LH actually alluded to it in that clip as well "team working hard to produce bits and pieces to create more downforce etc".

Nice one from JB "I don't feel there is any area we are weak in!"

Kraviz said that the McMerc mod exactly matched the wind tunnel prediction. That pob shows all the wizzy aero tests and pito tubes may already be paying off for them? ??

It is special wheel ...Mclaren secret movable aero device. It manages the airflow from the famous snorkel into the rear wing

Please provide the source to this...

wow, how long have you worked at Macca for?

As long as he isn't saying that half way through the season as that would tend to translate to "I don't know why I'm so slow".

BBC Sport Website, bit of a disappointing article really no analysis of times or sector times (i.e Sector 1 would show who's got good Aero etc, Sector 3 would highlight who's got good Mech. Grip etc.) and he put McLaren joint 3rd with Merc with Ferrari and Red Bull leading. Considering Ted Kravitz was at the circuit and privvy to much more info. than us and has actually shed nothing is well quite baffling.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/81797

Q&A with Lewis

Detecting a sense of relief from the team i.e on the first 2 days they felt off the pace. However the updates have brought them back to the area they want to be.

Yea of Atlas

So Andy Latham is Lewis' new race engineer. Isn't Andy Latham rumoured to be 'our' ATM_Andy?

Obi

Apparently, IMO it's no coincidence he's been posting less since the 'promotion'.

I think McLaren's on-track air flow measuring systems are going to win them the championship.

Quote from Joe Saward's blog. Kinda leads me to believe the people in the 'know' actually 'know' nothing in terms of the pecking order. So we'll have to wait and see.

There is absolutely no doubt that all the wisdom and insights into the inner workings of Formula 1 that Andy learned in here had payed off and helped him to get this promotion. And with all this knowledge, Lewis will be unstoppable now!

Interesting comments from Button: 'Sometimes it just feels like you are driving around, instead of pushing the car, but you can still get a good lap time out of it, which I suppose is a positive.'
This was one of the reasons some people objected to the refueling ban, because of the endurance aspect to the racing, rather than the ten tenths approach.

Jense Q&A: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/81799
Interesting comment about the Adjustable Front-Wing, makes you wonder if McLaren had dropped the system only to realise it's importance.

Jenson seems more optimistic than Lewis, or just Lewis is more cautious. Interesting.

Do you know any other members on autosport forum who works in f1?

The fact was hardly any driver used it last year. They found it useless!

You might have to click the bar at the top if something is blocked. I had to and then I could listen.

i think its becuase jenson can FEEL the new package made a difference. He said on saturday he had some direction for the car and lewis and his team will try and i suppose it worked?
his quote "I think the next day with Lewis they tried a few of the ideas that we had on the previous day and he seemed reasonably happy with the car."
maybe shows Jenson is really finding his way and driving the development of the car? (in the press release we also had the remark the engineers were very happy with jensons scope and depth of feedback) So if we keep improving the car i am sure lewis can bring us to the top

Did JB talk this much last year? He seems to be getting the message out that he is the team leader albeit subtley. But guys should remember that LH took a back seat as well when Alonso joined Mclaren and perhaps that was mistaken as a weakness but we all know how that panned out.

The two of them gave different responses to the progress in setup; LH said we gave back the same feedback but JB said LH did what [i] we wanted or something to that effect.

JB obviously has much more experience than LH but I hope there will not be any concious attempts to play a self appointed leader. I believe Mclaren brought both of them in for what they can bring to the team. Anyway there is always going to be a leader in any team and the leader is the better driver.

I actually like the confidence the JB is exuding at the moment and do hope that he will maintain them if LH tops him on the track which frankly is what will happen and I think LH knows that.

It's not a case of drivers talking more, but of being sought out by the journo's. JB is the current WDC it's natural that he is interviewed more.

Jenson appears to be making a bit too much effort in voicing his developmental importance. Feels like he is a tad insecure if you ask me! It'll soon chance in Bahrain when Lewis demolishes him... sorry Button fans but Jenson struggled to match an OAP last year... up against real talent he hasn't got a hope in hell..

Tell you something... Honda must be wondering where Jenson's development prowess disappeared to in 2007 and 2008!

Not in this case, they both had consequtive QA with the same journos during one conference call and I don't remember journos seeking out JB more btw

i take your point femi, but i just reading the press releases and QanAs, it wouldn't surprise me that the car development is being pushed more from jensons side of the garage to get more performance. the team knows lewis well so it be foolish not to take advantage of jensons experience in cars and particularly the brawn last year. we know lewis can just get on and drive it fast, so why not use jensons experience to drive some performance in the car? its not wrong and its not "self appointed team leader" tag everyone is putting on jenson.

He wanna means Ted Kravitz from BBC:

"...McLaren had their Bahrain aerodynamic package on for the last two days of the test and the car enjoyed a significant improvement.

Hamilton happy with McLaren progress

The updates delivered what the wind tunnel suggested they would, which is always a relief for any team with a new car.
Jenson Button ran a race simulation with the new package on Saturday but did not have the set-up he wanted on the car, so his times didn't compare too well with Ferrari's Felipe Massa, who was also doing a race run at the same time, or his McLaren team-mate Lewis Hamilton, who did a race simulation on Sunday.
McLaren engineers have been investing a lot of time in tyre management - a key component this year as most races will be done on a one-stop strategy following the banning of in-race refuelling.
Success in the first few races will come from being easy on the tyres and keeping them in good shape. In short, McLaren are not where they want to be yet, but they're close and they believe they'll get there..."

— Ted Kravitz, in BBC

LINK: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/motorsport...one/8543250.stm

Hello guys,

I am back from Barca bearing bad news. I was at the track on Sunday and the Macca wobbled and slid out of corners and did not look good in low speed corners – more so in the morning than in the afternoon. That could be down to LH’s tailhappy driving style (unfortunately I was unable to attend on Saturday to compare Jenson’s style in the car) but I suspect that it was more to do with the car as on his long run LH looked to be trying very hard to be smooth compared to after he first stop (or two) when he let rip for the remaining two stints of his race sim. LH looked awesome on the second two stints and even with the car sliding round he still attacked the track even if the slow corners were tricky. Macca also “looked” quick but without seeing timesheets I would not have known that Macca was on top. The car did not look good in slow corner but it was mighty in fast corners but when LH had to brake from high speed the car wobbled around badly. I was depressed at lunch time but they seemed to make changes in the middle of the day and by the time LH did his race sim the car looked a lot more drivable but still not as good as Ferrari and not even close to Redbull. Macca looks faster than Merc but Merc could have been sandbagging as MS was on track longer than anyone else so he had more fuel aboard for his race sim than anyone else, I think. The rest are not in the game.

That said LH reminded me why I am a fan. He took different lines from every body else through the chicane where a lot of time can be made up. You could watch him experiment till he found the right line then he stuck to it and went fast and faster through that section. Everybody else just drove the same line from the morning till the end of the day. LH owned the afternoon with those two very fast stints with each lap seemingly very close the limit of the Macca’s performance. He is in fanastic form.

A long post is in the Winter Testing thread.

And read what Jenson says now, it might become more important to control the balance of the car.

Yeah, and he says it has to be reliable... last year those who used the adjustable wings apparently had issues with the servos.. they were fragile.

Thanks, nice insight. TBF however the drivers seem happy enough with the cars behaviour so I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Then the teams will have to improve it. Which they will if it helps them.

The drivers will always say they are happy.... its part of their job. Macca topped the timesheets but I did not know this for about 12 hours and I would not have known this without reading it - even though looked impressive in the afternoon. The car was sliding more than the rest and wobbling out of corners. I really hope that's just down to LH's driving style.

How you got the conclusion that Macca was not as good Ferrari and not even close to Redbull? It looked to you that Hammy struggled with the car?

The thing is though you can still detect when a driver isn't entirely happy from their interviews, also it's part of the driver's job to temper expectations and tell the team how it is.

Hi cobart1

I think it was pretty tongue-in-cheek from CrashTestDummy. I'd be highly surprised, no, completely flabbergasted if Andy learned his trade from these forums.

If the car was sliding around in the slow corners and yet was able to deliver those qulay and long stint lap times, I see that as not too bad news seeing that they had effectively had only one day to actually work on the cars setup. Ferrari on the other hand had spent more time on theirs. The team are going to work on this and dial those unwanted behaviour out and when they do, the car will certainly be faster.

I actually see it as rather encouraging...

Thanks for that. Very intersting.

Hopefully McLaren can smooth it out a bit. And seeing how Lewis still kept ahold of the tyres dispite sliding everywhere is encouraging IMO. I'm sure by Bahrain they will hav some ideas for setups and get the car dialed in.
I can't wait.

Really appreciate the trackside insight jjcale.

Cheers
Obi

Probably better to see the longer post in the Winter Testing thread.

I wouldnt say LH struggled but Redbull looked on rails and Ferrari looked reasonably planted but Macca was wobbling out of fast corners and except when LH really pushed the Macca was visibly slower in the slow corners.

Sorry. I am as much a Macca fan as anywone else, from the days of Prost. I just hope I've got it wrong, but then the professional trackside photographers that I spoke to also came to my view.

The performance of the cars is really close there is no Brawn this year but at least two cars are better. But its might be close enough for LH to make the difference. I am now convinced he is the best driver.

Peter Windsor, is that you??

How can you say you are back from Barca bearing bad news???

Mclaren have a good car.

10x . I read tour post after I ask you. 10x again mate.

If the care behave like he said in the corners is not a good news. It remembers me of Reno 2009. Hopefully they will be close all together....

On the race sim, LH made a visble effort to be smooth. The sliding and wobbling was worse in the morning than the afternoon.

They seem to have made a set up change during lunch as the car looked more stable in the afternoon and LH calmed it down during the first stint. Then in the second stint he stepped it up and in the last stint of the race sim he was awesome. By the time he got held up by MS the ferrari fans were getting pissed off as Macca looked so much better than in the morning when they were having a laugh at the teams expense.

I think what you've observed aren't bad news considering his stint data, speed and consistency. He has said he feels this is the best car he has driven for McLaren.

Once again i have to go to Lewis Hamiltons driving style, he doesn't mind the car like this and can get the speed if the car is moving about in the corners.

Can Jenson do this? I don't think so, he will be on the radio moaning as usual if the car is bad in a race where as Lewis will just get on with it.