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#128536
From autosport.com:

By Jonathan Noble Tuesday, June 23rd 2009, 10:10 GMT

McLaren believes the worst of the season is now behind it, as it hopes a new aerodynamic package and tracks better suited to its car coming up on the calendar can help turn around its fortunes.

The Woking-based team has failed to score a single point since the Bahrain Grand Prix, a feat matched only by Force India, with it becoming abundantly clear about how poor the MP4-24 is on high-speed venues.

However, despite the slump in its fortunes, McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh thinks better times lie ahead - as he singles out next month's Hungarian Grand Prix as the place where he hopes it can shine

When asked by AUTOSPORT if he believed the worst was now behind the team, Whitmarsh said: "I very much hope so! So, I think we had a situation at Silverstone where if you are killed in high speed corners, you not only lose time there but also down the straights thereafter.

"Barcelona was a toughy as well. Some of the other circuits are slightly more to our liking, and I think a big regret we have this year is Monaco. I think we were truly competitive there and that didn't quite work out, but we will carry on. We have to develop our car and Hungary is a more hopeful looking prospect than here or some of the other circuits."

Although the results have not come McLaren's way in recent races, Whitmarsh thinks progress has actually been made in understanding what went wrong with the design this year.

"I think we have some understanding," he said. "This weekend we took KERS off the car, and we took it off because of the weight distribution issues. That was an interesting experiment, and we really threw it at our drivers.

"Heikki had a very different car to what he had been driving all year, handed to him on Saturday morning, and he had to deal with that. He did an excellent job, a very limited experience of that very different configuration, and in the circumstances did a good job in qualifying. So in a positive way we have actually learned quite a bit. Now we have to implement some of those lessons and make the car quicker."

Whitmarsh believes that the time may also have come for McLaren to start changing the approach it has to improving its car – and perhaps shaking off what has perhaps been over-analysis of the situation.

"We were disastrously behind in week 11. We really threw everything we could at it, and I have to take a lot of responsibility for this. Like a race team we got stuck in in those early races, and we threw everything at progressing.

"But when you fight in that day-by-day, hour-by-hour situation you don't always pull back enough and say okay we will accept the pain of uncompetitiveness and take some bigger incremental steps. I think we had a great feeling of race-by-race improvement in the first few races, and that came to a shuddering disappointment in Barcelona.

"I think we then focused on Monaco because it was a particularly special circuit for us. We put a lot of effort into that, which didn't help us at a place like Silverstone, but we have a large new package coming through which we have to get through as quickly as we can.

"There is always the danger that every time that I go to the wind tunnel or anywhere in the company, I ask what that is and what's it worth? Then I say, right I will have it now.

"They say they are in the middle of developing it and you say you want it next weekend. When you do that you expend a lot of resource and energy. It is a blend and you have to get that balance right. You have to have a racing mentality to be in this business, and the organisation feels it, but you have to balance that.

"I don't think we have necessarily got that right and I think we have spent too much time probably being overly analytical and not enough time being straightforward pragmatic – what is it?

"Don't know how it works, but it's on another car, let's take it and put it on ours! That is a good old fashioned approach to it, we need a bit of that and we are applying a bit of that right now."
#128557
"However, despite the slump in its fortunes, McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh thinks better times lie ahead - as he singles out next month's Hungarian Grand Prix as the place where he hopes it can shine

We have to develop our car and Hungary is a more hopeful looking prospect than here or some of the other circuits."

Don't count your chickens before they hatch Whitmarsh, Williams were confident of good results at Hungary last year and look what happened to them then.
#128592
Well it can't get much worse can it? At least HK seems to be doing better now and Lewis still seems to be giving it his all. Lewis seems to fight for 19th place like it was 1st which is nice to see :D! Both drivers f**ked up in Monaco which was the best chances for McLaren this season because the mechanical grip of the MP4-24 is actually very good.
Last edited by Frosty on 23 Jun 09, 17:22, edited 1 time in total.
#128625
Well, the next 3 tracks should suit them better anyway... Hamilton can probably drag it into Q3 in Hungary and Valencia, maybe at the Nurburgring, there's only a couple of high speed corners there. :scratchchin: That said, they'll sure as hell need a good upgrade to do anything at Spa and Monza! I'd be surprised if they truly caught up to the current top 4 teams though. I guess beating Renault and Ferrari should be the goal!
#128637
They will not produce a race winning car this year I don't think. It's quite clear now that the MP4-24 for whatever reason has fundamentally flawed aerodynamics.
#128647
They will not produce a race winning car this year I don't think. It's quite clear now that the MP4-24 for whatever reason has fundamentally flawed aerodynamics.



:yes: I believe all cars that were developed with KERS are fundamentally flawed aerodynamically. While BMW, MACCA and Ferrari continued to pursue KERS, Red Bull decided early enough to scrap it and Adrian Newey has completely reworked the car... Completely!! If the affore three mention go that route they would most likely make improvements, but they are no Adrian Neweys, and they are most certainly out of time for the season.

In my oppinion.. KERS is to blame for all this mess we are in.. KERS may have killed F1
#128734
I find there case is very strange? Like Ferrari, but why has McLaren gone backwards? I would of thought McLaren would have gone forward? In Oz they were not doing too bad and Lewis got the car up to a good place, compared to the place he was fighting for in Silvo, So I am hoping that he can bring the heat to Button not too long away. I think Heikki….I thin he needs to be replaced, Nico could do far better job, so could Gary!
#128739
I find there case is very strange? Like Ferrari, but why has McLaren gone backwards? I would of thought McLaren would have gone forward? In Oz they were not doing too bad and Lewis got the car up to a good place, compared to the place he was fighting for in Silvo, So I am hoping that he can bring the heat to Button not too long away. I think Heikki….I thin he needs to be replaced, Nico could do far better job, so could Gary!

Both Ferrari and McLaren were slow out of the blocks as they didn't start work on their cars until after Brazillian Grand Prix. Ferrari have caught up, but their car is not a Brawn/Red Bull beater. McLaren, like Ferrari have also brought lots of developments to their car but now it appears their car has an aerodynamic fault on it which affects the car when going through high speed corners on aerodynamic circuits - pretty much exactly the same problem with last year's Williams FW30.

Whether McLaren can correct the fault or not is a different matter, because Williams tried, couldn't and then stopped all development work on it and focussed on the FW31. Like Williams last year, McLaren's only hope of any good haul of points will be on tracks where mechanical grip is more important as Monaco has already demonstrated.
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