True, they did 'swap' some of it... but apparently, they've somewhat fixed the issue. Hamilton was great thru S3 in Barna, so that's a good sign for Monaco, although that long wheelbase will probably hurt them...

Mercedes keeps swapping their wheelbase, why can't McLaren?

Wheelbase length is often seen primarily as a factor in how the car suits fast or slow turns. The common assumption that shorter cars go better around slow tight bends and longer cars go best in longer fast turns. This proves to be largely false, the difference in the longest to shortest cars is only a few percent, certainly not enough to substantially change the cars ability to corner around the hairpin at Monaco. Indeed Monaco proves to be no litmus test for wheelbases as longer cars have frequently won there. I am told that wheelbase changes by a few percent, affect lap times in just thousandths of a second.

were red bull not rubbish at monaco last year? can their car have adapted to the circuit that much, its essentially similar to the rb5 isnt it?

IIRC it was one of their worst circuits last year. They were nowhere near Brawn and Ferrari beat them aswell.

But this year.. even if it's their worst circuit, I still can't imagine them not being on pole.

Yes, apparently, by their own admission (Newey), they still need to resolve slow cornering issues. Although, something is really strange with their abilities in Q3, every race this season.
Newey built another M/P-4 20, but without exploders in the back. Darn this guy is good...

The Mclaren is soooooo long ..... it's going to get stuck in the hairpins

Anyway, I think Mclaren won't be good this year at Monaco due to their long wheel base.

Newey also build mp4-16,19,21......

And that should be of any consolation now.....

I felt as deflated as the left front tyre right after the race; gutted that this happened to Hamilton after such a strong race in which he narrowly got the better of Vettel and Alonso. Had it happened if he had been beaten by Vettel and Alonso at that point already, it wouldn't have been so very disappointing. Take Alonso's engine problem in Malaysia; no doubt that was frustrating, too, but he was only 8th when it happened with a weekend ruined by the wet Q3 anyway. Vettel is the only one who has had similar (non) luck as Hamilton this season. It's a shame because it is very close, and Hamilton lost 18 points and gifted 3 to Alonso and Vettel, probably the most important opponents (though Webber is clearly in it, too). This could cost everything at the end of the season.

Beside the result, it was actually a positive weekend though. Hamilton had Vettel beaten square and fair in the race, though Webber was faster that was excellent when compared to the Q3 result. He also had the measure of Alonso and set the fastest lap; the race pace all in all confirmed the results of the final winter test at the same track, when Hamilton was so impressive.

I hope McLaren has prepared well for Monaco with a special spec for that race; as mentioned here they already have announced a different rear wing so it looks like it. Red Bull has an enormous advantage in Q3 at any track it seems, but in race pace I see no reason why McLaren wouldn't be up there with the best teams.

I had said in the beginning of the season that it will not be much of a factor, but most people did disagree with me on this. Lets see what happens though. Fingers are thoroughly crossed.

Somehow, I think that the team brought the most comprehensive update than any other, and that alone needs a lot of track time, and data gathering in real environment, to really understand and develop a proper settings. We all saw that Ferrari was in front of us at the beggining of a season, by a fine margin, yet, their fiddling with F-Duct have put them behind us right now. On the other hand, RB is a proven concept, where Newey is just refining a small details, adding a little bit of cream on the top, with a base car that is already fully understood, and with a touch of mistery suspension. So, all in all, with long wheelbase myth which is now presumably demistified, I don¨t see any reason why, after whole Barcelona race and data gathering, the team wouldn¸t go one step further and get on par with RB, at least in race trim, because, I don¨t think that anybody can match them in qualy pace. But, a whole bunch of the races ahead won¨t be suited to RB like this one today, like China already proved.

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This photo is hilarious. Look at all the fans with their hands on their head watching Lewis pass Vettel.

"Died in beauty"

doesn't make it easier

To be honest guys I'm really not that disappointed, the fact is we've shown in this race that we looked to have leapfrogged the ferrari's and on race pace we are not a second away from redbull on a circuit that exaggerates it's abilities. Also we are still leading both championships and hamilton is only 18 points behind alonso which is 8 points in last years money. I think if we can show the level of development that we've show before than I have no doubt in both our drivers ability to fight for the championship.

The only concern today for me was when Nick Fry was talking about the red bull on the F1 forum. He seemed to believe that there was something fundamentally different on the car thats allowing it to be so blindingly quick( i think he mentioned 20kph quicker through t9). Is there anything apart from the mysterious suspension that would allow for that maybe the pullrod or maybe something else.

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Button wasn't too ill-suited to Monaco last year, when he was just incredible on both speed and car management... keeping the soft tyres in check while still being faster than anyone out there...

McLaren are the Monaco masters, and surely they've worked out what they need to do to get the win there (and 1. on their list is surely beat the RBR's in Qu. if possible)

They can groan and cheer allthey like....doesn't change the fact that we had thier man beaten all weekend

good post, i think we already proven we are the fastest developers so, Interesting bit about the red bull. I dont know any more. The only thing, we know of, that differs that car from others, is their rear suspension. Watching it in qual its Actually i dont think any team will catch that. But as the gp's already showed, as long as you are in top 4, the victory is within reach.

I was surprised when Massa sad yesterday that Schumacher`s Mercedes was way to slow exiting slow corners, in contrast to Button`s McLaren which was "on rails". Seeing Lewis posting best third sector at Barcelona and Button`s 5th time there, posted behind Schumacher, lift my optimism for Monaco, and from beginning of this season I always think McLaren will damn slow there until now. Now I think they will be competitive, even if they don`t win.

http://www.formula1.com/news/interviews/2010/5/10753.html

http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2010/5/10751.html

http://www.planetf1.com/news/3213/6144984/...ng-his-chin-up-

You've got to love his mental strenght and fighters spirit. I'm desperate for him to win in monaco!!!
He thinks they'll be close to rbr so thumbs up ;).

A disappointing result, but these things happen, on the bright side the car was very consistent and much improved.

Yup, a bright side for sure.

but TELL US ABOUT THE TYRE/WHEEL

go on, we know you know...

The Merc looked pretty good coming out of the last corner, seemed to have far more traction than the cars behind, but I suppose that could be because they were in the dirty air.

Yeah, and who wired up JB's dash.

The parts have been sent back to the McLaren Technology Centre, for analysis, until then the cause of the failure is pure speculation.

until this bitter end ,
it was a flawless performance from the team and Lewis
very impressively
chasing the RedBulls

Yeah I know .

But if a stone had machined a groove in the wheel, for example, you'd have noticed? And told your loyal fans

'cos it's not going to be the paint process problem that got Kovy, is it?

It was reported on TV that the poor pitstops were due to the wheel nuts falling out of the guns. Is this correct, and if so was that user error or equipment failure?

Monaco will be tough, as we lack in qwf.

Luckily we managed to improve (our quali pace) from 6th to 3rd on the grid during the past few races.
Let's hope that lewis can make the difference with his skills through monaco and put it on the first row (and thus beating a red bull). If so, he has a change beating the second rb into the first corner. BUT QWF will be more important than ever, it's gonna be a huge loterry and whoever comes out a the right time (a bit of free track and space) will get pole. Other front runners could get seriously handicapped coming into sunday's race as the fia wouldn't allow a splitted qwf.

Ideally would be that he could lead from turn 1 onwards, and hold of the faster rbrs thanks to the monaco characteristics.

if red bull works well with high ride height (as we have seen it does by their stunning quali) then they will walk monacco

The Macs havent looked particular quick off-line so far.

There shouldn't be any problems getting into Q3. And then there are only 10 cars left to fight for pole, so space enough.

I wouldn't take that as guaranteed, as you saw how close it was between 4th and 10th for example, only a couple of tenths. If a hrt or lotus/torro rosso in Q1/Q2 is in front of you and you lose more than the 16th or 10th place barrier time requires, you are screwed.

Hey Andy,

I'm still feeling so sorry for Lewis and the rest of McLaren, man what a spirit this guy has along with the team. For the 5th race in a row superb driving once again.

Any smaller or bigger updates comming for Monaco?

Best regards,
Katsumi

Newey mentioned that the RBR has a "problem" with slow corners, Monaco is nothing more then slow corners, this together with McLaren beeing very fast in S3 of spain i guess McLaren will be up there in Monaco.

Yeah I am also more hopeful abt our weekend in Monaco. Ferrari was also awful in S3.

Yes, I hope McLaren doesn't naively go for 1 or 2 timed runs and think it'll be fine. But I doubt they will.

Looking like there's a very good chance of rain for qualy and maybe the race. It'll defo be interesting to see how the 25 works its tyres in the wet around Monaco.

That was last years Red Bull, and the one from the year before that
Red Bull warns rivals over Monaco pace


"What I am really pleased to see is that if we had an Achilles Heel last year it was on the slower speed corners," Horner told AUTOSPORT.

"Some of the work that the guys have done over the close season and in the early development of RB6 is that we have maintained our high speed performance but also really improved the low speed performance.

"A combination of factors have come in to play, so it is very pleasing to see the drivers' performance in the last sector in Spain for example, where with both RB4 and RB5 it was not our strongest area."

No, it was a very recent Newey video. Adrian said it himself, they have a bit of work to do in slow speed corners.

I put it up in my blog, but you could find it on YouTube too.

McLaren will lose the lead in both championships at Monaco. I don't think any team will shine in particular, but it will be tough for McLaren.

Andy, congrats to the whole team for being now definitely the 2nd force. Only one team to overtake on pure speed (rbr).

Please if you see Hamilton, do tell him this.

Lewis,

yet again, you drove another superb race that wasn't rewarded they way it should have been.
But don't give up, we (the fans) all know you won't and we're all looking forward seeing you winning soon.
In 2007 or 2008 you were 10 points behind, now you're only 8 behind (in old point system).
We all believe you can and will obtain your aims, starting next week in Monaco. Thumbs up for you and your magnificent team!

Regards!

Why? Because it's a limo?

Thread title: McLaren - MP4-25 Thread

Please stick to it

Becasue of Top Gear I always think of the Top Gear Technology Center when the McLaren technology centre is mentioned LOL

Yes.

Wheelbase is quite irrelevant.

Wheelbase length is often seen primarily as a factor in how the car suits fast or slow turns. The common assumption that shorter cars go better around slow tight bends and longer cars go best in longer fast turns. This proves to be largely false, the difference in the longest to shortest cars is only a few percent, certainly not enough to substantially change the cars ability to corner around the hairpin at Monaco. Indeed Monaco proves to be no litmus test for wheelbases as longer cars have frequently won there. I am told that wheelbase changes by a few percent, affect lap times in just thousandths of a second.

I could name a couple of reasons, why McLaren is favourite for Monaco win.

- It will have a radical high downforce rear wing (We discussed the new rear wing here recently, and although it has only one opening at the middle 15 cm narrow section from front view, but it has tricks to put further holes outside of the middle section, which aren't holes according to the regulatins, but practically they are holes and viewable from sideview. The wing takes tha 'basking shark' concept to even higher levels. This concept already won races on high downforce low speed tracks.)

- I heard/read somewhere, McLaren updated its suspension

- McLaren has the best and most advanced J-Damper, as they were who pioneered it in 2005, developed with Camebridge University in collaboration

- Engine performance and drivability is fabulous (the strengths showed in China, described by Brundle recently, make difference in Monaco)

- Driver makes difference in Monaco, the track which puts emphasis on driver skills

So in short; traction, downforce, cornering will be good enough to fight for the win. RBR may be very good there, but won't be dominant.

Aren¨t J dampers banned? Moveable aero device, see Renault 2006.