http://www.itv-f1.com/News_Article.aspx?id=45263
Ron Dennis has been known to lower expectations about every time he opens his mouth. I read this as McL having a lot of confidence.
I think they do have a problem, but not one that they can't over-come. However the fact that now a race winner get's 12 points, runner-up will get 9 and 3rd place will have to settle for 7 points. It will have to be a quick fix if Mclaren have to play catch up when the racing starts.
it was only a couple of years ago mclaren were a running joke for 5 years straight thanks to schumacher and friends. anything can happen the rules are so drastically different this year maybe they really are having trouble. i'll only be convinced once i see the australian gp
I doubt the Australian GP will be any indicator of how McLaren (or Ferrari) will do for the whole season. Remember last year's McLaren was developed so much over the season that by the end of the year, if it were to run the Australian GP all over again it would've lapped over 2 seconds faster.
They have a serious problem; their math in the wind tunnel/cfd does not match the cars performance on track. Hence the green dye they tried a few weeks ago. In F1 that is always done in the wind tunnel,where competitors can't view the airflow over a car. Also, this is the first car that does not utilize Adrian Newey's original template from years ago. (every Mclaren has been an evolution of the year before.) they also don't have Mike Coughlan anymore. Don't believe the sand bagging hype - sponsors love seeing their car at the top any time of year. If any team can rebound quickly, it's McLaren, but don't forget their near misses like the mp4-17...., Kevin
Good point as I'am aware, I assumed it did, Bernie backs the idea as it's similar to the one he was whining on about with his medal system, however IIRC it's ultimately unfortunately decided by the one and only Mad Max. So he might leave it to mid season and change it to suit the title race..
Should be an interesting season; we might get the chance to see if those on this forum who were asserting that LH would be useless in a mid-field car were correct.
Ahh yes Ian, the thought had crossed my mind, it goes without saying really of course he won't be useless. Ok it's testing ect but that's all we got to go on for now, highlighted It's shaping up to be a interesting season though.. 11 L. Hamilton McLaren MP4-24...............1'20''869 +1''943 156 12 K. Nakajima Williams FW31..................1'20''907 +1''981 177 13 J. Trulli Toyota TF109........................1'20''937 +2''011 242 14 S. Buemi Toro R. STR4.......................1'21''013 +2''087 213 15 G. Fisichella F. India VJM02.................1'21''045 +2''119 238 16 M. Webber Red Bull RB5......................1'21''347 +2''421 183 17 S. Bourdais Toro R. STR4....................1'21''629 +2''703 127 18 N. Piquet Jr Renault R29......................1'21''662 +2''736 126 19 A. Sutil F. India VJM02.......................1'21''834 +2''908 211 20 H. Kovalainen McLaren MP4-24.............1'21''991 +3''065 178
