We're going to need all that momentum as Valencia might be a challenge. We'll see.

Dear mr. Martin, I sincerely adore this team of ours, and your ability to outdevelop our red and bubbly adversaries, but can you please build MP-4/26 so it can be class of the field from the start of the next season.
I am getting kinda old, and it becomes harder and harder for me to look at our boys hard fought victories, I would like to see a "minute and a half ahead" kind of victories.
Sincerely Yours

meddo

Here is an example of Mclaren IMHO playing it smart; remember MW said the F-duct was a simple system to implement, just a couple of holes here and there and some tubing. A lot of teams actually believed it and went and spent resources developing their own version. The rest is history or almost...

The juicier version:




http://adamcooperf1.com/2010/06/13/stefano...much-much-more/

Ferrari fell for it ...

Some nice stats here: http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2010/06/14/hami...tats-and-facts/



What's the record number of 1-2s McLaren has scored in a season?

Anyway, McLaren are starting to get a grip of both championships. Hopefully they can keep hold of them for the rest of the season.

Stefano is a good guy.

I know what your getting at, but I don't think McLaren engineered it to be a distraction. It was an extremely smart innovation, the result of which meant Ferrari and the others focussed on the f-duct development rather than other areas, which McLaren can now focus on. It's a bit like every other innovation double diffusers, blown exhausts etc, inevitably the team that pioneers the innovation will have a head start.

My point anyway is that I doubt they send out figures like 0.25 to distract or confuse others, it must be a genuine figure that the team aim to improve by.

Amazing result for mclaren: big mac attack!!!

I was filled with joy when button passed alonso and completed the 1-2.

BUT:

*mclaren must sort out their pit stops (almost another victory lost, just like in turkey)
*mclaren wasn't mega here, as some predicted. Track was tailor-made and they finished just in front of alonso.
*Valencia will give ferrari a good chance with their big upgrade to claim another victory. I hope lewis can prevent this.

Go Mclaren, Go Lewis, Go Ratboy! And cheers for Ron! Man he must be a happy man!

Nicole brought "luck" again to lewis, that hot babe should be there during the whole season!!!

Who the hell is Ratboy??

Nice to see you filled with joy, after your gloom on friday.

With regards to pitstops, I agree they need to be sorted out, we are about 0.5-1 second slower so definitely need to improve there. I think tyres played a big part in Ferrari's pace, it's well known they go well on the softer compounds, they will be strong in Valencia.

just look at his face ;)

- Mclaren surely needs to address their stops, although the 2nd one for both drivers were quite good.

- Mclaren wasn't mega, but as Jenson said, this race was not the case of going flat out all the times. Tires needed to be nursed and while for some 50 laps it appeared that Alonso and Jenson were faster than Lewis, he upped his pace when he needed and showed that he was nursing his car, tires and fuel for the whole race. So Mclaren did what was the best in order to get what was expected from them. 43 points and 3 trophys back the Woking.

- Valencia we will see something like Montreal, but there the cars will run a bit more downforce. And as Mclaren was running more downforce than the rest of the field due to their optimized F-Duct, I expect they will have a slight straight line speed advantage.

In the replays, it looked to me as if nando's tyres were in much better shape as those of both macs.

They would do, he wasn't going as fast.
Seriously though, I thought they were on a par with JB's. They were better than Lewis'.

http://static1.hln.be/static/FOTO/pe/14/13...rge_3737599.jpg

not exactly the same but I hope you like it, it's a bit larger

http://static1.hln.be/static/FOTO/pe/17/16...rge_3737602.jpg

http://static1.hln.be/static/FOTO/pe/13/14...rge_3737617.jpg

http://static1.hln.be/static/FOTO/pe/3/2/8...rge_3737588.jpg => nando clearly not happy

http://static0.hln.be/static/FOTO/pe/3/4/1...rge_3737607.jpg

http://static3.hln.be/static/FOTO/pe/8/1/1...rge_3737536.jpg

http://static1.hln.be/static/FOTO/pe/4/14/...rge_3737532.jpg

Bit surprised some are saying that Valencia is similar to Canada:
http://www.formula1.com/races/in_detail/europe_832/

Turn 1 is gear 6, turn 6 is gear 5, turn 11 is gear 6, turn 16 is gear 6, turn 21 is gear 6.

If Ferrari's upgrade works well then it could be a very close run thing - with small margins between a good result and a disappointing result.

Aren't they all easy flat though?

most of those corners are more like a straight rather than a high speed corner, hence high downforce not as crucial, and thats why red bulls advantage will not be as key and mclarens will be.


I still beleive Ferrari is not a major competitor. look at force india even they were up there in canada.

The reason the 25 didnt have the big advantage was because the ferrari and force india had f duct, and everyone was running low downforce anyways, and red bull is pretty good on all tracks.

going back to valencia, it will be another tight fight between red bull and mclaren, and depending on ferrari's upgrade, they could be there too.

i just pray to god Mclaren can pull another 1-2 so as they wait for silverstone for that major update.

Ferrari may have the new exhaust system and f-duct. but mclaren have the better f duct.

it is time for mclaren to build as much lead as possible and keep pushing with developments.


If lewis can do what he did last season (score more points than anyone from mid season onwards) this championship is ours.

He is absolutely the most consistent driver out there.

Ye nice , ta .

Hehe, it's like he can't get his champagne to spray properly .

I think Ferrari will be a big threat in Valencia... Canada configurations are gonna be pretty similar to Valencia, and Ferrari with a blown diffuser will be even faster. I'm worried more bout them than RedBull....Massa goes fast in Valencia too, so wont just be Alonso

Anyone notice the muted atmosphere between Hamilton and Alonso? They are perfectly civil to each other but it's just so 'cold'. It's like they don't even acknowledge each other's presence sometimes.

@owen: yeah i noticed it clearly. Especially Hamilton's looking into Alonso's face was so meaningful in post race conference

It was similar to Button-Alonso. To be honest, Alonso was just bummed that he missed out on the win.

What I did notice though is that those 2 are enormously respectful of one another. Look at how they fought on the track; says it all, really.

Yeh, I would agree. There is a respect there. But there's also an awkwardness there. You can actually feel it!

Yeah, look in the caption thread, the image of Lewis spraying Alonso, it just looked like Lewis didn't want to do it but it was a bit like mum making you do it.

Valencia is pretty fast and doesn't seem like a circuit that requires much aero, just dunno why it's given such relatively crap races ... I dunno, maybe things will be different this race.

I just wonder about Alonso and Hamilton. They are from the same mould in some ways.

All: can we get back to the MP4-25 please?

In short if my memory serves me, the racing line cleans up a lot over the weekend, but off line it is simply too dirty to risk making any sort of move when there is little to no run-off safety net - this effectively makes the track as wide as a single F1 car - meaning a Monaco like procession ensues...

The priority for the teams and thus drivers is always to finish the race, as a result in Valencia everyone drives more conservatively to avoid going off line, and unlike other tight tracks, in Valencia there is a slight margin for error - so drivers are not inches away from catastrophe at all times waiting to punish mistakes..

Thanks a lot, mate!!! Those are some amazing photos capturing the harmony in the team.
This is a fabulous result and I just can't seem to re-collect when was the last time the Team captured two consecutive 1-2 finishes in a season.
LH - Now that immense talent is finally getting translated into consistent results. And he is bloody fast too!!!
JB - I had my doubts about his ability to overtake but he has proven his mettle. And he is one driver who gauges developing situations - be it the track or the weather conditions - to perfection. A worthy addition to the team.

I hope to be three way fight, but I think Ferrari will be major contender in Valencia, because of the tires (super soft and medium suits them better). Remember Bahrain, Monaco and Canada? These are the races with super soft and medium tires and Ferrari was always at the front in those races, with their major upgrade I `think they will be the favorites. It will be close I hope, but we always got to have faith in this team, just like Friday to Saturday last weekend.

Turn off Swingometer, and just have faith, McLaren is a Dream Team now guys, do you realize that?

Here is a quote from Andrew Benson's blog on the BBC:



Some very interesting pieces of information here. Firstly he thinks that even though Ferrari will have their upgrade and that Red Bull will be strong, we are still the favorites. Not sure that I agree with him on this. On the other hand, I do believe we will be reasonably competitive as we can use the F-duct down the 'straights' to good effect.

Another interesting piece is what he says about Red Bulls aerodynamic advantage. He believes that the combination of the blown diffuser and smoother rear-end gives 0.5 seconds a lap. He says that Ferrari, McLaren and Renault (and some have also said Williams) will introduce copies of this very design. Thus is it looking more likely that the Silverstone update will indeed be an introduction of the exhaust system coupled with the more sculpted rear-end? The figure of 0.5 seconds by this blog does tally with what Martin Whitmarsh said the performance might be from the Silverstone update.

It will be interesting to see how the update performs once introduced. If the update does indeed involve a substantially different rear end then I hope we don't see a situation like that with Ferrari and the F-duct (where they have wasted lots of time and resources trying to optimise a design that only works well because it has been integrated into the design from the outset). A very interesting couple of races to come, it seems to me a lot of the teams (including McLaren) are putting a lot of their eggs into the basket of these upcoming updates. So I think the team that comes out of the next few races on top will have the best momentum to go for the titles.

I don¨t know, all this blown diffuser talk can turn out to be as difficult if not more than F-duct to properly implement.

Possibly, red-bull took their time getting to testing.

http://images.gpupdate.net/large/156578.jpg
http://images.gpupdate.net/large/156560.jpg
http://images.gpupdate.net/large/156561.jpg
http://images.gpupdate.net/large/156565.jpg

10 in the super season 1988. It won't be duplicated or bettered this year.

3 down 7 to go, never say never. Also for the first time we seem to have to quick drivers who can work in harmony and get the most out of their package.

It's great isn't it. Lets hope this partnership can last for a fair few seasons .

Now we know McLaren are planning to introduce a major upgrade the MP4-25 for Silverstone, but has anyone heard of any updates for Valencia?

I must say Ferrari are a concern. There was talk about them being the third, four, fifth best team etc, but they arrived in Canada with essentially the same car as in Istanbul and were very competitive. The Canadian GP was more of an enduro, tyre conservation test, that basically confirmed what we learnt earlier this season, that the Ferrari is the best car at looking aftrer its tyres. Alonso's pace at the end of his first and second stint was outstanding but his tyres were in great shape. There were an number of circumstances which prevented him form winning such as, the strategy to leave him out in traffic and bad luck or bad judgement in traffic. This was a race he could very much have won.

This is an impossibility. The Swingometer is entwined in the fabric that constitutes the MP4-25 thread. The MP4-25 thread is an integral part of the Autosport forum, Autosport and hence the internet, just as gravity is to our universe. Any attempts to destroy, remove or manipulate the Swingometer will surely cause a cataclysmic disaster, starting with a breach in the spacetime continuum and then the demise of our universe.

Never count Ferrari out until it's mathematically impossible.

I expected them to be strong at Canada, posted about it after Turkey and it indeed turned out to be the case. If their upgrade works, they are favourites at Valencia.

OTOH, their car does not work equally good at every track, much like the -25 wouldn't work at Monaco. Red Bull has the best car in this regard, it's good to great everywhere. Except that Vettel's car seems to break down all the time.

Well, isn't this turning to be a reliable MP4/20 with two already champion drivers that seems much better than Raikkonen and Montoya back at 2005?

Well, the 4-20 was a beast, not unlike RB-6, it was class of the field since the start of the European season, when Newey figured out how to put some heat into rears. Along with putting heat into the powertrain.

Indeed, the -20 was a dominant car (on pace) during much of the 2005 season. The Renault from that year was not as fast compared to the -20 as the RB6 is compared to the -25.

Raikkonen drove very well in 2005, anyway. Car was just a bit too fragile to make it all the way to WDC.

Luckily, the -25 is extremely reliable so far.

I'm with Wouter.
Ferrari and Alonso are not out until the fad lady sings and does the math.

I can't resist commenting on this, even if it isn't strictly about the MP4-25 - Hamilton, yes, better than Räikkönen which obviously makes him better than Montoya as well, but I don't think Button now performs better than Räikkönen did behind the wheel of the -20.

That was a painful season to watch, including Montoya¨s "tennis injury", every other race it was engine change and dropping down the order, or exploding engines when Kimi was leading races, or tyre blow in Germany two laps from the end.
Alonso was given championship on a plate. This championship will go down to the wire, much like in 2008, when Ferrari was the faster car, but our drivers are seriously good, and the car is there or thereabouts.

The fall back position, ie the current car, is quicker than Red Bull, so we're covered. Any more is a bonus.