McLaren MP4-31 Honda

[Thunder]

Every following Picture is from Craig Scarborough's Twitter:
https://twitter.com/scarbstech

Nothing new but some very nice closeups there.



RW Pylon through the Exhaust closeup:






https://twitter.com/ScarbsTech/status/8 ... 8882380800

[mclaren111]

Thunders:

Nothing new but some very nice closeups there.

The top left "outwash" area on the FW looks different to me & the little upwash on the inside of the Endplate is missing / has been removed.

[Thunder]

https://twitter.com/ScarbsTech/status/8 ... 5188537345 Closed Axle again. https://twitter.com/AlbertFabrega/statu ... 3257904128

[mclaren111]

Thunders:

Nothing new but some very nice closeups there.

Very nice pictures indeed !!!! Thank You !!!!!

Ignore my post above !!! Being blind again today !!!!!

[ringo]

That's a lot of cable on the front hub. What can they possibly be measuring, higgs boson particles?

[turbof1]

I am removing a few posts about the winter break which are irrelevant to the hardware topic.

On a similar note, speculation topics are now also going to be opened!

[Wazari]

I do not want this to be a chassis vs. PU debate. It is already established that Renault and Honda had the least amount of peak power in relation to Ferrari and Mercedes. Strictly in IMO, the MP4-31 had rear suspension issues in its basic design. This in turn had an effect on everything else. I have heard and read about how good or bad the chassis was and so on, or that McLaren was always running a low DF set up compared to the others. I will say that if you compare the Mercedes customer cars, that should give some indication on how much a difference the chassis alone can make. I am not a suspension or aero efficiency expert but I really believe that chassis development is just as if not more labor intensive and time consuming to achieve significant improvements that the PU.

This year getting tire temperatures and mechanical grip to desired levels proved extremely difficult and much higher levels of DF were run than anticipated to get the rear to work. This in turn required more than anticipated adjustments to the front to offset increased under steer. Many think that is was good that numerous FW changes were made from race to race to show how aggressive and progressive the chassis manufacturer but sometimes the opposite is true; like a dog chasing its own tail. I don't know of any F1 driver that prefers under-steer to a slight over-steer condition if given the two choices. I think the public did hear both Button and Alonso complain throughout the season of under steering issues. I believe this stems from the rear suspension issue. At times it was frustrating to me to hear how good the chassis was in comparison to the others. It was also "interesting" to me to hear that McLaren was always running low DF compared to others. That definitely was not the case. Again IMO, aero efficiency was an issue this season. It is established that Honda had the lowest ICE output of the four, but that was not the sole reason for lower speed trap readings.

[diffuser]

Thank you for taking the time and giving us your insights.

[ringo]

Ok insightful post Wazari.
So.. what you are saying is that you can have more downforce over the rear axle on one car with a poor suspension design, as opposed to a car with a better suspension design with less downforce, but still end up with better grip from the lower downforce car?
So therefore more down force doesn't necessarily equate to getting the tyres to work better.

[Sasha]

What he is saying is McLaren could never get the rear to work and adding DF didn't help.(too much drag and at tracks that needed more front DF caused them to loose all the rear grip.)

[Wazari]

Ok insightful post Wazari.
So.. what you are saying is that you can have more downforce over the rear axle on one car with a poor suspension design, as opposed to a car with a better suspension design with less downforce, but still end up with better grip from the lower downforce car?
So therefore more down force doesn't necessarily equate to getting the tyres to work better.

Yes, you are correct. Two cars starting from a standstill can have different grip (traction) levels with the same tires. There is no DF at that point but suspension geometry and car rake play an important role in grip levels.

[Wazari]

What he is saying is McLaren could never get the rear to work and adding DF didn't help.(too much drag and at tracks that needed more front DF caused them to loose all the rear grip.)

Precisely. Balancing this year's car proved to be very difficult. The sweet spot was a very narrow window.

[Thunder]

That's what we heard all Year between the Lines. The biggest flaw of the Car was the Rear Suspension. I just hope they know exactly how o fix it.

[mclaren111]

Thank You Wazari. Great postings as usual !!

Looking forward to 2017 And a much improved MP4-32 [-o< [-o<

[mclaren111]

That's what we heard all Year between the Lines. The biggest flaw of the Car was the Rear Suspension. I just hope they know exactly how o fix it.

Correct. Mark Hughes and Andrew Benson reported on this early in the year as well.

Let's hope MP4-32 is a stunner !!!