Source: http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2012/02/29/the-problem-with-lotus-f1-team-rather-than-group/
Chris Craft Jim Crawford Ray Crawford Alberto Crespo Antonio Creus
At McLaren Technology Centre, Woking
Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button sat on the stage in front of the car they both hope will take them to the world title this year looking relaxed and happy.
Yet in their responses to apparently innocuous questions, both men revealed much about the different ways in which they approach the 2012 Formula 1 season.
They were asked how they had spent the winter. Button, fresh from arguably his best season yet in the sport, had spent some time in Hawaii. "Somewhere warm to chill out and train," he said, "but it's always the same - you spend a couple of weeks away and you are missing racing, so I was back on 5 January".
Hamilton's 2011, meanwhile, was self-admittedly his worst season yet in F1, with three superb wins interspersed with errors and controversy.
McLaren are set to compete for the title with their new car which was unveiled ahead of the beginning of the Formula One season due to start in March. Photo: Getty
His response to the same question was enlightening."The opposite of Jenson," he said. "I was over in the cold in the mountains in Colorado. I wasn't missing the car too much - it was nice to be away from it awhile, to refresh, start anew, and just getting back to training was great.
"I altered it a little bit this year, I think last year I was training too much. I had a good break and I was grateful to Martin (Whitmarsh, the McLaren team principal) for giving me such a good break."
Later, Hamilton revealed a little more about his desire to make amends for 2011 with a sparkling 2012.
Which race are you most looking forward to, he was asked. "Monaco is the one for me - I want to get back there and have a better race [in which he collided with two drivers and caused a storm with his post-race comments] than last year."
It was a stark illustration of just how much is at stake in 2012 for the man who many still regard as the most naturally talented and out-and-out fastest racing driver in the world.
Whether Hamilton has found the mental equilibrium he desires to enable him to perform consistently at his brilliant best remains to be seen, starting with the first race in Melbourne, Australia, on 18 March.
But much of it may depend on the reason he and Button were up on that stage - the McLaren MP4-27.
His team's failure - for the third year running - to produce a car with which he could consistently challenge at the front was one of the main causes for Hamilton's frustrations last year.
He knows exactly how good he is, so it was galling for him to see yet again that he was not realistically going to challenge for the championship.
As is the way of things, the launch of the new McLaren shed no light whatsoever on whether that will change in 2012.
The car looks nice enough - and it mercifully lacks the "platypus" front seen on the Caterham, the only other new car to break cover so far this year, as a response to new rules lowering the height of the nose.
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There was a lot of talk about McLaren's focus on the aerodynamics at the rear of the car, which featured noticeably tighter packaging than last year, and particularly of the need to make the most of pre-season testing and start the season strongly.
That was where McLaren's campaign began to unravel last season - an over-complex exhaust system led to a terrible pre-season with a car Whitmarsh has described as "neither reliable nor quick".
This year's car contains no obvious stand-out innovations but the team were quick to deny suggestions that McLaren had reined themselves in an attempt to make sure the car runs in testing, which Whitmarsh described as "data-gathering".
Engineering director Tim Goss described the MP4-27 as "a complete re-work from nose to tail".
Technical director Paddy Lowe added: "The regulations are trimming us into narrower and narrower boxes so we don't see the big radical changes from one year to the next, so the car looks quite similar.
But there is a great deal of change underneath.
"There still are obvious innovations. We have done a lot of work around the back end, a lot more tidy packaging there. We have had to respond to the change in the exhaust regulations (banning the blowing of exhausts along the rear floor to boost downforce).
That's given the aerodynamicists a big challenge to come up with the (lost) downforce and the balance."
Lowe and Goss are old hands and they did a great job of straight-batting the questions on the stand-out features of the car and it was left to Whitmarsh to utter F1's dreaded c-word.
"I don't believe we've been inherently conservative," he said. "We've set ourselves some tough targets, targets that we think if we achieve them we will win the world championship. I think we will meet those targets, and if they are the right targets, we will win the championships."
To achieve that obvious aim, though, there is the small matter of having to beat the twin formidable forces of Ferrari and Fernando Alonso and, the combination expected to remain the one to beat, Red Bull and Sebastian Vettel.
Just as the car's tight rear takes more than a small bow towards the all-conquering Red Bulls of the last two seasons, it is clear that McLaren have had their eyes on other aspects of their rivals' dominance as well.
"It didn't go unnoticed that Sebastian Vettel put the car on pole a lot and then pulled the gap (from which he controlled the race)," said Goss. "We're aware of it; we've attempted to find ways to deal with it."
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2012/02/at_mclaren_technology_centre_w.html
Ray Crawford Alberto Crespo Antonio Creus Larry Crockett Tony Crook
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Formula1Fancast/~3/WvCtgq-iUMQ/webber-will-threaten-vettel-in-2012
Paolo Barilla Rubens Barrichello Michael Bartels Edgar Barth Giorgio Bassi
![]() The Mercedes pit crew prepare for Michael Schumacher in Singapore © Getty Images |
These are not select millionaires but up to 16 ordinary, yet gifted, guys; team mechanics who have worked their way up the system and often migrate from team to team, are paid real-world wages of between £30,000 and £50,000 a year, are drilled to perfection – and whose split-second synchronisation brings their teams huge rewards.
Source: http://blogs.espnf1.com/paperroundf1/archives/2010/09/life_in_the_pit_lane.php
Jimmy Bryan Clemar Bucci Ronnie Bucknum Ivor Bueb Sebastien Buemi
Sebastian Vettel's second world championship title was as remarkable for its control as much as the blinding speed of the German and his Red Bull.
Vettel based his season on a strategy of taking pole position, blitzing the first two laps and from then on going only as fast as he needed to.
The plan generally worked to perfection - Vettel took 11 wins and 15 poles from 19 grands prix - but it left you wondering just how fast he and the Red Bull could have gone.
In Brazil, I asked him if, with the title already in the bag, he had ever been tempted to just go for it, to really push the car and himself to the absolute limits. He replied that he had done just that in Korea and India, the scenes of two of his most dominant wins. "We were able to explore and sometimes take a little bit more risk," Vettel told me.
Despite Vettel's domination in 2011, there were very few of the runaway wins normally seen when one car is superior to the rest. Quite often, the races looked competitive, with Vettel tantalisingly close to - but frustratingly just out of reach of - his leading rivals.
Vettel and team boss Christian Horner often insisted the Red Bull had less of an advantage over McLaren and Ferrari in 2011 than in 2010. Yet Vettel won only five races and recorded 10 poles in 2010 on his way to winning the championship for the first time.
Let's examine the two seasons in a little more detail.
In 2010, Vettel's advantage in qualifying over team-mate Mark Webber was only 0.053 seconds when averaged out over the season. In 2011, it was 0.414. Likewise, Vettel's average advantage over the fastest driver not in a Red Bull was 0.077secs in 2010. In 2011, it was 0.317. That is a massive percentage gain from year to year.
There are reasons why Webber was so far adrift of his team-mate. Unlike Vettel, he struggled with the new Pirelli tyres, which affected both his pace in qualifying and his tyre wear in races.
The Australian is also physically bigger than Vettel so was occasionally at a disadvantage with the car's weight distribution, which again impacted on both his pace and tyre wear.

Turn One, race one; Vettel already has a big lead as the rest squabble. The story of 2011. Photo: Getty
The DRS overtaking aid, which gave drivers within one second of a car in front a boost in straight-line speed, also influenced matters.
But it is the tyres which were key. Asked to produce ones that spiced up racing, Pirelli came up with rubber that wore out rapidly, forcing a greater number of pit stops and resulting in more unpredictable races.
It is also worth looking at Red Bull's race strategy in 2011. The team may have had a car whose aerodynamic superiority made it the fastest by far, but it lacked a little straight-line speed compared to the McLarens and Ferraris. On top of that, I understand Vettel thought some of his rivals were perhaps better at wheel-to-wheel racing.
As a result, Red Bull's strategy was based on Vettel taking pole position, then opening up enough of a gap by lap three to prevent anyone from being close enough to make use of the DRS system, which couldn't be used for the first two laps. After that, he would measure his pace to those behind, producing a super-fast lap or two if he needed to.
Such a strategy did have its risks. If Vettel found himself in the pack during a race, he would have problems overtaking as the car was set up for lap time not straight-line speed. In other words, an error in qualifying or at the start could mess up an entire race.
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Red Bull were caught out a couple of times, notably when Ferrari's Fernando Alonso rocketed to the front on the run down to the first corner in Spain and Italy.
In both cases, Vettel managed to get past again. In Spain, he did it by pit-stop strategy, although it took two attempts, while in Monza he achieved it a brave overtaking move around the outside of the flat-out Curva Grande.
Had it been a McLaren that passed Vettel - a car that was faster than the Ferrari over the lap and down the straights - he might have been sat behind for the entire race.
But team boss Horner was adamant the strategy that Red Bull employed was the right one. "As a team, you have to attack the events," he said. "If you are conservative, sometimes you can pay a penalty. If Vettel was in a situation where he needed a big overtake, yes, a gamble was taken. But it was a calculated risk."
So how dominant was the Red Bull, really?
It had a clear performance advantage in at least nine of the races, of which Vettel won eight - Australia, Turkey, Valencia, Belgium, Italy, Singapore, Korea and India. The other one was Brazil, where he hit trouble.
That leaves five races at which it was not possible to ascertain whether Vettel's was the fastest race car, although it almost certainly was in most of them. They were Malaysia and Monaco, which he won, and China, Canada and Abu Dhabi, which he did not. And the remaining five races where it definitely was not, out of which he won only in Spain.
The first obvious conclusion is that the Red Bull's pace advantage was restricted by the tyres. On many occasions, Vettel could have gone faster but chose not to because he was concerned about over-using the tyres.
At the same time, Red Bull insiders insist Vettel was not always in the fastest car. There were weekends, they say, when they did not think the car was quick enough yet Vettel still managed to put it on pole. Equally, there were times when Vettel was having to drive on the edge to break the DRS and to hold his advantage at the head of the field.
The Pirellis required something new of the driver - an exquisite feel for the limits of the tyres, the intelligence to drive measured races at exactly the pace the tyres and car could cope with and the consistency to do it at every race.
How many drivers could do that?
Jenson Button had a great season for McLaren, finishing second behind Vettel in the standings. The 2009 world champion treats his tyres delicately and, at his best, is as good as anyone. However, his form tends to fluctuate depending on outside circumstances, while he is not the best qualifier.
As for Hamilton, his speed and feel are at least equal to Vettel's but the 2008 world champion struggled in 2011, making too many errors and perhaps not fully grasping the demands of the new F1.
Then there is Alonso. The double world champion boasts speed, consistency, adaptability and mental strength. However, the Ferrari was nowhere near fast enough this year and it's rare that the Spaniard transcends the car's abilities in qualifying, although he nearly always does in races.
That is why, in 2011, Vettel was generally in a league of his own, even on the occasions when his car was not.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2011/12/sebastian_vettels_second_world.html
Luiz Bueno Ian Burgess Luciano Burti Roberto Bussinello Jenson Button
Hello all, my first time on here I believe. I know some of you from attending and vending at shows in Atlanta and Birmingham. I live in central Florida. I have been building models for a very long time. My favorite subjects are old coupes and coaches / Saturday night specials, dirt and asphalt. I love scratch building and light commercial vehicles also. when I do venture out, it is usually a Jr. Stocker or Super/Stock drag subject.
Source: http://cs.scaleautomag.com/SCACS/forums/thread/1004849.aspx
Gerhard Berger Eric Bernard Enrique Bernoldi Enrico Bertaggia Tony Bettenhausen
![]() Is it now a three-way battle for the title? © Getty Images |
“Focus and concentration will be of paramount importance and there is none stronger in this regard than Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso.”The Guardian’s Oliver Owen thinks that it is Mark Webber’s title to lose now, and that this may be the Australian’s last realistic chance of winning the title.
“He has driven beautifully. Monaco and Silverstone spring to mind. He has been an uncompromising racer, not giving Vettel or Lewis Hamilton an inch in Turkey and Singapore respectively. Most importantly, he has largely avoided the bouts of brain fade that can wreck a season – his on-track hooning in Melbourne when racing Hamilton being the only exception. But there is a feeling that for Webber it is now or never, that a chance of a tilt at the title may never come again. He is certainly driving as if that is the case and that has been his strength.”According to The Mirror’s Byron Young, both McLaren drivers are now out of the title hunt after their fourth and fifth place finishes in Suzuka.
“McLaren's title hopes died yesterday in a weekend from Hell at Suzuka. Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton finished fourth and fifth in a Japanese Grand Prix they had to win to have the remotest chance of keeping their title bid alive."The Sun’s Michael Spearman was of the same opinion, saying “Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button's title hopes were in tatters after a shocker in Japan.”
Source: http://blogs.espnf1.com/paperroundf1/archives/2010/10/mclaren_drivers_out_of_title_r_1.php
Allen Berg Georges Berger Gerhard Berger Eric Bernard Enrique Bernoldi