McLaren MP4-28 Mercedes

[Pup]

[turbof1]

I agree to disagree . Ultimately, a driver can only feel if he gets more or less grip. Might also add in that he did not said it didn't made a difference, only that due the limited time and half wet half dry conditions, he couldn't draw any conclusions.

Exactly. I tried the front wing, but it was pretty difficult to draw any conclusions.

I'm quite sure they'll run it again tommorow; 15minutes running in changing conditions is in no way a base to decide something works or not. McLaren might be trying to play it safe.

[stefan_]

Spain 2013 - Friday (10.05.2013)

[rich1701]

The aero updates look progressive. But that Mclaren still looks horrible over the bumps with excessive rebound. The fundemtal flaws have not gone away.

[wesley123]

The ultra stiff suspension however isnt a flaw.

[PlatinumZealot]

More potential than Mp4-27, my butt!

I give up!

Forget this car, the should just field the 27 and call it a day!

[ringo]

I like what they did here. They should have done it with the front suspension. Notice that the A arm has a bracket,that is then bolted to the gearbox?
Doing this they can have different brackets with different locations for that suspension point while still bolting up to the same 3 holes on the gearbox.
So to me, it looks like they are playing around with the suspension "the platform" as Sam Micheal so vaguely puts it.

[wesley123]

More potential than Mp4-27, my butt!

I give up!

Forget this car, the should just field the 27 and call it a day!

So you base that on 2 practice sessions where no one tries to be fastest and times matter very little?

[f1rules]

wouldn't it be funny if they found out, it actually is the suspension doing unforeseen things with ride height, disturbing the airflow, how on earth they could be this wrong I still don't understand. going from the 27 to this. With the 27 the correlation seemed to work perfect. Only big difference is suspension and raised front. Ive never been this disappointed in my team before, ad to that two mediocre drivers Jezz this is a bad year being a mclaren fan

[SiLo]

Anyone know what times this car is doing relative to last years car? I'm pretty sure it's been slower...

[gary123]

Last year Button was the fastest in FP2 with a 1:23.399. This year he did a 1:23.151.

this is not a good thing. because last year car in barcellona was the A version, so the mp4-28 si slower than the mp4-27 B, plus the tires this year are almost half second faster than last year...

[rssh]

Brain drain crisis at Mclaren

I think you've hit upon McL's problem: they have lost several good technical people, and have not been able to bring in equally good people (or those new people are not yet fully integrated into the team). No wonder they tried so hard to get Allison from Lotus (who apparently will go back to Ferrari).

Lets hope Macca got Allison for next season to balance it out.

Also what absurd reason given by whitmrash that new front wings have not been flex tested by FIA !!!
He could have always said that they didn't perform well as the earlier one. There is an inherent lack of overall downforce which can be seen at turn 3 .

[Lorenzo_Bandini]

Adam Cooper ‏@adamcooperf1 40m
Martin Whitmarsh confirmed that McLaren did not use the new front wing today because the team was not confident in its legality

Adam Cooper ‏@adamcooperf1 39m
Basically McLaren was not able to test it on the FIA scrutineering rig and thus could not be 100% sure it would pass post qualifying

[ringo]

ok so it's a silver bullet wing with some trick up it's sleeve.

[Shakeman]

Adam Cooper ‏@adamcooperf1 40m
Martin Whitmarsh confirmed that McLaren did not use the new front wing today because the team was not confident in its legality

Adam Cooper ‏@adamcooperf1 39m
Basically McLaren was not able to test it on the FIA scrutineering rig and thus could not be 100% sure it would pass post qualifying

Is that just spin? Spin from McLaren because their update simply haven't worked. There was no evidence that the new front wing made much difference. I'm getting tired of the whiny Button.

Gary Anderson pointed out how relatively simple the McLaren front wing is compared to the rest of the leading team, less elements the less the front wing can influence the airflow to the rest of the car. To an untrained eye the McLaren front wing does look less developed than the top tier.