Bahrain Grand Prix 2015, Sakhir - Race 4/19

Classic McLaren.... produce a dog of a car, spend half the season developing the car at crazy expense and effort, only to end up level with their competitors at the end of the season.

IF they show good pace at the last race, then maybe 2016 could be their year. That's just a massive ask though :o

I still don't understand why they got rid of Martin Whitmarsh. He's never done as bad as this…

I used to think the 2009 car was bad.
 
I read elsewhere that ferrari's intercooler arrangement is more effective than the one mercedes use, which means they suffer less of a loss in power when it gets hot.

I don't know how big the difference is, but coupled with everything in the sky video fingers crossed it's hot in bahrain!

It is/isn't, it's really just that they went much bigger with it, but that has it's own inherent problems.

Thing is, Ted said Ferrari have the best cooling package on the grid but I don't agree with that at all. A car that gains a few tenths a lap in absolutely extreme temps that helps at one track every 3-4 years... is OVER cooled. If you have more cooling than you need for 59 out of 60 races maybe, just so that you have an advantage in the 1 extra race... it's a waste. If Ferrari had smaller side pods, less cooling, they may have to also open up the car a little more at a race like Malaysia, but it would also be a bit faster in every single race rather than just the one.

Over cooling is no advantage, cooling that works in almost every race is good enough. I would even expect Ferrari to move that route, next year watch them be a bit slimmer and open up a bit further in the one or two really hot races in a year.

Bahrain won't be hot enough to help Ferrari out.

I still don't understand why they got rid of Martin Whitmarsh. He's never done as bad as this…

I used to think the 2009 car was bad.


Whitmarsh is responsible for a terrible 2013/14. The car itself looks potentially better than it has for two years, the engine is terrible but that isn't a choice Boullier got to make.

You'll get the same answer as about Alonso moving to Honda though, the I could have stayed with something I didn't believe was good enough and took a risk on something that had the potential to win. IE Alonso didn't think Ferrari could improve so risked moving to a Mclaren/Honda partnership with new manager and some new people, they haven't failed together yet, nor succeeded. They don't know Boullier can do great but they do think Whitmarsh can't make another winning car. Better to go with an unknown than something you think isn't good enough.

It's what I said about Hamilton as well in moving to Merc, he saw they had the potential to move forward while his experience of the existing team at Mclaren left him believing that particular group of people together wouldn't win another title or build another great car, and he couldn't have been more right.
 
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Im certain McLaren will have a competitive car next season, even maybe towards the end of this season!

Based on what evidence?

I just don't see why everyones assuming the Honda engine will come good. Renault never left F1, and will have started developing their V6 long before Honda... Look what a mess they're in!
 
I still don't understand why they got rid of Martin Whitmarsh. He's never done as bad as this…

I used to think the 2009 car was bad.

He employed Heikki, Perez and Magnussen and lost Hamilton and almost lost Button, and lost Vodafone, Santander and Hugo Boss, all while winning zero championships.. Yeah he was great... :rolleyes:
 
Not that this makes his record much better, but did he employ Heikki? Ron was team principal in '08 when Heikki joined.
 
He employed Heikki, Perez and Magnussen and lost Hamilton and almost lost Button, and lost Vodafone, Santander and Hugo Boss, all while winning zero championships.. Yeah he was great... :rolleyes:

What a nice guy though. Looked good in a suit.
 
Not that this makes his record much better, but did he employ Heikki? Ron was team principal in '08 when Heikki joined.

Didn't Ron step down in 2007 during the Alonso/Spygate saga? My memories not that great, but I think Ron had gone before the 2008 drivers were confirmed?

Although that would credit Whitmarsh with being in charge when Hamilton won the WDC...

Either way the guy was a completely useless boss.
 
https://twitter.com/Pat_f1_/status/588647387352076288

List of the engine component situation, though this is effectively how the race started last weekend so will change after teams use new components tomorrow. From that list I expect Kvyat and Verstappen will have a bunch of new parts, both sounded like their ICE went, if other bits blew as well we'll know soon enough.

Apparently early reports are that Ferrari might be taking a new ICE on both engines, cracks found in the engine block... presumably they are trying to figure out if they are close to failure or got enough life left in them. Ferrari have been rock solid reliability for years but then Ferrari haven't really pushed on the engine front in years. First year in ages they seem to have pushed out the boat in performance and going for more bleeding edge performance, interesting to see how that effects their season.

The engine upgrade issue is odd this year, if they had engine updates for Barcelona(token use upgrades) then if they managed to last till then they'd have 3 engines with potentially more power, if they had to take an engine here it would lock them in to another current spec engine and then even if they have upgrades they would need to use up this engine first. Wonder if they would have upgrades ready to go and could apply them earlier than Barcelona for this exact reason.

Odds on a Renault team opening a fourth engine this weekend for any driver? Wouldn't surprise me if Ricciardo's goes before the weekend is done.
 
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Does the same engine allowance include days for testing or do teams have a separate one for Fridays practice Sessions?

Your covering 2 different thing there. The 4 engine limit covers all race weekends (Friday through Sunday), but doesn't cover media/filming days or any in season tests.
 
I'm struggling to find red button on the bbc iplayer website? Is it not possible to watch FP1 without a TV? (or illegal streams)
 
It's not illegal to watch a stream. Technically it violates copyright but as far as I'm aware it is OK providing you are watching the stream alone.
 
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