FORUMula1.com - F1 Forum

[MACH141]

Lewis Hamilton stopped short of calling his MP4-27 'fundamentally flawed' but admits McLaren need to something after falling well off the pace at Silverstone.

Asked if he believed his MP4-27 was 'fundamentally flawed', Hamilton told the Daily Mail: "I'm not using those words; I'll let you use those words.

"You've got to look at the cars in detail - just look at them and ours look different from the others."

And, taking a quick look at the McLaren in relation to its rivals, the most notable difference is the car's nose as the MP4-27 does not feature the stubby boxer nose.

"That's a significant difference," Hamilton continued.

"I'm not an aerodynamicist but there's got to be something there, so that's what we're looking at for this car, but also for next year's car.

"It is too big a change for this season.

"I feel for us all at the team because everyone is working their a*** off.

"Jenson and I are working are a***s off and the fans are giving us every ounce of support possible. But it's just not happening.

"Coming to your home grand prix you want a big upgrade package. You want to be fastest and you want to win every year.

"But neither Jenson nor I have the car to be able to do that at the moment. We can get there. I believe we can get there."

They can get there but they need to think fast.

[spankyham]

:hehe: That video was funny!

Just a few thoughts I had over the weekend, because unless there's a deluge (in which case Alonso will scream for a red flag) then Mclaren is so far off the pace, its about 5th or 6th best car. What has happened???

Glad you liked the vid

I'd have thought Nando would be happy every time he sees rain - he won in the rain in Malaysia and got his first pole since Sing 2010 in the rain in Britain

[stonemonkey]

I've just had a thought about something, aero wise I see the nose bump as a compromise and I thought for getting more air under the car but it also raises the cog. With a higher cog the car would lean heavier on the front wheels under braking, is less likely to lock up, more front grip as the car dives and more heat generated in the tyres and brakes.

In general the problematic area for grip is the rear rather than the front, especially with this years changes.

It seems to be the front for Button.

[racechick]

Gary Anderson talk sense sometime but most of the time he talk rubbish and i just part of the bbc f1 Jenson fanboy club.

In the same write up you are quoting he also wrote this paragraph.

"I think Button's problems are revealing an issue with the car, but because he is better than Hamilton at driving around problems and adapting his style, it is not as obvious with him"

What a load of bullpoo,anyone with no bias will say it's the other way round.

Seriously,he has fallen for the beeb f1 Jake the fake and Eddie Judas Jordon "we love JB" club.

The bit in red. I think its misquoted because if its the same interview I heard him give he said lewis can drive round problems and Jenson cant therefore if they sort the problem for Jenson it will improve fthe car for lewis as well.

Im not sure I accept that, but I think thats what he said.

[Hammer278]

Gary Anderson talk sense sometime but most of the time he talk rubbish and i just part of the bbc f1 Jenson fanboy club.

In the same write up you are quoting he also wrote this paragraph.

"I think Button's problems are revealing an issue with the car, but because he is better than Hamilton at driving around problems and adapting his style, it is not as obvious with him"

What a load of bullpoo,anyone with no bias will say it's the other way round.

Seriously,he has fallen for the beeb f1 Jake the fake and Eddie Judas Jordon "we love JB" club.

Gary Anderson used to commentate on my coverage last year, 1 hell of a bore and a big Button fan. But he isn't that stupid to say that bit in red, he always maintained that Button is 'as fast as Hamilton' (LOL) when he's happy with the setup, but can never work with a bad car.

[racechick]

:hehe: That video was funny!

Just a few thoughts I had over the weekend, because unless there's a deluge (in which case Alonso will scream for a red flag) then Mclaren is so far off the pace, its about 5th or 6th best car. What has happened???

Glad you liked the vid

I'd have thought Nando would be happy every time he sees rain - he won in the rain in Malaysia and got his first pole since Sing 2010 in the rain in Britain

Oh Im sure he can drive the wet if he has to.I was refering to him shouting for quali to be red flagged when he'd made the wrong tyre choice (Q2) Perez was a big time looser because of that.Had they not red fagged it nando may not have made the cut and hamilton was good. Could have changed the whole race. Wouldnt have helped Mclaren's dry running pace though

[Injen]

Gary Anderson talk sense sometime but most of the time he talk rubbish and i just part of the bbc f1 Jenson fanboy club.

In the same write up you are quoting he also wrote this paragraph.

"I think Button's problems are revealing an issue with the car, but because he is better than Hamilton at driving around problems and adapting his style, it is not as obvious with him"

What a load of bullpoo,anyone with no bias will say it's the other way round.

Seriously,he has fallen for the beeb f1 Jake the fake and Eddie Judas Jordon "we love JB" club.

Gary Anderson used to commentate on my coverage last year, 1 hell of a bore and a big Button fan. But he isn't that stupid to say that bit in red, he always maintained that Button is 'as fast as Hamilton' (LOL) when he's happy with the setup, but can never work with a bad car.

Man,i copied and pasted his comment but now it's been altered lol.

This is what it says now "I think Button's problems are revealing an issue with the car. It is not as obvious with Hamilton because he is better at driving around problems and adapting his style, but at Silverstone it affected him, too"

Hmm gremlins...

[racechick]

Gary Anderson talk sense sometime but most of the time he talk rubbish and i just part of the bbc f1 Jenson fanboy club.

In the same write up you are quoting he also wrote this paragraph.

"I think Button's problems are revealing an issue with the car, but because he is better than Hamilton at driving around problems and adapting his style, it is not as obvious with him"

What a load of bullpoo,anyone with no bias will say it's the other way round.

Seriously,he has fallen for the beeb f1 Jake the fake and Eddie Judas Jordon "we love JB" club.

Gary Anderson used to commentate on my coverage last year, 1 hell of a bore and a big Button fan. But he isn't that stupid to say that bit in red, he always maintained that Button is 'as fast as Hamilton' (LOL) when he's happy with the setup, but can never work with a bad car.

Man,i copied and pasted his comment but now it's been altered lol.

This is what it says now "I think Button's problems are revealing an issue with the car. It is not as obvious with Hamilton because he is better at driving around problems and adapting his style, but at Silverstone it affected him, too"

Hmm gremlins...

Yes. I thought theyd misquoted becuase I heard him say it live. Still not sure I agree with him though

[What's Burning?]

Now all they need is a GP where you pit on every lap.

[racechick]

Now all they need is a GP where you pit on every lap.

Theyd be winning till the left rear got stuck.....good things dont last forever.

[Hammer278]

Hamilton's contract is set to expire at the end of the season, with both team and driver setting their stalls out in the negotiating process. Hamilton has picked up just four points at the last two races after an accident with Pastor Maldonado at Valencia and then experiencing a general lack of pace at Silverstone, where the team had hoped to be strong.

But when asked whether the recent dip in form would have a bearing on contract talks with Hamilton, Whitmarsh said: "No, I think he's smarter than that.

"He's got to want to be at this team, which I believe he does. He knows that racing has highs and lows, and this hasn't been one of the highs as a weekend. Four weeks ago it was a different situation and in two weeks' time it could be a different situation again. He knows that, I know that and we're disciplined enough and battle-hardened enough these days to know that. You've got to take stock, learn from these weekend and sometimes you learn more from these than the successful ones. We will continue to develop the car and make sure we do better job in two weeks' time."

Hamilton is now 37 points off Fernando Alonso at the top of the championship while team-mate Jenson Button is 79 points adrift. But Whitmarsh said both drivers could be happy with their performances.

"I think the drivers are happy with their job. I think they know what we know, which is that we need to work on the car and make that better. Those are the things that are part of our job."

He added: "What you can do is learn about the tyres and do a better job with the tyres because we know they're very significant and bring the upgrade packages as quickly as we can. We've got a reasonable upgrade package for Germany and we'd like that to be a big a performance boost and as successful as we can in fortnight."

______________________________________

We believe you Martin. Ever since you promised a 'great show at Valencia, great show at Silverstone' I'm sure it will be an equally great show from McLaren in Germany.

[CookinFlat6]

Yes I am also sure that McLaren will show everyone at the next race Martin!

Maybe the race after or the one after that.

Martin could get lucky like Brawn, and after a few years of stagnating they could luck into a double diffuser style advantage and Button could even win the WC

[CookinFlat6]

So everything said in Racecubs now locked Mclaren conspiracy thread about the team concentrating on Button and how this was less a conspiracy and more incompetence is now starting to appear the real story

From PlanetF1 editorial;

Like a Silverstone car park, McLaren were made to look a sorry mess this weekend. Just how has it come to this? From leading the way in Australia, McLaren are suddenly lost in no-man's land and, as Damon Hill remarked with evident confusion, it's almost as if there's a secret that the rest of the field have worked out since Melbourne which McLaren are yet to fathom.

In the absence of any other convincing explanation for why they've retreated into a midfield wilderness, one theory worth peddling is that the team took a wrong turn when Button lurched into crisis mode after Bahrain, taking a misguiding lead from a driver whose technical feedback they came to rely upon and implicitly trust last season but whose precise style runs kilter to this year's instability born of the ban on exhaust-blowing diffusers. An unneverving line from Mark Hughes' latest column into the team's ongoing demise is that 'when Button suggested a new direction after Bahrain, the team did not question it'. Since then, driver and team have been racing up a dead end and even in Canada, when Hamilton triumphed, there was a tell-tale clue in Jenson's horror-show that McLaren were slowly becoming undone. Now it seems they've lost their way to the extent of losing all sense of direction.

[scotty]

Yes, cause some guy from planetf1 is the gospel on all the inner workings at that team

[CookinFlat6]

Nope, just means people with more knowledge about the workings of F1 teams than a bunch of armchair experts on a forum are starting to come up with the same conclusions

or maybe we need to wait till Bernie says McLaren have messed up by catering for Jenson too much before it becomes acceptable

anyway it wasnt some guy from PF!, it was Mark Hughes, I guess he dont know s*** either



Let me guess: there is nothing wrong at McLaren? just a blip? Whitmarsh ok? Sam doing great? we are all pathetic? having the teams top engineers working on Buttons problem does not affect the development effort on the car?

Yup, McLaren are doing really well