9.5 Degrees

Where exactly did Hamilton develope the McLaren this year? Was it between the no in season testing ban and his crash all by himself in the last race? Or perhaps he was hard at work on the CFD computer between races helping the aero engineers? Please help me understand HOW EXACTLY he develops the car in a year where the drivers cannot even touch the car except on race weekends?

Only when the designers placed the new front wing to assist with underbody flow to the double diffuser did the McLaren begin to move up the grid and I doubt Lewis even turned a screw to help with that improvement.

This love fest for Hamilton is truly amazing. Fast, he is, but is so prone to mistakes that he leaves one scratching their head on "What is this guy thinking?"

The last race with less than a half lap left and the failure to stop at a red light on pit lane ending the race for both he, Kimi and a Williams drivers is inexcusable and a microcosm of what continues to plague this gifted by unpolished driver. At the end of his 3rd year, in a team as storied as McLaren, this should not be happening.

enduro911

^ Regarding the development of modern Formula 1 cars, your comments are definately thought provoking. Perhaps someone can enlighten me as to how well these simulators work for development. For example, if the team comes up with some new aero bits for the front end and measure the amount of downforce and drag, do they pop those figures into the simulator and go from there? If so, how accurate is that process? If someone would like to chime in I'm all ears.

Regarding Lewis, I remember earlier in the year right before the British GP where Mclaren seemed to make a lot of improvement, Hamilton stated that the only thing that could be done to make him competitive was to construct and entirely new car. I think we can assume this comment was made out of sheer frustration because based on his performances since that time.

IMO the only way a driver helps to develop a modern F1 car is by using the race weekends as test sessions. So yes, if that is true, it could be that Lewis really did develop the car because, when you have real track time, the car has become more competitive relative to the rest of the field. But, and maybe this is just bias, I still don't think he really helped a whole lot. Why? From what I have read in magazines and heard from Matchett, the nose of the car was not allowing proper airflow to the rear, thus the lack of downforce. But unlike developments of this car that have slowly but surely improved the speed of the thing, which I would associate more with driver development, the team finally realizes what the problem is and his justified complaints of "No rear grip" immediately switch to "OMG this is so much better." So I put the rapid development down to the designers rather than the driver(s).

pole position

KR is done , stick a fork in him.

LH and KR are no development drivers aka feedback is MIA. Period. Give them them a fast car and they can produce (if they don't crack ) give them the opposite and they show jack. Fact.

This is going to be KR/Montoya all over again.......two clueless cowboys when it comes to set up or strategy.

C.J. Ichiban

RE: Kimi's 49 million dollar salary- the Euro is WAY UP on the dollar. haha.

ltc

Yes.
Coincidentally, you will often hear of drivers complaining of "#2" status when it comes to time on the simulator.

multi21

Where the hell have you been??????? It's been tough fighting A. Wayne without your help. I sent out the bat signal, but no one answered.

If Kimi is still under a Ferrari contract, there is no way he would go to McLaren. They would rather sit him out than have that happen. And someone mentioned that Kimi would go to McLaren and Ferrari would still pay his 49 mil? Yea right. Not going to happen.

Now that Alonso has been found to "not have known a thing", I believe it will be Alonso and Kimi in a Ferrari next year. Somehow, someway, there will be a lifting of the testing ban, at least partially and Massa will be tested that way to see if he can get back into the groove, but 2010 is pretty much out for Massa as a contender.

The only question is how will Alonso like having Kimi as a teammate, a teammate that isn't Piquet. We saw how that worked when he had a fast teammate at McLaren....

Circuit Motorsports

Well with the testing ban that means that the driver feedback during the race weekends is even more critical than last year. With the extremely limited practice time the need for good laps with consistency and precision are paramount. Considering that Mclaren was having troubles getting into and out of the 2nd Q session at the beginning of the year one cannot dispute that the car has been developed to where it is now. Saying it is all the engineers is just having the Hamilton Hate blinders on. He's been a part of it and that does show his growth as a driver.

By your thought process, the amount of testing is secondary to the engineer work, which may be the case. But if it is, how is that different than last year, or the year before. Your argument is flawed on multple levels.

ew928

Can the engineers understand Kimi?
Don't even want to know what his radio transmissions are like.

It's good he never has to do a McDonald's drive through. They'd never get his order right.

Flying Finn

You obviously haven't paid any attention to what has happened to Kimi & Ferrari's results and pace after they focused on developing & setting up the car with him?
(FYI, before Hungary Kimi had scored 10 points in 9 races, from Hungary on, he's scored 30 points in 4 races).

Huh?
Engineers like Kimi and his communications are clear & to the point.
Ask any Sauber, McLaren or Ferrari engineer who has worked with Kimi and they all say the same thing.

+1

As I said in the other thread, I read an interview where Keke said Alonso will be in Ferrari next year and he usually don't speculate so he must have some real inside info (Spanish speculation that's been going on for years is not real info). And since Ferrari absolutely wants to keep Kimi, I wonder how they deal with Massa...
I hope it happens as it would be awesome to see Kimi & Freddy as team mates.

McLaren will have Hamilton & Rosberg next year, Heikki most likely back at Renault.
Brawn is still an option (a good one) but most likely Kubica will take that seat.

multi21

You know what Joe, this season has shown that the car is more important than ever. If you look at this season from start to finish (Brawn on top, Brawn fading, Brawn back to 1-2, plus Ferrari and McLaren crappy and now race winners) all with the testing ban, it's quite clear that it's the aerodynamisists and engineers that are providing the needed speed to improve the cars.

Of course the drivers are important for Friday testing/practice for actual feedback, but what 9.5 degrees has stated, is all true. Force India is a great example. I don't think that Fisi or Sutil came up with all that speed in the car over night to be competitive at Spa and Monza. If you look at the aero pieces and possible 25 hp boost the Mercedes engines are said to have on the rest of the field, it's quite clear that the driver's are not the difference.

An arguement could be made that all of these drivers from top to bottom are all so close. For instance, driving all different cars (except for teammates) the field was spread out by 1.1 seconds at Valencia or Spa. Luca Badoer showed us that he was 2.6 to 4 seconds off the pace in a Ferrari. What that revealed was the fact that all these guys are unbelievably even and given the better machinery, that driver is going to win, week in and week out.

Meister Fahrer

Yeah -- I like it!

Larry L

I've invented a Kimi-to-English digital translator. It adds inflection and punctuation to KR's speech pattern.

BC

I think your comments seems sort of centrist. I don't know your background, but I do believe you when you say that he has not turned a screw. Thats not his job. The crop of drivers we have now and have had for a while are all simply arrive-and-drive people who have SOME talent that is practiced and practiced some more. Either they can get into a well-setup car and drive it and 9.5/10 or they can't (badoer). And it will show immediately. So hence, LH has talent. ALOT of it. In a properly set up car. Maybe even in an iffy car, where he goes so far to the edge he MAKES MISTAKES. The bleeding egde is just that (bleeding) for a reason - its at the edge of logical action, where a bit past logic into insanity will work 95% of the time, and 5% of the time you may be crashing.

LH had done that arc at that turn for 50 something or whatever laps. To expect a different outcome when doing the same thing is the definition of insanity. He expected it to work. It didn't that time because he may have been 6 inches over or under where he had placed his wheels in previous laps.

When we can place a car within 6 inches LAP after LAP with NO mistakes - thats when we can criticize these pampered drivers. They are pampered and protected and paid more than many other sports-people for a reason.

And he won a CC last season. Until one of us has, asking what was he thinking is a bit silly.

BC

THAT SAID, the communication between the drivers and engineers is easily grade-able. If in-season testing returns, I think it will be worth much more. The computers can only give so much info.

I don't like FA. But I would be very interested in learning more about why he is known to be much more of a development driver.