McLaren MP4-26 Launch

  • Thread starter Thread starter Saidur_Ali
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I think we have a winner since I doubt the Force India, Virgin or HRT is gonna look any better!
 
I seem to be the only one that thinks it looks hideous...
I don't doubt that some brilliant engineering went into developing this peculiar shape they're displaying, and I'm sure that it will be a title contender. But on pure aesthetics I give it a 👎
 
PeterJB
I think we have a winner since I doubt the Force India, Virgin or HRT is gonna look any better!
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I don't know - last year's Virgin looked pretty good.

Boundary Layer
I seem to be the only one that thinks it looks hideous...
I don't doubt that some brilliant engineering went into developing this peculiar shape they're displaying, and I'm sure that it will be a title contender. But on pure aesthetics I give it a 👎
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It's not a pretty car, but it's not an ugly one, either.
 
I wonder how comfy that interior is?

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I was waiting for this one for a long time. It looks awesome :D

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Whats the bet that they will have catastrophic overheating issues, and the car will be very aerodynamically inefficient compared to Red Bull?

Still looks awesome though, best looking F1 car i've seen in many years.

I hear they're running quite a long wheelbase too, perhaps longer than last years? When many other outfits have probably shrunk their designs a bit as they no longer have the double diffuser, so the cons of a longer car (And therefore a longer diffuser) probably now outweigh the pros.
 
i love the uniqueness of this car: the front brake air ducts, L shaped side pods, second air intake for cooling the gearbox, and the smaller camera pod above the driver, looks like a very promising car for this years championship.

Too bad there's a little less than one month left before anything gets really competitive.

EDIT: I Love the Wheel Too.
 
So who is the Number 1 driver Jenson or Lewis? I heard that Jenson was first driver this year. In other words he has a number 1 on his car and Lewis a number 2.
 
Driver with a number 1 on his car is Vettel and he doesn't drive for McLaren.

Judging by what happened last year, within the McLaren team both drivers will get equal treatment, at least until one of them reveals himself as a title contender and/or the other is out of the title race.

But if it's true I'm no adept of conspiracy theories, it's true also that I'm no futurologist, so we'll just have to see how the season unfolds and what will happen
 
I would guess the other way round as Lewis finished higher in the Championship last year.

*edit*

D'oh. Of course it won't be 1 and 2. Lewis will have 3 and Jenson 4.
 
JoeMaPampang
So who is the Number 1 driver Jenson or Lewis? I heard that Jenson was first driver this year. In other words he has a number 1 on his car and Lewis a number 2.
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That wouldn't make any sense. Even when Jenson was 1 and Lewis 2, in reality their number one driver was Lewis, whether they treated it that way or not. Lewis was simply the better driver of the two, and always will be. Going into 2011, it would definitely make no sense to give the first number (in this case 3) to their number two driver and the second number (4) to their top driver. Further, this would make no sense considering that Lewis finished ahead of Jenson in 2010.

At the end of the day, whether they treat Jenson as the official number two or not, everybody knows who McLaren's best driver is.
 
Tomorrow hopefully McLaren will show they have good pace on long runs. The Red Bull and Ferrari look very strong so far in testing, and the worrying thing is they are most likely sandbagging the most. As a McLaren fan I'm genuinely worried, that this could be another season of watching the car just fight to pick up points dropped by the Red Bull team. I hope it is the opposite and tomorrow McLaren and their drivers can look a bit more optimistic about how they are performing.

GT Update and final pre-season F1 testing makes this Friday a very good day.

Edit: I thought I would share this with you as it is slightly related. I saw the other day in a drawer a phone I bought many months ago which I have not opened yet (Got it for £5 delivered including £5 Credit ;)). I decided to look on YouTube at a review to see if it had Snake on the phone and at the ending of the video, the music is the same as the McLaren 3D game. I was pleasantry suprised.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_WCYb_ucqM
 
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interludes
McLaren never had any claim to the 1 and 2 for 2011.
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Yeah, I know. I said that in my post. I referred to them as 3 and 4. When I mentioned their numbers as 1 and 2 it was referring to the 2010 season. I then used 3 and 4 for the 2011 season.
 
F1 fan
Button and Hamilton admit to car concerns. 👍👍👍👍👍

Sorry Mclaren fans... :sly:
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What I'm worrying about is that Hamilton described the 2009 car as having "no downforce" while saying the 2011 car has slighty more downforce than the 2009 car.
Source: BBC F1

I'm worried that the McLaren might not even have the 3rd best car like last year and be jumped by Mercedes and Renault. The Torro Rosso and the Williams might be on McLaren's pace or better. If the RB7 only has slightly less downforce than the RB6 then McLaren might be even further back from the Red Bulls this year.

The RB7 most likely has more downforce than the RB5 and that car I assume that had much more downforce than the MP4-24. The only hope is that the last iteration of the MP4-24 had good levels of downforce as it took pole in the last race by a good margin so hopefully that means the MP4-26 might still be quite close to the RB7.

It is amazing a team the size and budget of McLaren has gone without winning the constructors championship for over 12 years.
 
saidur_ali
It is amazing a team the size and budget of McLaren has gone without winning the constructors championship for over 12 years.
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Yes - but they would've won it the year that they weren't allowed to earn points...

C.
 
yeti
Yes - but they would've won it the year that they weren't allowed to earn points...

C.
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That would have been the case if they appealed for the points lost from the Hungarian Grand Prix and won it but they did not bother due to ending up losing all their points.

I hope that McLaren are not heavily underestimating the competition this year that they could be way off and aiming too low. Hamilton thinks they should at least be around the same position as last year, which is having the 2nd-3rd fastest car with developments coming for the first race but what if Red Bull were running more fuel and slower tyres on there faster runs and have even a better upgrade coming for the first race. The what ifs will go on until the first race is completed. The Bahrain cancellation should help McLaren the most out of the big teams to address reliability issues.
 
saidur_ali
That would have been the case if they appealed for the points lost from the Hungarian Grand Prix and won it but they did not bother due to ending up losing all their points.

I hope that McLaren are not heavily underestimating the competition this year that they could be way off and aiming too low. Hamilton thinks they should at least be around the same position as last year, which is having the 2nd-3rd fastest car with developments coming for the first race but what if Red Bull were running more fuel and slower tyres on there faster runs and have even a better upgrade coming for the first race. The what ifs will go on until the first race is completed. The Bahrain cancellation should help McLaren the most out of the big teams to address reliability issues.
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I think McLaren have been around long enough to know not to take the fastest times set in testing seriously. Considering that McLaren are worried and their drivers are not talking positive, I doubt they underestimate their rivals.
Why on earth would they think Red Bull can't go faster than they have in testing? Its very rare for any of the teams to go 100% for ultimate laptime in testing, McLaren themselves know this. I don't understand how you can think they might underestimate this.

The only teams that McLaren might underestimate are Renault, Williams, Toro Rosso and Sauber. Its quite possible they might fall by one or all of these. But predicting 3rd fastest car is not a positive statement from Hamilton, quite clearly they don't think the car is up to scratch.

Generally speaking, we learn more from the mood and comments from drivers and team personnel in testing than we ever do from the times. Last year, Mercedes were talking down their chances of championsips, which turned out to be true. In 2009 testing, teams were surprised by Brawn's fast pace which turned out to be true. This year we have McLaren and Mercedes sounding quite disappointed with themeselves, chances are they have fallen back this year.
Having said that, Bridgestone were raving about Sauber last year and that turned out to be a load of twaddle for the most part.
 
Ardius
But predicting 3rd fastest car is not a positive statement from Hamilton, quite clearly they don't think the car is up to scratch.
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But nor do they say that the car is a lost cause. Hamilton makes a point to say that the car is nothing like the one they race in 2009, which, judging by his description, sounds like it was almost impossible to drive. The biggest problem with the MP4-26 is downforce: they just don't have enough. If they can find more (and do it in a way that doesn't cause the car to handle any differently), then they should be able to succeed. It's a single problem that they are facing, not a multitude of them. And considering that the entire point of in-season development is to find ways to generate more downforce to go faster, the car should naturally get better. It's not like they will have to take time out from their development schedule to fix the problems before they can return to developing new parts like Virgin did last year.
 
Well obviously because just saying the car is crap and there is no hope with it is bad for morale and sponsors. So saying its 3rd best but there is more speed is basically like saying nothing - yet we all know he is disappointed and he doubts they will be fighting for a championship this year without serious development, otherwise he would have simply said "the car is feeling good and I'm confident, we don't know where the other guys are in relation to us, but the car feels good".
I don't think I've ever seen a Lewis Hamilton interview where he has not said something positive even if the rest of what he is saying is extremely negative. The most downbeat interview I can recall was in 2009 when he was talking about the car was a handful and was just terrible...only to quickly add "but the team does a great job".
 
Kinda surprised the news surrounding the new nose has yet to be added today.
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McLaren nose bubble sparks speculation
McLaren unveiled a bubble nose on the first day of testing at Barcelona, sparking speculation the device would be used at the first race in Australia on March 27.

Jenson Button's first run in the MP4-26 was unremarkable, but when he re-emerged after his first stop the bulbous nose had been fitted - it also featured rods branching out on either side of the front wing.

The consensus was it was an aerodynamic assistance, but at the lunchtime break McLaren explained it was no more than a measuring device and would not feature at any of the races.
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icelt
Kinda surprised the news surrounding the new nose has yet to be added today.
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McLaren nose bubble sparks speculation
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Mclaren confirmed that that nose was a testing only nose. It is a device they are using to measure the loads across the front wing.

A lot of teams have run strange measuring devices at some point in testing.

Autosport
13:11 Our @noblef1 reports: McLaren confirms the extreme nose on the car is a test-only measuring device for 'long-term development purposes'. It won't be raced.
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