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[bud]

Cool unvailing, and a nice looking car loving the side pods! But no forward facing exhaust... well yet anyways!

Spanky I think the 25 they used in the first test still had the F duct and it didn't have the new rear wing. But who knows they might do an interim car if need be.

[What's Burning?]

Very good looking car, well done Macca.

Lots of interesting things and a clear and genuine attempt at innovation, congrats to the team on that also.

I think the presentation was excellent and I applaud the teams that work, not only on the substance (the car) but also the presentation. This show respect and concern for the fans, so good points for them on that front also.

One thought did occur to me, with so much new and different on this car, there was little danger in showing it at Valencia. If it was very fast it would take the other teams a long time to work out which innovation was the generating the biggest result.

I am wondering if the MP4-25 used at Valencia is a genuine possibility to be used as the 2011 car, or at least for part of the year? An MP4-25 "B" spec. The reason I say this is because they must have so much to test and evaluate on the new car and there was always only going to be four sessions to do it. Probably not enough. And, although you design things in the hope and belief they will work, all engineers know there is always the possibility of unexpected results.

I'll now have a dig at the stupid moronic testing ban. The stupidity of it is that, McLaren have brought a lot of new ideas to the table, and, their reward is they cannot test them? They get the same time to test as cars that brought basically nothing new, or a copy of something they know works from last year.

Lastly, if they did use a modified 25, it would not necessarily be a negative thing. I remember not that long ago a certain red team didn't race their new car until a few races into the season - and that strategy worked pretty well for them.

I hadn't even considered that possibility and the reality is that anything is possible, but there are 34 days left, and that's quite a bit of time for a large team with resources. It all depends on what was hiding under the skin of the 25 being tested.

it's clear that they're cutting things close, Lewis and Jenson both stated it was the first time they'd seen the completed car.

[spankyham]

With no problem weather and given perfect reliability teams have 15 days of testing available.

Tyres (all compounds) and areo setting (highest to lowest down-force settings) and all possible combination's thereof take a huge chunk of that testing and simply must be completed.

How many of the 15 days are left to test your innovations and theories. And if you have more than one? And given you will want to tweak and adjust. If you have an off or a failure?

The testing ban is moronic. What's worse, it acutally punishes teams for even trying more than one major innovation. A team with no innovations who just copies gets 15 days to test in the preseason. A team with multiple innovations gets ...... 15 days ... ludicrous. Essentially teams are punished for being innovative.

[Jensonb]

I don't think there's anyway McLaren will show up in Bahrain with the 25. They grin like idiots whenever the 26 is mentioned, so methinks they like it.

[What's Burning?]

With no problem weather and given perfect reliability teams have 15 days of testing available.

Tyres (all compounds) and areo setting (highest to lowest down-force settings) and all possible combination's thereof take a huge chunk of that testing and simply must be completed.

How many of the 15 days are left to test your innovations and theories. And if you have more than one? And given you will want to tweak and adjust. If you have an off or a failure?

The testing ban is moronic. What's worse, it acutally punishes teams for even trying more than one major innovation. A team with no innovations who just copies gets 15 days to test in the preseason. A team with multiple innovations gets ...... 15 days ... ludicrous. Essentially teams are punished for being innovative.

Additional testing in the short term would benefit the new teams, but in the long term would greatly benefit the large teams. Regardless, the complete ban is hurting the sport. At the very least they need to extend the pre-season testing or add a Thursday testing day onto a couple of race weekends during the early part of the season. With 20 races on the calendar there are less and less windows of opportunity, unless they open up something in August.

[Robert12010]

With no problem weather and given perfect reliability teams have 15 days of testing available.

Tyres (all compounds) and areo setting (highest to lowest down-force settings) and all possible combination's thereof take a huge chunk of that testing and simply must be completed.

How many of the 15 days are left to test your innovations and theories. And if you have more than one? And given you will want to tweak and adjust. If you have an off or a failure?

The testing ban is moronic. What's worse, it acutally punishes teams for even trying more than one major innovation. A team with no innovations who just copies gets 15 days to test in the preseason. A team with multiple innovations gets ...... 15 days ... ludicrous. Essentially teams are punished for being innovative.

Additional testing in the short term would benefit the new teams, but in the long term would greatly benefit the large teams. Regardless, the complete ban is hurting the sport. At the very least they need to extend the pre-season testing or add a Thursday testing day onto a couple of race weekends during the early part of the season. With 20 races on the calendar there are less and less windows of opportunity, unless they open up something in August.

my view is that the fia are trying to cut cost, make the sport more efficent, in times where money is hard to find, im sure that they would allow in season testing if it were a time where there was plenty of money to spend
and back to the point of the thread, since ive been following formula1, this is the most radical mclaren ive seen

[darwin dali]

I love this team to death but this is the ugliest McLaren I have seen....in my life.

I really hope it makes up for it in laptimes!!!!!

And um... it's ugly.
[youtube]ytTVFwoTZHY[/youtube]

[bud]

http://mclaren.com/2011revealed/


Pretty cool, You can take the MP4-26 for a virtual spin

[texasmr2]

Don't know if these have been posted but here ya go, great looking car as expected . Found a review of McLarens innovative sidepod's aswell.

2231_MP4-26_Side.jpg

mcl265.jpg

"With a lot of expectation around McLarens new car, the newly unveiled MP4-26 did indeed surprise with its sidepods. Termed “U” shaped by Technical Director Paddy Lowe, as the two “L” shaped individual inlets together form a “U”. As with other design elements on the McLaren these are almost directly opposite to what the rest of the grid is doing.

What the team have done is to shift the inlet for the radiators at the front of the sidepod as far outboard as possible, to allow a freer flow of air to the rear beam wing (the lower element between the tail lamp and the top rear wing). Typically teams place the inlet for the radiators as close inboard a possible, as this airflow is the cleanest and with the most energy. This allows the sidepods to cool efficiently and hence have smaller inlets for less drag. By placing them outboard the vertical inlet catches the turbulent airflow from the front wheel wakes. Its this messy airflow teams try to keep away from the car with the pod fins. While McLaren may have to have a slightly larger inlet to cope with the poorer airflow, the benefit is that the better airflow closer the centre of the car can now be directed at the beam wing. With the double diffuser banned, a larger proportion of rear downforce will have to come the from the rear wing.

Also by creating this shape inlet it means McLaren cannot have the deep undercuts in the sidepods, which other teams use to direct the airflow around the sidepod and over the diffuser. McLaren have still managed to keep an undercut, but this is much smaller and lower, at about the same as the bottom of the raised nose.

Packaging radiators and ducting into this shape is far more complex than a simple inlet. The radiators themselves have a stepped upper edge, the protruding section reaching up inside the higher “L” shape section of sidepod. This makes the duct that directs air from the inlet to the radiator much simpler.

It remains to be seen if this set up works better than conventional undercut sidepods for creating rear downforce. Others team would be able to recreate the McLaren “L” shaped sidepod inlets. Although it would require a significant change the radiators and bodywork, making it a major package upgrade and not a quick test. For those teams that have not already tried this idea in the past, they will certainly being giving it some simulation time over the next few weeks."

mp4-26_sidepods.jpg

[Hammer278]

Nice one tex, thanks! Car looks pretty sweet from the side view I must say.

[nish2280]

Looks pretty good from behind.

"Felipe, the back of his car looks nicer than yours. Do you understand this message"

[F1er]

The 26 is flying..............................











Over Germany that is

[Robert12010]

Looks pretty good from behind.

"Felipe, the back of his car looks nicer than yours. Do you understand this message"

The 26 is flying..............................












Over Germany that is

[What's Burning?]

Nice one tex, thanks! Car looks pretty sweet from the side view I must say.

Somebody is warming up to it!

[What's Burning?]

The 26 is flying..............................











Over Germany that is

I spy with my little eye, two vehicles with movable rear wings.