Formula One Teams 2010 ~ McLaren

February 5, 2010 · Posted in Formula 1 · Comment 

McLaren unveiled their new car on the 29th of January at their headquarters located in Newbury, UK. Here is a summary of the team and photos of the new MP4-25:

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes – Great Britain
Drivers:
Jenson Button – Great Britain
Lewis Hamilton – Great Britain

Team Principal:
Martin Whitmarsh



    Chassis:

  • Monocoque: McLaren-moulded carbonfibre composite
  • Front suspension: Inboard torsion bar/damper system operated by pushrod and bell crank with a double wishbone arrangement
  • Rear suspension: Inboard torsion bar/damper system operated by pushrod and bell crank with a double wishbone arrangement
  • Bodywork: Carbonfibre composite
  • Gears: Seven forward and one reverse
  • Clutch: Carbon/carbon, hand-operated fly-by-wire
    Engine:

  • Type: Mercedes-Benz FO 108X
  • Capacity: 2.4 litres
  • Cylinders: 8
  • Piston bore maximum: 98mm
  • Number of valves: 32
  • Fuel: ExxonMobil High Performance Unleaded (5.75% bio fuel)
  • Lubricants: Mobil 1
  • Weight: 95kg

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Chinese Grand Prix – 2009

April 24, 2009 · Posted in Rambles · Comment 

weber_vettel
Race three was held under rainy skies in Shanghai, China. The race was started under a yellow flag and a safety car to continue this season’s trend of not having a clean start to finish race. More yellow flags and another safety car appearance after a couple of crashes by Sutil and Trulli caused more delays during the race.

All of the careful race planning and strategy that went into the amazing finish at qualifying was pretty much destroyed. This race could have been won by anyone. However, this was finally Red Bull’s moment with Vettel and Webber taking the team to a one – two finish.

Race Results:

Pos. Driver Team Grid Points
1 Sebastian Vettel RBR-Renault 1 10
2 Mark Webber RBR-Renault 3 8
3 Jenson Button Brawn-Mercedes 5 6
4 Rubens Barrichello Brawn-Mercedes 4 5
5 Heikki Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes 12 4
6 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 9 3
7 Timo Glock Toyota 19 2
8 Sebastien Buemi STR-Ferrari 10 1
9 Fernando Alonso Renault 2
10 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 8
11 Sebastien Bourdais STR-Ferrari 15
12 Nick Heidfeld BMW Sauber 11
13 Robert Kubica BMW Sauber 17
14 Giancarlo Fisichella Force India-Mercedes 20
15 Nico Rosberg Williams-Toyota 7
16 Nelsinho Piquet Renault 16
17 Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 18
Ret Kazuki Nakajima Williams-Toyota 14
Ret Felipe Massa BMW Sauber 13
Ret Jarno Trulli Toyota 6

The only controversy that is left swirling around is whatever the outcome may be for the McLaren team after next Wednesday’s meeting with the World Motor Sport Council in Paris. Although, McLaren has apologized and fired the main people involved in the lying scandal, they may still face some serious penalties. They could be facing a hefty fine, suspension from Spain and Monaco, exclusion from the Championship or any combination of the three. Depending on what decision is made by the WMSC, McLaren could also face the possibility of having some of its major sponsors pullout. Personally, I think a fine with a one race suspension for Hamilton may be adequate punishment. I don’t feel that the entire team should suffer for a mistake made by a few players. It would be especially unfair for Heikki Kovalainen. That’s my two cents on the topic, anyway.

We are off to Bahrain for the next race. I’m fairly sure that we should be able to avoid the rain.

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2009 Grand Prix Season ~ Penalties & Controversy

April 3, 2009 · Posted in Formula 1 · Comment 

Lewis HamiltonThe start of the new season of Formula 1 is turning out to be a difficult one to keep up with. Only one race has been run and the final results have changed at least two times that I am aware of. If you watched the race, you saw Trulli up on the podium with a third place finish. This was changed after a penalty was imposed upon him for passing Lewis Hamilton during a safety car. Hamilton was then awarded the third place finish for McLaren and Trulli was knocked down into twelfth position with a 25 second penalty.

Now for the controversy. Evidently a bit of fibbing took place by the McLaren team as to what actually happened during the safety car. Apparently the McLaren sporting director, Dave Ryan, and Hamilton “deliberately mislead” the stewards by omitting some of the facts. You can read the entire story on the Official F1 site. The result of this inquiry has caused Hamilton to be excluded from the race results in Melbourne and McLaren faces the possibility of a substantial fine. Dave Ryan has been suspended from McLaren and Trulli has been given back his third position win. Lewis Hamilton may very well be a talented driver, but my issue with him is that he isn’t a very sporting driver. And McLaren isn’t a very sporting team. They both want to win podiums regardless of how they get them. Had Hamilton and McLaren simply let the pass by Trulli go and chalked it up to a misunderstanding between drivers (which it most likely was) the result would have been a one point difference between Hamilton and Trulli. In these early days of the season is one point worth all of this controversy?
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