Mclaren revival?

[DaveKillens]

The lump of metal that is the powerplant may be just fine, putting out crazy-ass power on a dyno all day long. But just as important is the packaging of this engine into the car itself. The size of the radiators, the management of heat and vibration, all those kinds of things are important to the reliability of the engine. And there is where Mclaren sometimes shoot themselves in the foot, by leaning too much toward risk, and wind up like they occasionally do, with a car parked on the side of the track.

[dumrick]

But the fact is the car went on fire, because the heat shield was saturated by the high temperature, which, excuse me, come obviously from an overheated engine.

Sorry for my previous outburst!
The fact is that the engine itself didn't overheat. The (shameful) fact was that the amount of heat generated by the exhaust caused other parts (badly placed or protected) to get on fire.
But, as far as I know, the integrity of the engine and exhaust and direct engine accessories (I don't know however where were located these wires and to which system they belonged) has been preserved.

[vyselegend]

Ok, you're right. I should have said "an overheated engine compartment". Put in that way, it makes the engine faultless.

However, I keep my opinion that running the engine up to 19 800 revs/min was too agressive a strategy, and it remain to be proved that this engine could have survive Silverstone GP after that. What I mean is Mac Laren really risked everything for the win here, and I suspect they were once again secretly in a one GP engine strategy as I suspect they often were last year. Not because the engine is designed for one GP only but because of the way it's mapped.

There is also something strange about the team running a smaller (and yet untested ) radiator here, as, according to commentators, nearly all the teams were doing the contrary, running new larger ones, not only for Monaco but because we're comming to the summer races period.

[Zelig]

... and I suspect they were once again secretly in a one GP engine strategy as I suspect they often were last year...

hmmm, I think You've got the point... Monaco is definitely the race to put some risk in, if Your car is not so competitive... Hungary and France too - remember Alonso 2003 in Hungary, and 2004. in France, Trulli 2004. in Monaco...

There is also something strange about the team running a smaller (and yet untested ) radiator here, as, according to commentators, nearly all the teams were doing the contrary, running new larger ones, not only for Monaco but because we're comming to the summer races period.

yes, quite strange... as far as I know You need long straights to cool off engine properly, as in curves radiator does not get full capacity of airflow, so in Monaco larger ones are needed... but they probably know something we don't...

[RACKITUP]

Its clear that the McLaren is the best car in the field, abiet its damn engine; its aerodynamics and chassis being sublime.

Aerodynamics play a major roll on an F1 car, not just to provide downforce, but turbulating the air, and external heat dissipation.

Because McLarens aerodynamics are so good (ie external heat dissipation through gills and chimneys etc) it allows them to run a reduced intake area to the radiators which can significantly minimise drag.

Just seems that this time, they were too aggressive with the compromise between heat dissipators and intake size in the worst case scenario that developed; following Renault for so long, coupled with the safety car period.

Does that mean Kimi will be deducted 10 places at Silverstone, or was Monaco the "2nd race"?


rkp

[dumrick]

Its clear that the McLaren is the best car in the field, abiet its damn engine; its aerodynamics and chassis being sublime.

Good joke, man. It has a nice colour, indeed...

[johny]

Does that mean Kimi will be deducted 10 places at Silverstone, or was Monaco the "2nd race"?

obviosly if you break down during a race it's enough penalty

[kilcoo316]

Its clear that the McLaren is the best car in the field, abiet its damn engine; its aerodynamics and chassis being sublime.

Is it?


Clear as mud to me...



I thought the renault was the best car in the field (by a mile)...

[janus]

Its clear that the McLaren is the best car in the field, abiet its damn engine; its aerodynamics and chassis being sublime.

Aerodynamics play a major roll on an F1 car, not just to provide downforce, but turbulating the air, and external heat dissipation.

Because McLarens aerodynamics are so good (ie external heat dissipation through gills and chimneys etc) it allows them to run a reduced intake area to the radiators which can significantly minimise drag.

Just seems that this time, they were too aggressive with the compromise between heat dissipators and intake size in the worst case scenario that developed; following Renault for so long, coupled with the safety car period.

Does that mean Kimi will be deducted 10 places at Silverstone, or was Monaco the "2nd race"?


rkp

get a life mclaren fanatic "the bets car in the field"" its a joke the best car is a renault or a ferrari

about hte size of the intake renault intake are the same size maby smaller and the engine dont blow..the problem is the engine there you are right but put a renault engine or a ferrari in a mclarem and it not the fast car os the grid

The real problem is clear ist call adrian newey just read wy him was to left mclarem in 2003....

[tetopelis]

wow..hahaha..critical.. okie even though i'm a mclaren fan, nah i don't think they are the best car in the field. even if they have improved they may be a few tenths still behind renault in a normal race track, or if even given the case its back to last years case now that they are the fastest car out there (cos i was really amazed with the pace kimi had in monaco, albiet it being such a twisty circuit, if your car is not fast it won't be the fastest), renault is still a step up cos of thier consistency. and ppl not engine failure..the engine wasn't fuming. Wiring loom caught fire, due to the hot air extracted by the engine exhaust which heated up the heat deflectors (plated in gold, inert won't catch on fire) to a point it heated the loom under it (components of wires are not inert hence can catch fire). the engine did not fail, for all i know its an updated engine which is much more powerful in that mclaren, hence definetly the more power the more heat. The fault of mclaren, the forget to offset the more heat with a better cooling mechanism. Honestly if the engine failed i would still say its okie, but the component which failed, made the guys at mclaren seem silly for leaving out that detail. You guys embarresed yourselves mclaren.
but past that, we'll only know how much they improved at the test at barcelona and at silverstone in a forthnites time. I hope they can race for wins..but we'll just see i guess.

[Vasco]

I think that Mclaren are still behind Renault and Ferrari. They have looked really quick at tight, twisty circuits. When it comes to medium-high speed tracks they suffer, which makes u wonder about that Mercedes engine. Looking at the current barcelona tests it seems that Ferrari and Renault are still the teams to beat.

[jgredline]

In my opinion, the problem is the sled in the back of the Mclaren. That Mercedez is plain slow. Like Kimi himself said. In Barcelona you can't mask where the problems are and the main problem there was it did not handle good in the straights.

[vyselegend]

I really don't understand how a talented motorist as Mercedes can be stucked with reliability issues for so long. Ok, you have a problem with pistons, so you renforce them, you test it, now what? oil pump failure, correct it, and then? carburator, clutch, cylinder head, whatever... it all should be sorted out in some time!

I wonder if finally they didn't choose to sacrifice 2006 campain, opting for an intermediary design, as they're actually devoting all resources to the real design, which would show up in 2007. Keeping in mind the way Ron threatened his drivers with recrutment of Fernando, he didn't ever seem to pretend being challenging this year. I'm not sure of what I say, it's just a theory based on my own impressions, but maybe Ron and Norbert are just focused on 2007.
2006 is only a matter of saving appearences.

[manchild]

Thing is that Mercedes never made modern F1 engine on its own. Last year they bought Illmor that makes lower parts of the engine for them but this marriage brought no luck.

[NickT]

The problem with the Mercedes/Ilmor is catch up Last year they struggled with reliability and spent the rest of the season playing catch up, this year has been the same

The problem with catch up it everyone else has moved on again Then you compromise reliability once more to rush through new development to try and catch up once more

Kimi seems to bear the brunt of these problems, but I wonder how much of that is down to his lack of mechanical sympathy or education or simply because he is so focused on other things he forgets to look after the engine, where Fernando and Michael both can