planetf1.com

They will need to keep the upgrades coming. To me, it looked like the Lotus was the fastest car on race day. I also know that Lotus has a major upgrade planned for Spa. McLaren will need another major upgrade package soon in order to keep contending for wins.

This package has been a success though.

your right sandman. but the pitstops are a big worry.

I am hoping that McLaren can figure out its wet weather woes because it is not beyond the realm of possibility to have wet one at either Spa or Monza or both.

Yeah, they have some that are amazing now but they still seem to screw up at an alarming rate. They generally have been weak this season in the pits and they have also been weak from a strategic standpoint. That has to change.

http://en.espnf1.com/PICTURES/CMS/15600/15666.jpg

haha jenson is such a killjoy

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"A man should choose a friend who is better than himself"

Maybe that is his funny face

Why laugh, when he knows that few of those happy faces made a mistake that cost him a podium.

Last year in Hungary, Lewis was jobbed out of the win by the team strategy which favoured Button in every respect...and at the team celebration pic who was it but Hamilton who was messing around with Jessica and Jenson?

poor strategy doesn't mean u dont gotta join in on the team celebrations

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"A man should choose a friend who is better than himself"

you realise that in that race Jenson was given the same call but didn't pit. so the only thing that favoured JB was himself.

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Disclaimer: The above post maybe tongue in cheek.

"I thought I'd get your theories, mock them, then embrace my own. The usual."

But hey, I'm happy as long it's not the team with cows facing each other....

which one? they have two teams

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We want heroes, but there are few, mainly it's cars - Pedro De La Rosa

The big one, obviously.

Interesting Read: http://www.motorsport-total.com/f1/news ... 81001.html
Interview with Sam Michael:

He said the team was not sure if Lewis tyres would last at the last stint.
(remember the converstion between Sam Michael & Lewis before the podium)
Lewis/ McLaren drove as fast as they could but had always to keep the tyres in good shape
Lotus was faster than McLaren. McLaren was only faster at qualy and pit stops
It was on knifes edge with the tyres the whole race
The pit radio from Raikkönen, as he reported he could only overtake Lewis if his tyres would fall of the cliff, was a huge relief for the team.
They waited for an overtaking attack of Raikkönen at the end, they thought he would save all his KERS for it, but he had to use up his KERS to keep in touch with Hamilton.

And Sam Michael denies that the (wrong) strategy ruined Jenson Buttons race
He said : His ( JB's) tyre degeneration was too big. If you had a look at the lap times. We realised from an early stage of the race a 2 stop strategy would be impossible for him. He could not keep up the speed therefore.
He lost too much time behind Bruno Senna , because of this it would have been very, very difficult to finish 3rd or 4th

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“Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.” ― Albert Einstein

so JB just does not know how to get grip on his front tyres.

Lewis was given the same plan b call as Jenson too.

These arguments are only to be mentioned if it makes Jenson look smarter, they are not valid if they are the other way round. Jenson is an amazing driver and if he cannot get the heat in the tyres or a poor strategy or has poor qualy or race pace, we should always find ways to blame the team

And the first time Jens questioned it and they basically said as yopur were.

The second time(We heard) the words were "You Have to go to plan B "

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Disclaimer: The above post maybe tongue in cheek.

"I thought I'd get your theories, mock them, then embrace my own. The usual."

judging from Hamilton and Sam's comments,it seems there was debate too on the radio if they should pit or not.

I still believe that the McLaren is faster then the lotus, but it just ruins its tyres doing it, thats where the lotus comes in , its fast and kind on its rubber.

I think McLaren is faster over one lap. Lotus is faster at long runs. And this is because of the tyres

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"Everything you can imagine is real." Pablo Picasso

Jenson Button admitted it was his wrong set up direction wich caused the struggles over several races .
Not the car, not the tyres.
I wonder why McLaren watched it such a long time before they did something.
They wasted precious development time ond points due to Buttons attempt to find more "direction" with the tyres

He said his issues with the Pirelli tyres had led to the team taking the wrong direction around Monaco.
"I find [the tyres] very difficult to understand, that's why we tried a few new things this year in Canada and Monaco and places like that, because I felt I needed to find a bit more direction with the tyres, and what we tried definitely didn't work," Button said
( source autosport.com)

They should have told him earlier to copy Lewis set up like he did at Valencia wich brought him back on track.

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“Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.” ― Albert Einstein

it is over JB!

The team and Lewis haven't reached an agreement yet....cause for concern?

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"A man should choose a friend who is better than himself"

Lewis is just smart enough to wait if they back him at the 2nd half of the season, for the WDC

"Don't pay the ferryman, don't even fix the price, until he got you on the other side"

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“Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.” ― Albert Einstein

Yup for the team

And the team are maybe smart enough not to divulge info to a man going elsewhere

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Disclaimer: The above post maybe tongue in cheek.

"I thought I'd get your theories, mock them, then embrace my own. The usual."

Looks like the driving force behind being keen on keeping Lewis at McLaren, is McLaren
We had Dennis saying, he is pretty sure Lewis will stay
We had Whitmarsh who is sure about Lewis will stay
We had Neale who is confident Lewis will sign a new contract

We had Lewis himself saying....?? I must have missed it

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“Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.” ― Albert Einstein

Means nothing until a deal is done.

Nothing anyone says to the press means anything until pen gets put on paper and makes a squiggly line.

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Disclaimer: The above post maybe tongue in cheek.

"I thought I'd get your theories, mock them, then embrace my own. The usual."

So if McLaren finish 1-2 in the race tomorrow, they wrap up 2nd in the constructors. So here is hoping to that with Lewis beating JB 0.055 seconds over the line

Season summery?

deleted, dont remember this

Yikes. I know it's only FP1 but McLaren looked nowhere. And I've never heard them just aim to "score some points" in the first race before. Either this is a new tactic of being downbeat, an epic piece of sandbagging or they have work to do.

Then again it could just be FP1 on a green track with no one wanting to put serious mileage in

McLarens lack of pace isn't really a shock....they radically redesigned their very fast 2012 car and handed it to a young driver who is new to the team and JB....who whilst very talented is very sensitive and cannot "drive around" problems like Lewis or Alonso can.

We can only hope that they can pick up a few points and that they can improve the car as much as they think they can going forward.

Pretty sure they would have wanted a better starting point than this though.

I have to wonder if we could see McLaren follow the path of Williams.

Losing major sponsors, losing engine deal, losing key drivers (Kimi, Hamilton) losing key mechanical personal, having failed for the past 10 years to convert good speed into many titles.

It just feels like they could move into a real slump

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Supporting in 2012:
Mark Webber.
Lewis Hamilton.

PHOTO: Unconfirmed reports that McLaren are flying last year's car to Australia.

http://d3j5vwomefv46c.cloudfront.net/ph ... QqErCEtIQ_

Inappropriate post removed.

This aimed at me?

I really hope not. I think McLaren will bounce back, but FP1 and FP2 really arent a good start!
I wonder if they just need a re-shuffle and to get some new people on board, there have been too many seasons in recent years where they have started off the pace.

Link didn't work for me, but this one did: http://twitpic.com/cbisme

Lol?

No, mods removed my message.

My point still stands. The car in the image is the mp4-26 and not the mp4-27 (last years car).

Dale