Vodaphone McLaren Mercedes MP4-24

[bidong]

I personally believe that McLaren is making a new diffuser, but are not willing to show it till the first race, hence the 08 rear wing... people have been saying that D/F to Drag coefficient can never be simulated by the 08 wing for it has a larger surface area. But... I was just thinking and this is my opinion, maybe they have designed a diffuser that could counter-act the drag coefficient of the 09 rear wing. I don't know it's all open for me... It is either McLaren is having a big problem or they're just keeping their cards to themselves...

What would the McLaren engineers do when they saw Newey's design of a diffuser, after Williams and Toyota, had theirs legalized... THEY WILL IMPROVE IT.

Hence, I think the last day of the barcelona test is the most important... unless it rains... again... F1 is starting to hate GLOBAL WARMING!!!

[quidam]

I personally believe that McLaren is making a new diffuser, but are not willing to show it till the first race, hence the 08 rear wing... people have been saying that D/F to Drag coefficient can never be simulated by the 08 wing for it has a larger surface area. But... I was just thinking and this is my opinion, maybe they have designed a diffuser that could counter-act the drag coefficient of the 09 rear wing. I don't know it's all open for me... It is either McLaren is having a big problem or they're just keeping their cards to themselves...

What would the McLaren engineers do when they saw Newey's design of a diffuser, after Williams and Toyota, had theirs legalized... THEY WILL IMPROVE IT.

Hence, I think the last day of the barcelona test is the most important... unless it rains... again... F1 is starting to hate GLOBAL WARMING!!!

Renault has updated his difuser



Nothing to hide

[quidam]

what ever is going on, mclaren have made winter testing fascinating.
It may be they have problems, but i don't think they are so daft just to be trying to cover it up with running the 2008 wing. They must surely believe, rightly or wrongly, the 2008 wing better represents their final package for melbourne.

Half size, higher = impossible to have same downforce

[lkocev]

this thing of beauty keeps on getting better and better...

Is it just the angle at which this picture was taken, or has the nose been lowered and the front wing pylons made more rounded?

It appears that way, however I dont think they would change much on the nose apart from the connecting pillars because I'm guessing they would have to re-submit their nose for crash testing. The nose does look a little similar to that of the MP4-20. Great looking wing design...

[malafunkshun]

this thing of beauty keeps on getting better and better...

What's that horizontal thing sticking out in the inside wheel fairing? Any idea guys?

[Spencifer_Murphy]

I reckon that they (late on) sumbled upon a design that works better than their current rear end aero package. This package could be such that their 2008 spec wing better simulates it's performance hence the running of the old wing.

The problem for them being, its come so late and taking so long that the can't test it yet. An example would be the various (I think theres been 3 so far) '09 spec wings we've seen them run.

Being fair, they have run last years wing with half the diffuser blocked off, so they can't be struggling for grip THAT badly.

[myurr]

What's that horizontal thing sticking out in the inside wheel fairing? Any idea guys?

I think you're seeing the lower front wishbone. The only thing sticking out of the inside wheel fairing is the semi-circular brake duct.

Edit: I see what you mean now. The black square lower down. I'm not sure but think that could be on the tarmac.

[natef1]

I don't think it's on the tarmac..



Do you mean this piece? (in the yellow circle, lol)

[imightbewrong]

Possibly a camera to monitor the new front wing (or maybe even the flow viz flow?)?
It is not present on this picture that is a day or two earlier with the old front wing..


edit: oh, wait a minute.. thats the old wing too in that picture, but maybe they had prepared for the new one? dunno..

[roost89]

The encircled object seems to be some kind of aero tab on the inside of the wheel, well it appears to be that on the closer image

[kilcoo316]

Being fair, they have run last years wing with half the diffuser blocked off, so they can't be struggling for grip THAT badly.

Seriously?

If they are doing that, the running of the 2008 rear wing only gets stupider then!


As you all know, underfloor and rear wing grip are two entirely different entities-

One is very sensitive to the car pitch and ride height, the other not.
One is quite sensitive to the car's yaw angle, the other not.


So not only are they losing out accurate L/D data by running the 2008 rear wing, they are now sacrificing an accurate underfloor aero map too*!?!

*if they are running with half a 2009 diffuser.



Strange... very strange.

[Spencifer_Murphy]

I can't find a pic to demonstrate, but if you imagine cutting the diffuser in half (allong the centre line of the car from front to back) and look at the cross section it looks like they've filled it a bit to reduce the area of the diffuser.

I can only imagine its because they have run the 09 wings with 09 underfloor in order to get an accurate underfloor map, then run the 08 wing with half the 09 diffuser in order to simulate OVERALL downforce levels with their (yet to be seen) rear end aero update.

This is of course assuming there even is an update!

[nudger]

what ever is going on, mclaren have made winter testing fascinating.
It may be they have problems, but i don't think they are so daft just to be trying to cover it up with running the 2008 wing. They must surely believe, rightly or wrongly, the 2008 wing better represents their final package for melbourne.

Half size, higher = impossible to have same downforce

not, it isnt impossible. it is a modified 08 wing, not one producinng 08 downforce levels. you can approximate the downforce of the complete rear end package using such a wing...ie, what they expect to have with their race floor and diffuser plus the 09 wing.

[MattF1]

I think, correct me if im wrong here please, is that you are saying:

Blocked off '09 diffuser + low df '08 rear wing
=
New '09 Rear end package (i.e. new RW, Floor + diffuser)

I don't know enough to be able to make a judgement on this one.

[Spencifer_Murphy]

That's what I'm getting at yeah...but I really don't know. Im just trying to make sence out of some really confusing things that they'redoing.