badly in recent years because their Mercedes engine was not as good as some of the better competition and also it was pretty unreliable. Under the new engine rules there seems to be far less variation in power and far higher reliability. In other words the new engine rules have helped McLaren most.

[rubystone]

loneranger said:

ewenm said:

If it's mostly the car, why isn't Alonso trouncing him?

It seems that Alonso and Hamilton like completely different cars. Alonso likes to lean on a lot of stabilising understeer whilst Hamilton likes a loose back end that he can move round on the throttle.

Maybe the McLaren is far better suited to Hamilton's driving style than it is to Alonso's. That is the most likely explanation.

I think that's true. Alonso changed his style in Melbourne in response to the Bridgestones but I noticed from his in-car at Montreal that at that race he had reverted to his old style of turning in very early and with a lot of initial steering input. I wonder whether that is a reaction to the pressure from Hamilton?

[HiRich]

loneranger said:

McLaren have done badly in recent years because their Mercedes engine was not as good as some ...

I'd disagree with this, and actually agree with your original theory.
The two previous McLarens were understeerers. Both drivers wanted oversteer (Montoya loathes understeer) and neither were able to extract the ultimate performance from the cars (except a small period in 2005).
Hamilton clearly revels in a loose rear end. I don't know what Alonso's requirements are, but a bit of push sounds logical. I can easily see that the failure to get the car sweet for him could be costing him a couple of tenths per lap - the difference between "Hamilton's doing a handy job as a rookie" that we expected, and the "Jesus has come back as a black kid from Stevenage" that James Allen keeps telling us.

[Racefan_uk]

loneranger said:

Maybe the reason that Alonso's driving has become all agricultural is that he doesn't have the understeer to lean on. Maybe the loose back end is catching him out.

Strange, all the drivers I've ever spoken to have hated understeer with a passion. Never heard of one who actually 'leant' on it.

I think it's a case of the McLaren being a slghtly better car than the Ferrari and that the rivalry in the garage is pushing Hamilton and Alonso to be faster than Massa and Kimi. That and the fact that McLaren have spent a lot of time cultivating Hamilton's talent and it's finally paying off. Alonso probably thought he'd have at least one season's easy ride as team number one with Hamilton learning from him. Doesn't appear to be the case though, does it?

The new McLaren is now way near the level of superiority that, say Williams had, or Mclaren themselves had in the late 80's/early 90's.