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Le coeur a ses raisons que la raison ne connaît point. 
Geez guys - can you bury the hatchet and move on? It's getting really tiresome...
Geez guys - can you bury the hatchet and move on? It's getting really tiresome...
Sorry mate but he makes no contrition to this forum whatsoever which give him no right to call Mclaren Fans lairs i don't care how he packages it that's what he's doing.
Geez guys - can you bury the hatchet and move on? It's getting really tiresome...
Sorry mate but he makes no contrition to this forum whatsoever which give him no right to call Mclaren Fans lairs i don't care how he packages it that's what he's doing.
I just wanted to know where all these facts were coming from but instead of backing them up I was immediately met with hostility, arrogance and smart bottom remarks. After that I find it very hard not to "shoot back".
I just found this on another F1 forum and found it quite funny. I think Han will like it... or maybe not...
http://www.pitboard.co.uk/index.php?s=b ... y876209776You put your left foot down
You take your right foot out
You take your revs right down
And you lose time all about.
You do the Heikki Kikey and you slow yourself down
That's what it's all about...
I just found this on another F1 forum and found it quite funny. I think Han will like it... or maybe not...
http://www.pitboard.co.uk/index.php?s=b ... y876209776You put your left foot down
You take your right foot out
You take your revs right down
And you lose time all about.
You do the Heikki Kikey and you slow yourself down
That's what it's all about...
Geez guys - can you bury the hatchet and move on? It's getting really tiresome...
Sorry mate but he makes no contrition to this forum whatsoever which give him no right to call Mclaren Fans lairs i don't care how he packages it that's what he's doing.
I just wanted to know where all these facts were coming from but instead of backing them up I was immediately met with hostility, arrogance and smart bottom remarks. After that I find it very hard not to "shoot back".
I've just read all of that.
Sounds like you guys are 13 years old. Both side of the arguement.
You'd only be 11 years old Racechick because girls mature faster than boys.
I am speachless FJuan! (good name by the way 
)Not starting anything here but makes me laugh like **** when I noticed that both links lead to a British company lol
Not saying they are wrong, just mean that it´s very easy to find good stories about Massa in Brazil, Kimi in Finland, Alonso in Spain and well well Hamilton in England.
Like I said, not starting anything just wanting to point out that these magazines are also doing what they do for a living so the speculation will not end in that
Not starting anything here but makes me laugh like **** when I noticed that both links lead to a British company lol
Not saying they are wrong, just mean that it´s very easy to find good stories about Massa in Brazil, Kimi in Finland, Alonso in Spain and well well Hamilton in England.
Like I said, not starting anything just wanting to point out that these magazines are also doing what they do for a living so the speculation will not end in that
. It was a technical article about car development which just happened to highlight one of Lewis' talent. believe me not all Mark Hughes articles are pro Engish driveres and teams, often quite to the contrary. He says it as it is!!!!Not starting anything here but makes me laugh like **** when I noticed that both links lead to a British company lol
Not saying they are wrong, just mean that it´s very easy to find good stories about Massa in Brazil, Kimi in Finland, Alonso in Spain and well well Hamilton in England.
Like I said, not starting anything just wanting to point out that these magazines are also doing what they do for a living so the speculation will not end in that
This was not a "good story about Lewis"
Yes the car uses its tyres heavily, it had to do that to get the most out of it. In fact lewis was the driver who was harder on tyres so actually the car was more of a handicap to lewis than Heikki. McLaren made a conscious effort to develop the car in a direction that was diametrically opposite to Lewis' style...because they knew the car would deliver more that way. They put the drivers in simulators to adapt their driving to the new car. lewis adapted Heiki didnt(and lewis was further away to start with!!) This is why Heikki did so badly at Silverstone and leiws did well. heikki couldnt cope with the way the car had developped and had to have (winglets?? well some aero devices, and something that affected , I think the air intake?? but im not sure....) on his car to help him out, this stoped the car benifitting from form the developments.
Thank you. Somebody with sense at long last.
Pedro de la Rosa, McLaren's test driver compared the driving styles of Lewis and Heikki after the Turkish GP.
According to the Spaniard, Hamilton always takes the corners very aggressively, while Kovalainen is able to be just as fast with a softer approach. This then leads to a different kind of tyre degradation.
- The difference is, Lewis always goes into a corner full-on, on the the limit. He likes the rear of the car to be slightly fidgety and the front to be very strong in grip, and the car to slightly slide sideways out of the corner.
- Heikki's style is more soft, but not any slower. Heikki is really good. They both have about the same line into the corner, but Lewis' style is much more aggressive to the tyres on this track.
Team boss Ron Dennis has revealed that McLaren had no choice but to adopt a three-stop strategy for Lewis Hamilton in Sunday’s Turkish Grand Prix due to fears over his tyres’ durability. Bridgestone have confirmed the problem was unique to Hamilton.
- I had a totally bad weekend. I couldn't find the speed at any point, Kovalainen sighed.
- I don't know what was wrong, but always after only two laps the tyres were completely degraded. The team even told me to take it as easy as I could, so I wouldn't have a blow-out. Feels like I've hit bottom. There's no where to go but up.
- It was just a total disaster. I don't know, maybe I'm driving wrong somehow at this track.
Martin Whitmarsh believed the main problems for Heikki were the tyres. He probably drove too aggressively for these tyres and somehow all the tyre sets he had were degraded in no time at all.
- Heikki had a difficult weekend - the first for this season. He admitted himself, that this was a big disappointment. After the first practice session he didn't seem to find the speed. His tyres were degrading much worse than for Lewis in his first stint in the race, eventhough Lewis was on the softer compound.
- Heikki had high expectations and he was very disappointed. We have to look into issues with the car. I'm sure we can do a better job for Heikki.
Like in his nightmare in Canada, throughout the race Kovalainen had massive problems with his tyres.
- It was really difficult from beginning to end. My rear tyres didn't have any grip. When it rained some more halfway through the race, it just got more difficult. It was a battle from start to finish, so I couldn't really attack at any point.
- The tyres degraded right away on the first few laps when I fought with Lewis. I couldn't take it easy and preserve them.
Heikki Kovalainen found himself with a lot of homework left from the rain at Silverstone, where his rear tyres seemed to degrade at record speeds.
- We have to get to the bottom of these tyres issues, and why they seem to degrade much faster in my car.
- When there isn't much traction, or with a wet circuit, it seems I crunch the tyres too much. I think it's partly because of my driving style and partly the setup.
"I just struggled with my rear tyres all the way through the race, to be honest," said the Finn. "They were going away and I was damaging them excessively. The car control became difficult and I had to slow down. This was the reason I couldn't keep up."
When asked whether it was more to do with his driving style or set-up, he said: "I think it's a bit of both. It looks like in the low grip conditions I put more load on the tyres.
"We saw that a little bit in Canada, where I had more tyre wear compared to Lewis again. In the rain when the grip is lower I put a little more load on the rear tyres.
Lewis Hamilton's natural driving style asks a lot of the front of the car. If the front end grip can support him, he's fine with whatever the back wants to do; in fact he even uses a sliding rear to help get a quicker direction change sometimes. It's spectacular in slow and medium-speed bends. The McLaren is a car that works its front tyres very hard, generates a lot of load from them, which suits Hamilton fine, but in long-duration fast corners it tends to overheat them - on Lewis's car in particular. So the tyre performance degrades, they are still too hot by the time he gets to the next braking zone etc.
The data was telling the team that if they surrendered some front end grip, the reduced tyre load would actually help the car overall. Furthermore, if they surrendered it in such a way as to improve the flow to the radiators, they could have a more aerodynamically efficient car into the bargain.
That was great, except for one thing: it went totally against Hamilton's preferred driving style.
Radical changes in aerodynamics brought speed for Hamilton
July 24th, 2008
Turun Sanomat, Jerez
LUIS VASCONCELOS
Lewis Hamilton's speed at Hockenheim was a sucker punch for many at the paddock - not least of all for Ferrari, who expected Felipe Massa to be on equal ground with the British driver.
On Sunday night the staff of Ferrari admitted their surprise. Stefano Domenicali felt that "Hamilton hid his speed in the practice sessions and qualifying, and didn't let it out untill the race. The truth is, that even with our own difficulties at the end of the race, we weren't even close to him before the first pit stop." But it was not only Massa who couldn't keep up with Hamilton. Heikki Kovalainen was also much slower than his teammate. Not just in qualifying, where the gap between the McLaren's was 0,489 seconds, while Kovalainen had more fuel which would account for 0,27 seconds of his lap time - but in the race after 17 laps the gap between them was 16,7 seconds. So Heikki was nearly a full second slower per lap!
So what was the source for Hamilton's amazing speed at Hockenheim? We have looked into it and found out, that the British driver had a very specially constructed McLaren, aided by very thorough testing in a simulator, while Kovalainen didn't have time to adapt to the new solution yet for Hockenheim, and had to settle for the basic configuration. This means the configuration of Heikki's car was not nearly as effective as Hamilton's.
You needed only to glance at the front of the cars on the grid to see that the two McLaren's had very different aerodynamic setups. Hamilton's car had much less downforce at the front, which you can tell from the position of the "upper flap" on the front-wing. It is set at a smaller angle, so it directs the air flow better for the rest of the car. This means they can significantly reduce the air in-take of the sidepods, increasing the aerodynamic gain, because the air flow is used to add downforce and not to cool the engine.
So why didn't Kovalainen have the same solution? Heikki's car had much more downforce at the front, and the air in-take of the sidepods was just as big as it normally is, reducing the aerodynamic gain. Heikki had the old configuration, because only Hamilton had tested the new one - mainly with the famous simulator at the McLaren factory.
Some weeks ago the McLaren engineers discovered that the cars were being driven with a less than perfect aerodynamic balance, in order to adapt to the driving styles of the drivers. Hamilton especially requires the front of the car to be very strong, which means a lot of front-wing. Since his karting days his style has been to turn the car aggressively and sharply into the corner - at the very last second, so he can use all of the grip the front tyres give him. This leaves the rear of the car busy and jumpy, causing a lot of pressure to the outside of the rear tyre when he accelerates out of the corner. This is why the slightly marginal Bridgestone tyre selection has caused him difficulties at races.
To rectify this issue and in order to improve the general efficiency of the car, the team tailored an ideal aerodynamic configuration and sent Hamilton off to the simulator. This way he was able to modify his driving style and learn how to take the full benefit of it.
He had great difficulties at first with such low downforce at the front of the car, but two hard days working in the simulator helped. At the same time the engineers worked on the aerodynamic configuration and general stability of the car. With this, Hamilton was able to take full advantage of the new car after the modifications had been made to the front-wing.
Video from his on-board camera at Hockenheim clearly showed how he was now less aggressive with the steering wheel when turning into a corner, because he had less grip with the front of the car than before. On the other hand, now he didn't cause as much wear and tear to his rear tyres, so they lasted longer and gave him a lot more speed on longer runs. Being able to reduce the air in-take of the sidepods improved the general downforce-level of the car. His fastest lap was lap 17, right before his first pit stop, proving how well his tyres were holding up even at the end of the first stint.
At the first practice session Kovalainen was able to test the same configuration in his car, but he was unable to adapt to the new radical setup without having any practice beforehand at the simulator. That's why he requested for the traditional configuration, meaning he would be much slower than Hamilton but atleast he could drive the car.
On Tuesday after the race Kovalainen headed for the simulator in Woking to start adapting to the new car, to be able to use it in Hungary.
In the previous races I was too hard on the tyres and they were quickly degraded. For this race we made some radical changes, and they were definitely a step in the right direction. Especially on the last stint with the soft tyres it felt good, and the tyres looked brand new afterwards. That's the best thing from this race.
We are getting on top of the reasons why I am harder on the tyres and we're working on it. Eventually we will get there. It think it's the small detail of the driving and how you enter the corners and how you hit the brakes and how you go on the power. I'm sometimes cornering longer than Lewis - he turns the car in a shorter time whereas I'm trying to make the corners more round. It's harder on the tyres - it's a fact I need to work on.
Short corners for both Heikki and Hamilton
October 9, 2008
Turun Sanomat, Shizuoka
HEIKKI KULTA
When Heikki Kovalainen started his season at McLaren, his driving style was radically different from the way Hamilton drives into a corner.
Now that we are approaching the end of the season, the Finn is nearly identical in his style to that of Hamilton.
- There's no denying I'm now driving very close to his style. That's how this car seems to work the best and my tyres seem to last longer than they did at the beginning of the season.
- My inherent driving style would be a lot softer and it was hard to adapt to this new style because it doesn't come naturally. You have to focus and concentrate every time you drive into a corner.
- Lewis has been driving with this car for two years now. Even Fernando Alonso had to change his driving style last year to adapt to the car.
So what kind of driving style does the McLaren call for?
- With Lewis' style you sort of have to shorten the corners and turn the car more quickly into the corner. You drive straight and hit the brakes, and accelerate more directly. You can crunch more heavily with the brakes, and the wheels don't lock up as easily. Of course they still do lock up occasionally, but atleast you can hit the brakes harder.
- It's quite different than it was with Renault, which I was used to. You can crunch the brakes much harder because there's a lot more traction. It demands a much more aggressive driving style in any case, and I think I've gotten better at it.
- That's what caused me a lot of trouble, because this car is much harder on the tyres than the Renault was. I've found some remedies for that in the setup department.
- In the early part of the season my setup was quite different to what Lewis used. I did well in qualifying, but I'd often run into trouble with the tyres in the races. I've since changed my setup closer to what Lewis has, and I've been able to modify my driving style to adapt to the car.
- My own driving style is to go easier on the brakes, and just accelerate when you're halfway through the corner. With Renault you always had to keep the momentum going in the corner, to have enough speed for the exit onto the next straight. With this car you can turn more quickly into the corner and shorten the corner that way.
- With that style the balance of the car feels better all around. But my natural style would be to drive with a longer curve into the corner. Subconciously I would just want to drive faster into the corner, let the car roll on and turn more softly. But that leads to excessive tyre degradation with this car.
- I think Felipe Massa and Robert Kubica have a similar style to Lewis, while Kimi Räikkönen has a style more similar to mine.
- I think it comes from the Michelin days. Those tyres could take it, if you took a longer curve around the corner. You drove much faster into the corner and you didn't have to hit the brakes as hard, you just kept the speed up through the whole corner.
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