F1 Testing today - Barrichello crushing the timesheets

Far Out · Mar 13, 2009

Remy Zero said: ↑

As for Mclaren, there's huge rumours that they're finding it very difficult with the rear end of the car, particularly with the 2009 spec rear wings. It would be logic for them to go sandbagging for 2-3 sessions, but t/out this time, it's a fact that they're using the 2008 spec rear wings to shoot up the time sheets.
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I still find it quite bizarre that they develop those cars right at the edge of aerodynamic knowledge, with every part designed to work only at its very special position on that very car, and then they slap a wing from the older car, with completely different design rules, on it, and are immediately faster.

kraftwerk · Mar 13, 2009

Far Out said: ↑

I still find it quite bizarre that they develop those cars right at the edge of aerodynamic knowledge, with every part designed to work only at its very special position on that very car, and then they slap a wing from the older car, with completely different design rules, on it, and are immediately faster.
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Yes me too..

Anthony_Ferrari · Mar 13, 2009

Remy Zero said: ↑

As for Mclaren, there's huge rumours that they're finding it very difficult with the rear end of the car, particularly with the 2009 spec rear wings. It would be logic for them to go sandbagging for 2-3 sessions, but t/out this time, it's a fact that they're using the 2008 spec rear wings to shoot up the time sheets.
Click to expand...

It's official - the McLaren is not slow, it has a 'performance shortfall'! I thought the days of RonSpeak were meant to be over?

McLaren: We do have a problem

13/03/2009

Days after Ron Dennis refuted claims that there were concerns over the pace of the 2009 McLaren, team boss Martin Whitmarsh and Mercedes' Norbert Haug have admitted that the MP4-24 is too slow.

"We are working hard to resolve a performance shortfall," admitted Whitmarsh. "Initial testing of the car, which first ran with an interim aero package, went in accordance with early developmental expectations," he continued. "This week the car ran in Barcelona with an updated aero package, as we had always planned it would, and a performance shortfall has been identified that we are now working hard to resolve.

"At the moment the car isn't fast enough," he added, "certainly not by our team's extremely high standards. But Lewis is the world champion, and he became world champion in one of our cars. So anything less than success at that level is naturally regarded as unsatisfactory by us, by our partners, by the media and by the fans.

"The problems are fixable," insists the Englishman. "Many times in Formula One history successful teams have started off with a car that was not working as well as they had hoped it would. And many times have those teams engineered their way back to the front of the grid in impressively short order. That is what we aim to do. In fact, that is what we are already doing."

Haug was equally forthright and equally confident the situation will be rectified.

"Obviously, there is a lack of downforce and we are currently working hard to solve this problem," said the German. "Basically, the car feels good, that is what our drivers say. However, we are currently definitely not fast enough, not competitive enough to aim for victories."

With two weeks to go before the season opener, Whitmarsh admits that there is still some way to go and that not all the MP4-24's problems will be resolved in time.

"Next week we will be testing at Jerez, which many of our rivals will not be," he said. "We aim to continue to develop the car, and the result should be measurable on the stopwatch. Will the car be as quick as we want it to be by March 29? Perhaps not. Will it be quicker than it has been this week at the Barcelona test? Yes. Will it improve as we develop its aero and thereby address its problems in the coming weeks and months? Most certainly."

"We've fixed problems together in the past and we will succeed in doing it again," said Haug. "Expect us to fight back even if it takes some time. If we were not capable of building competitive Formula One cars, we would not have won one third of all grands prix during the past four years."

Article from Pitpass (http://www.pitpass.com):

Published: 13/03/2009
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F1 Testing today - Barrichello crushing the timesheets

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