2012 Testing: Mugello

Before we turn this into yet another Martin Whitmarsh witch hunt the team have it in for Lewis thing can i just state I don't think it has anything to do with that whatsoever I think once again it comes back to Mclaren having over confidence in their technology centre and trying to over complicate things. I'm sure Parfeet and Turvey(neither of who will ever be F1 race drivers by the way) can relay the information correctly and line it up with the simulators and probably do a great job in developing the car which is exactly what they are employed to do. I'm sure it seems like an efficent system too - maybe even more efficent than having the race drivers in but I think the point they've missed is set up and data is no subsititue for a driver having time in the race car and with the way F1 currently is the drivers have so little time in the car already that they shouldn't miss the oppotunity to have some a days worth of driving.

I think the fact Alonso is doing a full 2 days shows you what he thinks about that.

I think ever since Mclaren have entered the Ron Dennis era they've had a tendency to over complicate the pudding. Why use one word when 15 will do? Sometimes it works and sometimes it backfires.
 
I would be quite surprised if one of Lewis or Jenson turned up. I think it will be neither or both, as I suspect each would have included in their contract a proviso that the other driver should not get more time in the car and thus gain a possible advantage.
 
Well according to a quote from Jenson Button on that article Mclaren have no updates going on the car and thats why the race drivers aren't going.

Will be interesting to see where the Mclaren is relative to the other teams come Barcelona.
 
I cannot believe they won t let Lewis test the car when he's specifically asked to. All the other race teams have their race drivers there. Except one that isnt attending anyway. Why are they being so silly?
Edit; Ah. I have my answer . Jenson cant make it:givemestrength:
 
The quote from Jenson in full is worth repeating here I think,

"The reason why we're not there is because we've never been to Mugello before," Button said. "I don't really think we will be a benefit because there aren't any massive updates to try. For the test drivers to put some miles on parts and try some very extreme things, then I think it's good, but it's not necessary for us to be there."
Click to expand

I think the "we" and "us" is himself and Lewis. He's saying that Oliver and Gary are just as good as him and Lewis at trundling around collecting data.

As I speculated before, I suspect the team are pushing the boundaries of their simulator and want to calibrate it to get a wider range of future simulation options. The broader range of data they can collect, the more comprehensive their simulator becomes. I suspect also that they are going to be testing a double DRS concept or two, collecting the required data to finalise their approach.

I wonder if McLaren are actually holding the real updates back for Barcelona? It is almost unimaginable that they haven't been building a raft of these since the launch and while they have incrementally added some, they must have some stuff up their sleeve. Ferrari might have a whole new car concept.
 
I understand why they won't let Lewis test without Jenson being able too as its only fair (they'd be a hullabaloo if it was the other way round) what I don't understand is having a PR event in Hungary slap bang at the same time as the test! odd.

Anyways enough of that nonsense lets wait to see how much the teams gain. Anyone think Ferrari have a big advantage testing on a circuit they know inside out? I'm sure it'll able them to get the best use out of it.
 
You dont think its anything to do with Jenson having a prior engagement and not wanting Lewis to test and not him? Anyway whatever Jenson thinks he isnt the tean leader and if one driver thinks its important to test I cant understand why he isnt allowed to.
 
@Rasputini. Jensosn's wants should not dictate what Lewis does .Are you saying any advantage to McLaren from Lewis testing is outweighed by the disadvantage it might cause Jenson. I thought it was all about the team?
 
I'll tell you what this says to me. The team principal at McLaren is more concerned about preventing Lewis having an advantage over Jenson than he is the other teams having an advatage over McLaren. That says it all!!
 
racecub - Mclaren have dictated that Jenson be at this PR event not Jenson. This is due to him having won the Hungarian GP last year.

Now imagine the jumping up and down you'd be doing if it had been the other way round and Lewis was packed off to a PR event and Jenson decided he wanted to go to the test.

But lets not hijack the Muggelo test thread shall we eh?
 
If I was a McLaren sponsor, I would be delighted that Jenson Button was going to be doing a demo in a major European capital city on May Day (which is a public holiday celebrating International Worker's Day in most European countries including Hungary).
 
At one time.....I was hoping that Lewis would see out his entire career with Mclaren........not anymore.

If an opportunity ever arises for Hamilton to drive for another front running team .......I hope that he takes it!
 
Personally I think Jenson's got a point there is no need for the drivers to carry out extreme set up testing that's what test drivers are for, the race drivers wont learn anything from it.
 
You also have to ask if the race-drivers are always the best people to test developments! There has often been an argument that some drivers are exceptional racing drivers (for example, Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso, Seb Vettel, Jenson Button etc.), whereas others are exceptional test drivers (such as Pedro de la Rosa, Damon Hill, Marc Gene, Luca Badoer etc).

I've suggested this before, and I'll mention it again, but it is possible that McLaren perceive that their test drivers might actually give better (or more detailed) feedback relating to changes in the car - certainly, if you have drivers who are specialist test drivers, then they may give better feedback than the respective race drivers.

Furthermore, it is often prudent for a team to allow their test and reserve drivers to "keep their eye in", just in case one of their race drivers gets injured during the season! Look at what happened after Felipe Massa's injury - Luca Badoer, who had led most of the developments during Ferrari's championship winning years was unable to score any points - and in fact was unable to so much as get off the back of the grid, and this was largely due to the fact that he had been unable to drive the car during the season! Others may suggest that in that case, teams should offer their test drivers the opportunity to drive on a Friday - but then which driver would sit out! I can imagine the gnashing of teeth that would occur should one driver or another be replaced with a test driver on a Friday - especially if he were a championship challenger!
 
My biggest issue with neither Lewis or Jenson testing is that McLaren clearly have issues with tyres after Bahrain and no team fully understands them. I'm sure all of the top drivers from other teams, such as Vettel and Alonso would 100% want to be in the car so they can learn more about how best to set the car up to use these tyres. Seeming as Lewis and Jenson have different driving styles and thus different ways they'll set up the car to look after the tyres, then surely the 2 test drivers will also be different and thus the knowledge they gain in looking after the tyres may be useless when it comes to Jenson and/or Lewis.

Another thing im a little concerned about is the fact that we've hardly seen any upgrades from McLaren so far during this season. They didn't really bring anything to Australia or Malaysia and then at China they bought some small bits but some didn't work - the new front-wing for example Lewis didn't run at Bahrain yet he was faster than Jenson in qualifying and the race and it is either slower than the old one, or at best just has different setup characteristics.

I'm wondering what they have actually brought in terms of pure performance because the way I see it, the gap has just got smaller and smaller since Australia when they were the fastest team and now they're not fastest in qualifying or the race. Now we hear Jenson say they have no big upgrades for an in-season test, where you would think a team like McLaren would be planning to test some big things. All of the other big teams have said they intend to. So if McLaren really have relatively little of any substance to test then I think they'll turn up at Barcelona and fall even further behind! The whole point of a in-season test is to be able to try items out, because on Friday practice it is rarely conclusive as to whether new parts bring performance and in the past McLaren have often bolted on a new part then a few grand prixs later, realised it was slower.

As someone else said, I think they believe way too much in all their fancy technology back at woking and let that dictate everything they do, even if sometimes it's blindingly obvious that what they're doing is not right - look at some of their race strategies and pit stop calls over the past 2 or 3 years.
 

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