Mclaren Catastrophe!

[Quiet One 15]

Why yes, this is true. HRT will be true to their practice season form and come Sunday will be parked in the garage.

That is, if Stefan GP hasn't arrived first and taken their garage to store all those misterious boxes...

[AleHop 0]

That is, if Stefan GP hasn't arrived first and taken their garage to store all those misterious boxes...

They're like chinese takeaway boxes?

They're for the paella.

[Kopite Girl 0]

I heard you, Steph.

*hug*

That doesn't mean what I said was disrespecting your knowledge, and your opinion. Far from it. Sometimes, I think your eerily uncanny knack of knowing how things will play out is admirable. Its a good quality to have. That way, nobody can ever spring one on you. I like that.

I know I'm a Button fan. I have been for 11 years, and I will admit that clouds my judgement on certain aspects of racing/team/wins etc. I don't argue that. But I try to be objective and look at the bigger picture. I really do feel that McLaren are going to make us exclaim "and where did they pull that from?" - and that's not because I want Button to be champion and beat Lewis or for them both to have a crack at it. I don't know what it is.

[Grabthaw the Hammerslayer 4]

Crap! Looks like your gonna have to use that tape on me again.

Typo - You missed off a word: tape-*worm*. Well that is an extreme measure, but I guess it is a proven means of losing weight

[Kopite Girl 0]

Typo - You missed off a word: tape-*worm*. Well that is an extreme measure, but I guess it is a proven means of losing weight

C0ck off.

[Jenson_Rules 0]

*hug*

That doesn't mean what I said was disrespecting your knowledge, and your opinion. Far from it. Sometimes, I think your eerily uncanny knack of knowing how things will play out is admirable. Its a good quality to have. That way, nobody can ever spring one on you. I like that.

I know I'm a Button fan. I have been for 11 years, and I will admit that clouds my judgement on certain aspects of racing/team/wins etc. I don't argue that. But I try to be objective and look at the bigger picture. I really do feel that McLaren are going to make us exclaim "and where did they pull that from?" - and that's not because I want Button to be champion and beat Lewis or for them both to have a crack at it. I don't know what it is.

It looks like your feeling may actually end up being accurate

[Jean Todt 4]

airmchair experts!

[Insider 0]

It looks like your feeling may actually end up being accurate

Yes, well I went ahead and baked the crow pie. Before I cut a slice the question I have to ask, is this extreme sandbagging or Woking escaping from the jaws of hell with a last minute miracle on the design front. To be honest, I feel it can only be the latter but with a plethora of precision-timed press snippets from Hamilton, [including a reported threat to jump ship] and Button, playing down the team's chances, It could yet turn out to have been an elaborate hoax. Would a team risk keeping the cars garage-bound at Jerez and Barcelona just to lull it's rivals into a false sense of security? I think not but stranger things have happened. You have to look at the facts. Both cars looked excellent in both P1 and P2 this morning. In the first session, they were clearly competitive but nursed their tyres after an initial burst of real pace. In P2, Hamilton predictably began mauling his fronts but posted the second best time and last minute rain precluded most of McLaren's rivals from breaking the 1:26 barrier as they had done earlier. So, maybe P3 will be a better pointer if the weather holds. Jenson looks a great bet if it gets greasy but if he can dial out the understeer he was experiencing this morning, he can maybe find another two tenths and be the man to beat wet or dry. We'll see. In the main, I am delighted I got it wrong. Or did I?

[BradSpeedMan 6]

The question we need to ask ourselves, after much deliberation, I don't care if late updates have been made, or not....

Based on practise today, Is the Mclaren SLOW or FAST?

[Jean Todt 4]

Its still too early to predict anything..I think Redbulls and Ferraris still have something left...But anyway, I am happy to see Mclaren back on track.....

[BradSpeedMan 6]

Yes, well I went ahead and baked the crow pie. Before I cut a slice the question I have to ask, is this extreme sandbagging or Woking escaping from the jaws of hell with a last minute miracle on the design front.

I think a little bit of both...what a pleasant suprise/miracle

[Insider 0]

The question we need to ask ourselves, after much deliberation, I don't care if late updates have been made, or not....

Based on practise today, Is the Mclaren SLOW or FAST?

Well, it's obviously far more competitive than a lot of people thought and I feel Jenson is beginning to think and operate in the Schumi/Alonso class nowadays and can get more out of the car than he may have done previously. If RBR and Ferrari really turn the wick up, the MP4-26 might be found wanting. P3 will be a good exercise in that respect.

[Insider 0]

Its still too early to predict anything..I think Redbulls and Ferraris still have something left...But anyway, I am happy to see Mclaren back on track.....

Armchair experts

[HandyNZL 1]

Maybe it was a case of having two cars designed all along? The pre-season car featured the trick exhaust, which was a series of small exhausts blowing over the rear, which would have created more downforce than a conventional blown diffuser, however, that must have played hell with the tuning of the exhaust system...it's tough enough making a four into one set of pipes work, let alone an 4 into one into 20....back pressure must have been a bitch to find. However the only way to fine tune both the engine AND the diffuser was on track, so that is what they were doing, however always waiting in the wings was the fall back design. Macca may be good at bringing things on to the car, but two weeks is a little too fast, even for them, not excluding the fact that it had to be shipped to Aussie, so that's even less time.

No, my take is that they had a car designed by the numbers and the wind tunnel waiting in the wings "just in case" and they had the car/package that was their wet dream doing the laps at the tests. That would be a very McLaren thing....afterall, all along no one has really been saying "oh Sh#t oh horror oh woe" at McLaren.

We'll have a better picture after FP3, but I think the car is there or thereabouts, and a nudge ahead of the Mercedes, as Schumi topped the times for a brief moment, only to be lopped off by McLaren....

[BradSpeedMan 6]

Well, it's obviously far more competitive than a lot of people thought and I feel Jenson is beginning to think and operate in the Schumi/Alonso class nowadays and can get more out of the car than he may have done previously. If RBR and Ferrari really turn the wick up, the MP4-26 might be found wanting. P3 will be a good exercise in that respect.

Same can be said of Mclaren, I mean the car have the potential to be developed even further. Let's see where we're at 2morrow come qualifying

[Insider 0]

Same can be said of Mclaren, I mean the car have the potential to be developed even further. Let's see where we're at 2morrow come qualifying

That goes without saying. What we don't want is rain. The FIA have banned rear wing use in the wet, by the way.

[Insider 0]

Maybe it was a case of having two cars designed all along? The pre-season car featured the trick exhaust, which was a series of small exhausts blowing over the rear, which would have created more downforce than a conventional blown diffuser, however, that must have played hell with the tuning of the exhaust system...it's tough enough making a four into one set of pipes work, let alone an 4 into one into 20....back pressure must have been a bitch to find. However the only way to fine tune both the engine AND the diffuser was on track, so that is what they were doing, however always waiting in the wings was the fall back design. Macca may be good at bringing things on to the car, but two weeks is a little too fast, even for them, not excluding the fact that it had to be shipped to Aussie, so that's even less time.

No, my take is that they had a car designed by the numbers and the wind tunnel waiting in the wings "just in case" and they had the car/package that was their wet dream doing the laps at the tests. That would be a very McLaren thing....afterall, all along no one has really been saying "oh Sh#t oh horror oh woe" at McLaren.

We'll have a better picture after FP3, but I think the car is there or thereabouts, and a nudge ahead of the Mercedes, as Schumi topped the times for a brief moment, only to be lopped off by McLaren....

We'll never know but it's a reasonably sound presumption and I applaud the technical nous. It may have been, 'Well, chaps we have one that's a goer but we want to run down the radical route for a while to see if we can get Newey to Sh#t his pants'. However, I really don't believe they had the time or resources to do that. Either way, it will show up in the FOCA audit at some point [whatever did happen to the 'RBR have overspent' row?]. I think that after Pre-season 2 Macca put development into warp drive and got there by the skin of their teeth. Period.

[BradSpeedMan 6]

Maybe it was a case of having two cars designed all along? The pre-season car featured the trick exhaust, which was a series of small exhausts blowing over the rear, which would have created more downforce than a conventional blown diffuser, however, that must have played hell with the tuning of the exhaust system...it's tough enough making a four into one set of pipes work, let alone an 4 into one into 20....back pressure must have been a bitch to find. However the only way to fine tune both the engine AND the diffuser was on track, so that is what they were doing, however always waiting in the wings was the fall back design. Macca may be good at bringing things on to the car, but two weeks is a little too fast, even for them, not excluding the fact that it had to be shipped to Aussie, so that's even less time.

No, my take is that they had a car designed by the numbers and the wind tunnel waiting in the wings "just in case" and they had the car/package that was their wet dream doing the laps at the tests. That would be a very McLaren thing....afterall, all along no one has really been saying "oh Sh#t oh horror oh woe" at McLaren.

We'll have a better picture after FP3, but I think the car is there or thereabouts, and a nudge ahead of the Mercedes, as Schumi topped the times for a brief moment, only to be lopped off by McLaren....

Your rationale makes alot of sense, at Abu Dhabi (I keep using this as reference) Mclaren was the 2nd best car on the grid. Together with the advantage of Kers, they were always going to be a handful if the car was build evolutionary.

Yes, I keep saying the obvious but thats just the way it is..

[HandyNZL 1]

I can say bitch but I can't say Sh#t? What a Sh#tting bitch....

[Jean Todt 4]

Armchair experts

[yurp 0]

Sandbagging - no. I would think so if they had changed out a simple back end for a complex one but not the other way around. They wouldn't go to the trouble of deliberately designing a highly complicated and crappy back end just to fool everyone. They would have designed a simpler but crappier one, then bought out the currect configuration today.

Fast or Slow - It looks to me like they'll be around the pace of Ferrari and RB although possibly not as consistent in all conditions and throughout the race (i.e. with full fuel load to empty). We may see them struggle at the start of the race only to be threatening in the last few laps. We may not. Let's watch them compared with everyone else over race distance and see what happens. I still have a feeling RB will be quickest out of the box, but perhaps Macca will mix it up in qually (with lap times like FP2) and Ferrari will do so in the race.

Fun fun.

[Kopite Girl 0]

Ok. I'll hedge my bets. Red Bull qualifying lock out. McL race day 1-2. Vettel retires, Webber 4th. Alonso and Button exciting scrap. Not sure which of the GB boys will win.

Surprise of the weekend: Barrichello. Williams are making a comeback. Flop of the weekend: Felipe Massa. Talks big, doesn't quite live up to it.

Lets see. I know I said I wouldn't predict, but I just had to, first race of the season!

[HandyNZL 1]

**clears away the rubbish from the rostrum dias**

**arranges the chairs in the room into neat rows**

**sits and waits for the room to fill and for the keynote speaker, aka Steph**

[Kopite Girl 0]

I f*cking rock harder than a juiced up Jimi Hendrix playing his best gig EVER! That's what you call an OH YEAH BABY moment.

One race does not a season make, but it does feel good to know some folks are still picking up their bottom jaw from the floor! Now, time to win the championship.

[yurp 0]

Bravo Steph - you called it right.

I'm glad I kept my mouth shut re. Macca. They certainly have pulled the proverbial rabbit from some orifice or another.