F1 Testing 2012 - Week 3, Barcelona
- Thread starter Duke
- Start date
So you think McLaren's engineers sit at home for 2 weeks and think nothing about the car and projects they are working on? They all have to shut down the factory and emails etc.
Saying McLaren are very proper on how they do things did make me chuckle, spygate ring any bells? Not forgetting the lies in Australia...FOTA agreed not to use KERS in 2010, but any other team could have broken that deal and gained from having KERS, so all the rest kept their promise as well not just McLaren.
Saying McLaren are very proper on how they do things did make me chuckle, spygate ring any bells? Not forgetting the lies in Australia...FOTA agreed not to use KERS in 2010, but any other team could have broken that deal and gained from having KERS, so all the rest kept their promise as well not just McLaren.
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Obviously nobody apart from McLaren employees know the answer to the above question. All we can do is guess.
But it is my opinion that if any team is likely to abide by the ruling, it will be McLaren. RBR and Ferrari are the least likely due to their competitive nature (and the fact that they pulled out of some of the agreements during the Winter, regarding budgets - so they have a proven track record).
Firstly, with spygate, it is not completely clear on how many employees were involved in it and more importantly, how high up, this matter went. Were senior management complicit in taking information from Ferrari? Again, we shall never know the answer to this question. We can only guess. Your guess is as good as anybody elses.
The lies in Australia - I'll give you that one. Though I do feel that was more Hamilton's desire to maximise his points total. The guy who ended up getting fired was merely a scape goat. Once again, nobody apart from McLaren management know what truly happened and whether the lies were pre-planned (by management) or were just a spur of the moment idea from Hamilton. Officially, the McLaren member of management who got fired, took the full blame.
McLaren (as was shown in 2009) had by far the best KERS implementation. Some races were being won mainly due to the KERS device. In some races, Hamilton was getting off the line, using KERS and was passing his rivals to take the lead on the first lap. Other teams like Ferrari knew the damage which Hamilton was doing, with the KERS device and this prompted other teams to invest in KERS. Even in the final race of 2009, no other team was able to get their KERS device working the way that McLaren had it working.
In fact, in 2011 (yes, 2 years later), RBR still hadn't got their KERS device working properly. This is how long it is taking to get it working properly. That is the level of advantage that McLaren had.
Given the above, the opt out of KERS, by McLaren, must've been a huge relief for the rest of the teams. I have no idea what was going through the minds of the McLaren management when that decision was made. Perhaps McLaren know something that we don't.
The other thing is that McLaren are surely the only team with other parts of the business on site where the F1 team are? Are the Ferrari road cars manufactured at Maranello also? I know Williams has (much smaller, but still present) external partnerships etc to the F1 team.
Surely they dont close down the road car manufacturing parts of the MTC etc do they (from what I understand majority of which is underground)?
Are there really 300+ less cars in the carpark over the summer break
I agree with Sparkey though, its a WHOLE lot easier from a management point of view to tell everyone involved - take it or leave it , this is your holiday, go home lol
Surely they dont close down the road car manufacturing parts of the MTC etc do they (from what I understand majority of which is underground)?
Are there really 300+ less cars in the carpark over the summer break
I agree with Sparkey though, its a WHOLE lot easier from a management point of view to tell everyone involved - take it or leave it , this is your holiday, go home lol
did you attend any of the tests sparky? and who do you consider as the top 5 teams?
Flew out to Jerez to drop some bits off, that was it!
Top 5 i dont think there has been a massive shakeup of standings although only time will really tell.
What? Ferrari left FOTA because RBR were not sticking to the RAA, not because Ferrari broke the agreement. How about Ferrari agreeing at Silverstone to let EBD continue, despite it hurting them performance wise?
It was as high up as Alonso, you can off course guess that management did not know, yet they must have asked questions about how they knew when Ferrari would stop and why Alonso and Pedro were using strange setup's (Ferrari's) in the simulator. It also led to Ron Dennis stepping down, which suggests something to me.
Ferrari won with KERS also, and also used KERS to make great starts, Ferrari's problem in 2009 was not KERS, it was the car as a whole.
McLaren's KERS was the best though.
Ferrari were still having problems with their unit.
When you have a device which is best in class, why would you decide to abandon it, unless it was declared illegal? Would RBR have done this? Personally, I think not.
With regards to FOTA:
according to this:
http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2011/12/02/ferrari-confirms-departure-fota/
Ferrari left FOTA completely of their own accord because
I cant see any mention of RBR being the reason for them leaving. Reading between the lines I think that Ferrari want to do whatever it takes to win and do not want to be held back by FOTA.
Their aim is to win at all costs and FOTA merely adds a set of additional restrictions to prevent Ferrari from doing what they want.
With regards to EBD: I no longer get involved in those conversations as they have been done to death and I am bored about talking about exhaust fumes and blown diffusers. I can't comment on EBD.
Ferrari were still having problems with their unit.
When you have a device which is best in class, why would you decide to abandon it, unless it was declared illegal? Would RBR have done this? Personally, I think not.
With regards to FOTA:
according to this:
http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2011/12/02/ferrari-confirms-departure-fota/
Ferrari left FOTA completely of their own accord because
I cant see any mention of RBR being the reason for them leaving. Reading between the lines I think that Ferrari want to do whatever it takes to win and do not want to be held back by FOTA.
Their aim is to win at all costs and FOTA merely adds a set of additional restrictions to prevent Ferrari from doing what they want.
With regards to EBD: I no longer get involved in those conversations as they have been done to death and I am bored about talking about exhaust fumes and blown diffusers. I can't comment on EBD.
Are there really 300+ less cars in the carpark over the summer break
It would be interesting to find this out.
My suspicion is that the skeleton (key) staff work from home...doing non-factory work. But in all honesty, nobody apart from the teams themselves would ever divulge their true plans and what they actually do during the Summer break.
I'm surprised that nobody has posted pics on the internet of the amount of cars in the car park of various team factories.
Are you confident that your team will be victorious again this year?
What is the mood in your team like right now?
Regardless of who had the best KERS, all teams agreed not to use it, all kept that promise, not just the angels McLaren, so I am not sure why you think that points to them doing things the right way. If Ferrari and RB were so un-sporting then they would promise not to use KERS, then turn up with KERS and gain from it, so they all done things the right way when it came to KERS imo.
Ferrari left FOTA because RBR would not agree to the RAA, and FOTA was powerless to do anything about it.
http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2011/12/fota-reeling-as-ferrari-and-red-bull-pull-out/
If Ferrari would do anything it takes to win then they would have veto'd the EBD issue at Silverstone, which you don't want to discuss as it would blow a hole in your theory
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They're too British
Apparently Lewis Hamilton has kept "a nice amount of fuel" in his McLaren during pre-season testing so as not to reveal its true performance to its rivals.
http://en.espnf1.com/mclaren/motorsport/story/72529.html?CMP=chrome
Difficult to really say what it means if you don't know what fuel other cars are running but interesting none the less.
Nobody is ever that confident, the only thing you know for sure is where you are in relation to last year.
Everyone is up for it again this year !
They're too British
Apparently Lewis Hamilton has kept "a nice amount of fuel" in his McLaren during pre-season testing so as not to reveal its true performance to its rivals.
http://en.espnf1.com/mclaren/motorsport/story/72529.html?CMP=chrome
Difficult to really say what it means if you don't know what fuel other cars are running but interesting none the less.
same for redbull and mercedes looking at the times.
Same here, it should be much closer this year plus we have six world champions
Can't wait for the season to start, not long now.