Vodaphone McLaren Mercedes MP4-24

[di44ety]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oImPiK4l8fE[/youtube]

[Shrek]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oImPiK4l8fE[/youtube]

What is that little dodad? i think somebody (ferrari maybe) had the same thing some time ago

[JamesS]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oImPiK4l8fE[/youtube]

What is that little dodad? i think somebody (ferrari maybe) had the same thing some time ago

A novel way of increasing brake cooling by the looks of it.

[scarbs]

This parts been on the car for many years. Although originally its was primarily a cheeky way to put an airflow control device on the brake duct, it also serves to send cooling air to the brake caliper pistons.

[zgred]

Q: If you could wind back the clock, what engineering decisions by the team this year would you like to undo?

Paddy Lowe (GBR) McLaren Engineering Director: I’ve totted up the points and we’ve score more points since Germany than any other team, which is very satisfying. We did make a number of mistakes, which we have been quite honest about. I think one of the areas would relate to the fitment of KERS and weight distribution. We did make an error in terms of our basic front to rear weight distribution choice. With KERS on the car we had no freedom to move that in the early part of the season. There’s a fundamental design choice there that we’d rather take again. I think there are some aerodynamic choices that we would have redone, but I think that they are quite difficult to describe in detail. Another big player was the interpretation of the rules in relation to floors. I don’t know how I would have my time again on that, but I’d rather have worked from the start with the same interpretation as some of the other teams. That would certainly have helped us out.

Quite honest :]

[ISLAMATRON]

I wonder if he means the placement of the batteries, or if they should have never fitted KERS at all.

I would have thought the Ferrari solution of putting them under the driver's legs would have been the most ideal.

[Richard]

I wonder if he means the placement of the batteries, or if they should have never fitted KERS at all.

I would have thought the Ferrari solution of putting them under the driver's legs would have been the most ideal.

I read it as regretting the weight distribution.

He says they chose the balance and located the batteries accordingly. His regret is that the batteries couldn't be moved later on.

[bill shoe]

Some McLaren person recently said they successfully achieved the very difficult task of taking weight OFF the rear end over the season. This means the original intrinsic weight distribution was too rear biased. The lack of ballast due to KERS meant they could not artificially move it forward like in years past. One thing they might have done differently was locate the batteries farther forward. A more general approach would have been to move the weight distribution forward by using a longer bellhousing or something like that. Someone on this site did a pre-season analysis of 2009 wheelbases that showed a variation range of around 2 inches with McLaren at the short end, so they had some design freedom to make the wheelbase longer in the beginning but chose not to.

Love Paddy Lowe's carefully vague speaking style. I wonder what it's like to talk to these people at home? Q: "Honey, are you ready for dinner yet?" A: "I am ready for something and this is the normal dinner time, but it would be too difficult to describe specifically whether or not I want dinner at the present time. I do, however, wish I had made a different choice about the time I ate lunch as that caused considerable problems."

How about requiring teams to release engineering data for their cars at the end of each season. Things like weight distribution for each race, wheelbase, maybe a few other parameters that the FIA can easily measure during tech inspection. This is not much info in the big picture, but is there any reason why a fan-dependent sport should not do at least this much?

[benjabulle]

I remember reading an article in 1993 Racecar Engineering about Benetton B193 launch, R.Brawn was telling they wouldn't release wheelbase figure as it was considered as a sensitive information.

[zgred]

[ISLAMATRON]

tire/wheel warmer... if they started heating them up now, that shows how much of a waste of energy they are

[zgred]

[BreezyRacer]

That undertray looks really different. Check out the upper area in front of the rear wheels. It looks like there there might be a vent there and it's shaped rather than flat. What a nice pic!

[timbo]

So, now McLaren guys started to drag floor around...
I wonder why)))

[BreezyRacer]

So, now McLaren guys started to drag floor around...
I wonder why)))

I suspect it's a new piece that was shipped in from the factory. The upper floor area ahead of the rear tire looks very different to me. Check out how deep the diffuser tunnels are and how the flat bottom is aligned with the tunnel inlets. I can imagine those tunnels are right up to the tranny. A great look at what we wonder those tunnels look like. Is it any wonder that it took half a season for everyone to catch up with Brawn?