Mclaren-Honda MP4-30 *** 2015 Launch Thread

I think Mclaren are white this year with Mercedes taking the "chrome" paint or at least an interpretation of it, red will surely be present on the Mclaren. Hopefully its not to similar to the Williams when watching on TV, who was it a few years back that had similar looking colour schemes? i remember even the commentators getting it wrong a few times!
 
MooMoo444 said:
Button #2 driver confirmed
Click to expand...

haha, you come to this conclusion how? The odds would be stacked in favour that the days 2 and 4 get longer running so I'd say that if anything, if Mclaren were to back a number 1 driver they would let him drive on these days... day 1 will be fraught with technical gremlins if any day etc.

Not biting, just trying to explain that your logic is a bit dumb. :)
 
I think he was basically saying it literally and as a joke because button will literally be the second driver... in testing.

However, first day could be the best day they have. Effectively they have weeks/months to prepare for the first day, they could do 50 laps then the engine blows up and it takes them 2 days to fix it. ultimately any serious problems they only have a day to fix them... though that is more thinking about rebuilding actual damage. In terms of electrical bugs if they are small and easily found then as the week progresses you would think the car will improve.

Very interested to see how both testing and the season in general turns out for reliability. I wouldn't be shocked if testing was a disaster nor would I be surprised if it went not terribly. I still think the biggest problem for them over the season is with multiple teams testing different modes they'll run into more bugs. There is only so much physical time on track and only so many modes you can try. You might miss one that say causes the kers to shut off(like for Hamilton/Rosberg at Canada) that another team may have picked up. However testing goes I think they'll have more niggles throughout the season than anyone had last year because of that.
 
drunkenmaster said:
I think he was basically saying it literally and as a joke because button will literally be the second driver... in testing.

However, first day could be the best day they have. Effectively they have weeks/months to prepare for the first day, they could do 50 laps then the engine blows up and it takes them 2 days to fix it. ultimately any serious problems they only have a day to fix them... though that is more thinking about rebuilding actual damage. In terms of electrical bugs if they are small and easily found then as the week progresses you would think the car will improve.

Very interested to see how both testing and the season in general turns out for reliability. I wouldn't be shocked if testing was a disaster nor would I be surprised if it went not terribly. I still think the biggest problem for them over the season is with multiple teams testing different modes they'll run into more bugs. There is only so much physical time on track and only so many modes you can try. You might miss one that say causes the kers to shut off(like for Hamilton/Rosberg at Canada) that another team may have picked up. However testing goes I think they'll have more niggles throughout the season than anyone had last year because of that.
Click to expand...

On aggregate it does always seem to me anyway, to be that the first day is where the technical gremlins are in force, with the latter days and especially the last day/s of the test being a lot smoother.... buttttt we shall see... I could be wrong!
 
Another thing worth noting is that testing is not the be all and end all... look at Ricciardo.. it was literally all doom and gloom after Feb, come March he ended up doing something rather special in the first, and his home race, of the season!!

Infact I don't remember Ricciardo having a bad season at all in terms of reliablity, the same could not however, as we all know, be said for his (at the time #1) team mate.

Didn't Red Bull have a better car aerodynamically than the Merc infact? Pretty sure the engine was the only difference, but because it was so different to the previous regs it made the difference between RB or Merc winning the Championship.... so unpredictable to say how Mclaren-Honda are going to be performance wise just yet I think... but we'll be able to gauge a good idea between Feb and March I guess, not long now :)
 
smr said:
Didn't Red Bull have a better car aerodynamically than the Merc infact? Pretty sure the engine was the only difference, but because it was so different to the previous regs it made the difference between RB or Merc winning the Championship.... so unpredictable to say how Mclaren-Honda are going to be performance wise just yet I think... but we'll be able to gauge a good idea between Feb and March I guess, not long now :)
Click to expand...

No.

The Merc was also very, very good aerodynamically. It was fast at all circuits, not just the power ones.

Eg. Australia, Singapore and Monaco
 
Expect it will be end of day summary videos by Ted. The various live timing and commentary sites are good though.
 
smr said:
haha, you come to this conclusion how? The odds would be stacked in favour that the days 2 and 4 get longer running so I'd say that if anything, if Mclaren were to back a number 1 driver they would let him drive on these days... day 1 will be fraught with technical gremlins if any day etc.

Not biting, just trying to explain that your logic is a bit dumb. :)
Click to expand...

rosberg is driving the new merc first, they must be backing ham.
 
Nobody cares about merc lineup tho. Been there seen it zzz :p Far more exciting and interesting to see but vs alo, vet vs rai and kvy vs ric tbh! :D
 
smr said:
Another thing worth noting is that testing is not the be all and end all... look at Ricciardo.. it was literally all doom and gloom after Feb, come March he ended up doing something rather special in the first, and his home race, of the season!!

Infact I don't remember Ricciardo having a bad season at all in terms of reliablity, the same could not however, as we all know, be said for his (at the time #1) team mate.

Didn't Red Bull have a better car aerodynamically than the Merc infact? Pretty sure the engine was the only difference, but because it was so different to the previous regs it made the difference between RB or Merc winning the Championship.... so unpredictable to say how Mclaren-Honda are going to be performance wise just yet I think... but we'll be able to gauge a good idea between Feb and March I guess, not long now :)
Click to expand...

It's mostly guesswork on who had better aero, it was basically presumed based on the past 4 years but ignored a huge amount of brilliant work done on the Merc, it was brilliant in every way so hard to compare aero without the same engine in there.

As the season went on more and more technical reporter type people seemed to swing from engine only to also believing the Merc aero was brilliant, it's likely it was on par with Red Bull to be honest. The other issue is Red Bull with a worse engine managed to beat other cars with the better engine which could suggest stronger aero but ultimately you have to realise that most of the races they beat Williams... Williams screwed up somehow. Williams to Merc there would be some smaller engine differences(more in how to use it/when to use electrical energy for best effect) and the main differences between them were aero/brakes/suspension/chassis rather than engine itself.

Testing last year we got..
Day 1 last year, Red Bull 3 laps, Caterham 1, TR 15, second day, Red bull 8, Caterham 11, TR none ( second day issues :p ). Day 3 Red Bull 3, Caterham 10, TR 30. Day 4, Red Bull 7, TR 8, Caterham 54 laps.

At the second test though Red Bull had 14/56/28/15 laps respectively, one good day 3 crap days(for this point where other teams were now doing 100 laps a day). Caterham did 68/65/96/21.

So even though Red Bull had a woeful first test and poor second test, the first test alone Renaults total run laps was 7.5x higher, that his 7.5 times as much data and likely multiple times more bugs found than from Red bull alone. Red Bull had a terrible test but the other teams did SO much better than Renault themselves had no where near as bad a test as Red bull did themselves. This absolutely no doubt helped them for the start of the season. Had the other Renault teams not done the laps they did, the second test would have been less good, the third test less good and Renault would be no where near where they were at the start of the season.

This is Mclaren/Honda's biggest weakness, if they have a great test... they'll be doing WAY less running than any of the other teams, if they have a terrible test, they have no other teams supplementing the data and giving them ideas of how to fix engine problems between tests.
 
Its certainly going to be a tough period for Honda, especially if they are not allowed to develop their engine.

The first year will almost certainly be learning/development year. Next season is what I am watching out for. Had McLaren used the Merc engine this year, I actually think McLaren would be competing for the title, so I cannot understand why they'd want to use an under-developed Honda engine.

McLaren should've ditched Merc mid-season in 2014 and started using/developing the Honda engine. They could take penalties when their engine failed - no big deal because 2014 was written off. This would've allowed them to compete for the title in 2015.

IMO McLaren have made the wrong decisions strategically. Even with Alonso on board, a slow car cannot win the title.
 
sunama said:
Had McLaren used the Merc engine this year, I actually think McLaren would be competing for the title, so I cannot understand why they'd want to use an under-developed Honda engine.
Click to expand...
The 2015 title? McLaren would need an amazing chassis to manage that and considering the last couple of years they haven't been anywhere near Red Bull/Mercedes/Brawn etc for best chassis.

sunama said:
McLaren should've ditched Merc mid-season in 2014 and started using/developing the Honda engine. They could take penalties when their engine failed - no big deal because 2014 was written off. This would've allowed them to compete for the title in 2015.
Click to expand...
How? Changing engines mid season would need an entirely new chassis which McLaren wouldn't have any data on and wouldn't be able to test a Honda powered car enough in the middle of the season. Even if they could and the FIA allowed it, one big problem remains, Honda wouldn't have had an engine ready for the middle of 2014 that was usable in any way for racing.
 
smr said:
Another thing worth noting is that testing is not the be all and end all... look at Ricciardo.. it was literally all doom and gloom after Feb, come March he ended up doing something rather special in the first, and his home race, of the season!!
Click to expand...

Ricciardo only got on the podium in Melbourne because the RBR was......questionable.....to say the least.

If it had been completely legit he would have come 4th or 5th (so not quite that special after all).

Don't get me wrong, as a season he did spectacularly well, but Melbourne if anything was a low -light (because of RBR, not his driving)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom