# McLaren... I don't get it



## racerdave (Sep 15, 2003)

Well, it seems like McLaren is behind where they want to be this late in the pre-season. Now, it could just be a smokescreen and they could be in perfect shape.

But if the following is true, how can that happen? McLaren has a vast amount of resources... how can they be ill-prepared for this season? Didn't they learn anything about not being prepared in the early season and solving bad reliability from last year? :dunno:

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A senior representative of the McLaren-Mercedes team has admitted that the new MP4-21 racer is not ready to dominate Grand Prix in 2006.

Even with the newly revised V8 engine now up and running, Mercedes' competitor director Norbert Haug said progress at the silver team is currently lagging.

"We are not where we wanted to be in mid February," the German told Auto Motor Und Sport. "At the moment, we are perhaps where we should have been in the middle of December."

The new Mercedes V8, reportedly correcting problems with the inlet system and the pistons, has moved the MP4-21 closer to the leading pace.

But analysts still estimate that, if the Bahrain opener was held today, McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen and Juan Pablo Montoya would finish behind the two Renaults, the two Ferraris and the Hondas.

Haug maintained a similar theme in the Motorsport Aktuell magazine "Some teams are ahead of us. Certainly, we would not mind if we could add another month to our preparation time. But we are doing everything possible in order to be competitive for the first race in Bahrain. We have not had a dream start. We are behind where we want to be."


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## berford (Sep 10, 2002)

I tend to believe it's a:


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## Patrick (Dec 23, 2001)

I think that there is serious reason to be concerned. The engine cannot even last a single race distance before it falls apart. The latest V8 makes more power and revs higher, but then explodes.

McLaren is in trouble.


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## LmtdSlip (May 28, 2003)

Their vast resources will not guarantee success.

Creative and effective designs combined with effective project management are key.


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## Sands (Apr 7, 2004)

Then again, they might be sandbagging. Ahh, the most expensive soap opera on the planet!


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## racerdave (Sep 15, 2003)

Sands said:


> Then again, they might be sandbagging. Ahh, the most expensive soap opera on the planet!


Then again, maybe not! 

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After leading the charts with Mark Webber yesterday, the Williams-Cosworth team remained on top of the timesheets of this week's Valencia Formula 1 testing sessions, this time with rookie Nico Rosberg.

The German's best lap of 1:10.994 outpaced McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen by 0.2s, *the Finn logging the second best of the day even though his Mercedes engine expired after just 16 laps.*

When not on firecracker mode, the new McLaren MP4-21 manned by Juan Pablo Montoya covered 85 laps to clock only the seventh-best time, almost a full second away from Webber and 1.5s off Rosberg's pace.


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## Patrick (Dec 23, 2001)

I told you so.


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## Mr. E (Dec 19, 2001)

Maybe Mercedes should consider building their own engines now? :eeps:


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## racerdave (Sep 15, 2003)

Well, it's fast in short runs...

Raikkonen Sets Fastest Time of Year in Valencia
Written by: Cassio Cortes
Valencia, Spain ***8211; 2/17/2006 The new McLaren MP4-21 gave a glimpse of its true potential this Friday, the last of a four-day Formula 1 group test at the Valencia circuit in Spain.

Concentrating on short runs, Kimi Raikkonen was able to cover 81 laps with a best mark of 1:09.983, almost a full second faster than Giancarlo Fisichella's Renault R26 in second place and the fastest time by a V8 engine at the Circuito Ricardo Tormo this year. Tester Heikki Kovalainen logged a massive 161 laps in the second Renault, and trailed Fisi by 0.1s.

David Coulthard in the Red Bull-Ferrari was next, just 0.005 behind the Finn. McLaren's Pedro de la Rosa rounded out the top-five. Midland's Adrian Sutil and Tiago Monteiro completed the day's runners.

In Bahrain, Ferrari was the sole team left at work with Michael Schumacher. After putting just 30 laps in the new 248 F1 in the two previous days combined, the German finally managed to cover long distances, clocking 92 laps with a quickest run of 1:32.702.

"The small [engine] problem has been solved," Schuey told Italy's Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper. "Yes, for two days I've been more still in the garage than lapping on the track, but this is also what testing is about, sometimes."

Valencia F1 testing times - Friday:

1) Raikkonen, McLaren-Mercedes (M), 1:09.983, 81 laps
2) Fisichella, Renault (M), 1:10.912, 83
3) Kovalainen, Renault (M), 1:11.071, 161
4) Coulthard, Red Bull-Ferrari (M), 1:11.076, 34
5) de la Rosa, McLaren-Mercedes (M), 1:11.245, 113
6) Sutil, MF1-Toyota (B), 1:13.027, 73
7) Monteiro, MF1-Toyota (B), 1:13.815, 93


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## WILLIA///M (Apr 15, 2002)

racerdave said:


> When not on firecracker mode, the new McLaren MP4-21 manned by Juan Pablo Montoya covered 85 laps to clock only the seventh-best time, almost a full second away from Webber and 1.5s off Rosberg's pace.


The Cosworth is supposed to be 35hp up on the Mercedes right now. 745hp to 710hp.

No mention anywhere of how much the BMW V8 is putting out that I can find.:eeps:


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## SteveT (Dec 22, 2001)

Good discussion. Mercedes has had engine problems from the beginning with the V8 even though they wouldn't admit it. They were blowing engines when they first moved to the V8 and then went back to testing with the V10 saying everything was OK. The V8 forces all of the manufacturers to make significant changes, so there's lots of opportunity for failure.

Of course, Max wants all of this to become spec engines from different manufactures with no development allowed. He doesn't even understand what F1 is with his proposals. It will be interesting to watch how Mercedes does engineering modifications to an engine that has some problems. That's F1.

The BMW seems to be moving along OK doing pretty well. I haven't seen a power figure either. Most of the reports have been complementary that the car is going well. Expectations are low for BMW- Sauber, but that will change.


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## #98 (Nov 26, 2003)

Teams have little incentive to sandbag, especially via blowing engines and losing out on valuable testing data. Even if McLaren were sandbagging the other teams wouldn't slow down the development of their car.


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## Mr. E (Dec 19, 2001)

WILLIA///M said:


> No mention anywhere of how much the BMW V8 is putting out that I can find.:eeps:


Looks like BMW Sauber is quoting "over 720 bhp". Of course, any HP numbers are going to be massively fudged anway, especially here in the preseason.


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