McLaren struggling or sandbagging?
Is the MP4-24 a dog or are McLaren being sneaky?
Heikki Kovalainen’s McLaren was at the bottom of the testing times today, 2.6s slower than Nick Heidfeld’s BMW.
McLaren haven’t shown much pace in the pre-season build-up so far, and speculation abounds as to whether the MP4-24 is a dud, or whether they’re ’sandbagging’ to fool the opposition. Let’s put the theories to the test.
The ‘they’re just slow’ theory
After the MP4-24 hit the track for the first time murmurs from Woking suggested the car producing more drag than computer simulations had suggested it would.
The sight of McLaren mechanics conducting flow-vis tests (applying liquid to the car to study how the air moves around it at speed) fuelled suggestions that what they expected from the new car and what they got were not in agreement with each other.
On top of that McLaren have spent most of the tests so far using a 2008-specification rear wing. Was this because of some defect in the 2009 design?
This could be a huge and fundamental setback for the team of the type that plagued Renault in 2007 – the team went from world champions one year to non-winners the next.
The ‘they’re sandbagging’ theory
The problem with testing is it’s hard to find out what each team is doing, and how much fuel they’re running with. At F1 Insight yesterday Steven Roy had heard a rumour that Kovalainen was persistently backing off to avoid setting quick times in Spain.
The theory that McLaren were hiding their pace is bolstered by a story on Autosport drawing attention to McLaren’s radical new floor arrangement (not shown in the picture above). Craig Scarborough explains:
A triangular section of floor is missing between the forward part of the floor, which follows the curve of the sidepods, and a squared off edge just ahead of the diffuser. [...]
A diffuser creates its downforce at two points: firstly at the kick-line between the diffuser/floor, then secondly at its leading edge. By effectively moving this leading edge backwards, McLaren are also moving the downforce it creates towards the rear. This may be part of a McLaren strategy to focus downforce production on the front wing and diffuser, as both devices are efficient at creating downforce with little drag.
This in turn could explain why McLaren have been using their 2008 wing for so long. The team had said they were using it to ’simulate 2009 downforce levels’: so perhaps they were expecting to get a lot more downforce from the final configuration including the shaped rear floor and final specification rear wing?
Lewis Hamilton will be hoping it’s the latter – or his world championship title defence might not last very long.
Are McLaren stealthily playing down the performance of their car? Or are they set for another uncompetitive season as they had in 2004 and 2006? Share your thoughts in the comments.
Image (C) www.mclaren.com
I think they’re sandbagging. But Mclaren do have the ability to go all Jekyll and Hyde on us, so I’m not entirely confident that they’re not sandbagging.
Scratch that last “not”, oops.
It’s very hard to tell!
Or they know they are way ahead or they do have a problem.
But I think it’s more a problem..
Remember BMW having problems at the tests last year, that went right in the end
I don’t think Scarborough was alluding to them sandbagging. Whether it was always part of the plan of not wouldn’t be classed as sandbagging, as all the teams have plans to bring new parts to the car between launch and first race.
I think McLaren have a fundamental lack of rear end grip with their 09 package, and are having to work overtime to correct it, I can’t see any other reason for using an 08 wing for so long. Even if the plan was this new floor, and a revised rear wing, surely you’d want to make sure you had some kind of backup that works, and it legal, just in case your update isn’t all you expected it to be.
/2 cents
Well they have run the 09 wing haven’t they? Perhaps they did all the testing they could with it. If the floor is making that much difference they wouldn’t be able to test setups without it, but with the 09 wing.
I would be surprised if they are really far off it, but…
I want to see Hamilton struggling with the car for once. His F1 career has been to easy so far.
I take it you didn’t think much of his first team mate then? Looked pretty handy to me…
@Keith
I think we are going to have to agree to disagree on this one Keith. The team was firmly backing up their man (not both men), yep read it as Hamilton. Even James Allen acknowledged this in one of his interviews to F1Racing who is a ginormous Hamilton fan. He went on to suggest that the other “handy” guy could have gone on to win if Macca got things right.
I definitely don’t think ‘easy’ is the word… but I do agree that it would be interesting to see him with a midfield car.
I couldn’t agree more – it would also have been good to see Hamilton start his career in a Spyker or Super Aguri, like most of his contemporaries.
I still think it is too easy too label him as a super-star talent, when several of his less fortunate rivals have not been given the same opportunities.
Retrospectively, one cannot say that Alonso was supported as vociferously as Hamilton in 2007, as I am sure he would have been a quadruple champion by now.
“It would also have been good to see Hamilton start his career in a Spyker or Super Aguri, like most of his contemporaries.”
I don’t understand this idea that new drivers have to start in low-end teams for some reason. Hamilton had, what, nine consecutive podiums in his first nine races? It’s not as if anyone else in the top teams did better over those races.
Whatever gets said about how Alonso was treated at McLaren the fact remains he had the same car as Hamilton and they ended up with the same number of points. Hamilton more than adequately acquitted himself at McLaren in 2007, and suggesting he would have been better off at Super Aguri is just plain wrong.
That is absolute rubish. You make a poor assumption here – that teams pick and sign drivers for reasons other than skill, hence why it is ‘unfair’ that Hamilton lands in a top car while other drivers such as Glock or whoever else never get the ‘opportunity’.
This is complete nonsense. There is plenty of data outside of F1 race results to judge a driver on, not least testing and lower formula. It was based on these results that McLaren were confident enough to sign a rookie – they thought (and it turned out they were right) that he was that good. I have no doubt that if Glock et al had equal talents then their skills would be in demand from the top teams.
These rubbish theories are just Hamilton bashing (and I am by no means a top fan – I am actually a Webber fan, so if anybody had a reason to bitch about not being given chances it would be me for Webber)
@Keith
“Whatever gets said about how Alonso was treated at McLaren the fact remains he had the same car as Hamilton and they ended up with the same number of points.”
Mate, if you think about it, Barrichello or any other driver who was a team mate of Schumacher, should have won as much as Schumacher. The fact is, they didn’t. They had the same car but not that support. McLaren aren’t so fair afterall, just ask DC about how he feels when he was asked to give way to Mika Hakkinen.
Wouldn’t be a suprise if they have a poor season… Look at the past few seasons…
2000 – Good Season,
2001- Average season,
2002- Poor season,
2003 – Good season,
2004 – Horrible season,
2005 – Quite good season,
2006 – Poor season
To be honest I was suprised they weren’t rubbish in 2008.
to suggest that there are patterns in performance is rubbish. may as well ask the stars or a fortune teller who will win the championship.
Keith – I should have added the caveat – ‘interesting’ to see him in a back of the grid car.
It will certainly be interesting to see if he can win against the odds in a mid-field McLaren. I’m sure we’ll all be waiting with baited-breath to see ‘our man’ do it.
Or maybe not.
What’s the point of sandbagging this close to the first race? Somehow I would imagine that if they are sandbagging this would make their test data unreliable. It just doesn’t make sense.
I’d say they messed up the 2009 car and are designing a new rear wing. Until that arrives they are using the time they have to test other things. Like 2010 tyres, KERS or whatever.
Hopefully for McLaren, they will get it fixed this test or maybe (if they are even going) for the next test in Jerez.
Agree. If today’s date was Jan 1st I’d have said they were sandbagging. When the season opener is less than three weeks away there is no point in not showing your true strength. Perhaps they are testing some secondary systems and collecting data that is purely function-oriented, not performance-based.
Struggling – too much work is going on to fix a “healthy” wing.
now that the sport has reached a level of parity exceeding the ford-cosworth era, i really doubt mclaren could produce a pig.
as for the 2008 wing, i have no idea. they might keep their secret until melbourne. any advantage is an advantage. remember, mclaren committed $10M of aero refinement into the brazilian gp, the last race of the aero era.
That $10M didn’t really do all that much for them, did it? It’s Interlagos – you’ve got two options, high downforce for the windy section, or low downforce to overtake at one of the only places you can – end of the pit straight.
“It’s Interlagos – you’ve got two options, high downforce for the windy section, or low downforce to overtake at one of the only places you can – end of the pit straight.”
and off course most aero investment is about finding the perfect compromise between the two. its not a binary option like you make out (otherwise it would be very boring and they wouldn’t have to spend tens of millions)
What I love about computer simulations is that they’re so often proved wrong when the car hits the track. We see this again and again in F1 and we’ll see even more of it now that testing is so severely restricted. It’s what happened with the BMW F1.08 last year and it looks like a repeat with the McLaren MP4-24. No one sandbags to that extent.
Anti-McLaren fans should not celebrate just yet, however. That team has the resources to identify the problem quicker than most and the car will be reasonably competitive at the least. Hamilton might have to try harder in the early races, that’s all.
Keith, I think Damon meant that Lewis has had very good cars so far, so atop of fighting with a hard teammate (Alonso), it would be nice to see him fighting against his own car too.
I’m a mclaren fan, so I hopefully think they are sandbagging, but, what I really think it’s that they are having some kind of trouble with the rear end of the car (rear wing) because I’ve never seen in 7+ years that a team uses that paint to evaluate air flow on track, it’s just rare.
I hope they can fix all in time for melbourne
The air flow paint tests can be read 2 ways: they have a problem that wasn’t flagged with their CFD or wind tunnel tests OR they want to make sure their CFD and wind tunnel are calibrated properly so they can introduce devastatingly effective parts during the season with little to no testing involved.
Phil you were right on the second guess. With limited on-track testing, it comes down to making CFD and wind-tunnel (to less of an extent) as accurate as possible. What they do is they take photos of the cars and scan the paint lines and input them into their CFD models. The models don’t work unless you have real-world data. There are a lot of formulas and mathematic models in CFD, but there are many variables used as input that require as accurate figures as possible because the variance is huge. Hence the tests.
That is why despite all the improvements in computer models you still need real-world data to not only complement the data, but as essential inputs in the computation process.
In addition, some of the team can now test individual components using their computer models. This means that instead of testing every permutation of this and that wing or winglet, you test a single component with other known quantities, and take the data and import it into the system. This allows you to then find the most optimal setup and layout for each track.
McLaren testing with a 2008 rear-wing has nothing to do with that component, it means they are testing another part of the car. They need to use the known quantities to get raw results for whichever part they are testing – so that they can use their data in simulations.
I don’t know why people are surprised that the car is 3sec slower when they are basically running a butchered hybrid for the sake of collecting data. Once they have all they need, they will throw all the good stuff together and probably already know within 0.001 of a second what time they are going to run in Melbourne. Expect them to come out blistering.
Just judging from what McLaren are doing in testing (component testing rather than full shake-downs) shows that they have more advanced systems and are a step ahead at the moment in terms of using technology. 2008 won’t be a repeat of 98 but it wont be too far off either.
Mclaren have a history of On-Off years:
2001 FASTISH
2002 SLOW
2003 FAST
2004 SLOW
2005 FAST
2006 SLOW
2007 FAST
2008 FAST
2008 should have been a “SLOW” year going by their recent history, but they won the WDC… Does this mean 2009 will be bad???
Agreed. They are out of sequence for their ‘bad’ year.
I sincerely hope that they are just sandbagging, as I’d love to see a few – maybe more – teams fighting it out this season.
Imagine – a season with Macca, Ferrari, Renault & BMW-Sauber all capable of winning races. Bliss !
This is all opinion. I think for sure that testing has not been close to straight forward as they would have liked, but McLaren are a team with enough depth to avoid that being a problem come, worst case scenario, race#3. They do seem fairly reliable, if they’ve been playing with kers as much as they say then their’s should be decent. The thing I’m looking out for are the times this week, McLaren haven’t had a “strong” performance in any test using any 09 config so far. I think that if they show a glimmer at any point this week then sandbagging or problem solved but if still no stand-out performance then they might be set for a poor start to the season/year. Like I say, all opinion but this week must yield some (possibly cryptic) answers?!
I think that McLaren like other teams are working on a copy of the Williams/Toyota diffuser. This will give them a lot more downforce. Rather than test now with reduced rear downforce and collect a load of data that will be useless as soon as they get the diffuser ready they have chosen to simulate the new rear downforce by running a 2008 wing. Of course I could be wrong.
I expect McLaren to have the fastest car in Melbourne.
Somehow I doubt a new floor design can turn a team from zero to hero in modern F1. Thing is we don’t know what they are testing and a top team like McLaren will not go down that easy. I do believe the car is not as fast as they have hoped for and they might have some little problems(which team doesn’t). The new floor thing might be true, but I doubt other teams won’t notice something like that and even if it does boost performance it will not be enough, if the car is as slow as it has been during some of the tests.
sandbagging no doubt.
I think they’re struggling. If you look at their MP4-24, it’s a very beautiful car – they concentrate more on the aesthetics and have their aerodynamics secondary. Would they take the risk in sandbagging now that the season is only a few days away with a new wing & body set-up?
Maybe they should call Alonso for some tips
Mclaren will be a front runner this year, they’re too professional to fall behind
They’ve done it before, look at the fiasco that was the MP4-18 – most expensive development of an F1 car up to that point and it never really raced!
Regarding the Toyota and Williams’ diffuser replcation, I remember Sam Michael saying two days after Williams’ launch that he noticed three teams that have conservative diffuser designs that could ‘conveniently’ accomodate the structure that Toyota/Williams launched with, assuming McLaren was one of the three then they already had it designed to some extent
And lol at “Sandbagging No Doubt”. Who are you, Renaults cfd computer?!
I think McLaren are having trouble. Surely you don’t spend that much time testing with a wing that bears no relation to what you’re going to have to race with unless things have gone seriously amiss betwixt wind tunnel and track. McLaren have the resources and ability to turn things around quickly, but I don’t believe they’ll have it fully sorted in time for Melbourne.
Hamilton has a reputation for being hard on his rear tyres, and if the reputed problems with a lack of grip and excessive rear tyre wear are to be believed, then it may be a frustrating start to the season for Messrs. Hamilton and Kovalainen…
Obvious sandbagging, heh, 4 seconds slower almost all day today? then last few laps they gain 2 seconds, strange..
Also Hamilton saying that Mclaren are far behind etc, why would he say this when he allways like’s to think he has a psycological edge over his advisories? Seems a bluff to me.
I think there sandbagging no other team is that drastically far behind on the teamsheets.
-on another note, BRAWNGP, looking amazing for there first test!
I think you are wrong. Lewis doesn’t strike me as a dishonest person. They are in trouble, pure and simple. I wish it were not so.
There is also a possibility that they are confident with their equipment and are now testing aspects of the car that are not so obvious.
I would rather think that they are behind and struggling. BMW needs to shine in Melbourne. If they don’t, it will make them look pretty bad. They nearly abandoned Kubica’s F 1.08 when he had a great chance for success and turned their efforts to 09. Now its 2009 and they need to prove strong. Ferrari and McLaren were battling hard while others were thinking of 09
Sandbagging at this moment so close to the first race. Why didn’t they sandbag during the 2007 and 2008 test season. This sandbagging thingy is just to save face or should I say a ‘cover-up’. In F1 when testing don’t work out well “sandbagging” is the key word, I guess, pretend to be confident. Anyway, this is a chance for Hamilton to proof his worthiness with a lesser car. In 16 days we will know the truth. BrawnGP did well in their first test.
Bringing up Brawn GP is interesting – surely they’re not going to be quicker than (fellow Mercedes users) McLaren at Melbourne? That gives me cause to think McLaren must be a lot quicker than they’ve looked.
I read somewhere that the Mclaren rear wing is not working as it should and is essentially stalling the aerodynamics at the rear of the car. Which is why they have been using 2008 spec wings in the tests. It seems they have tried 3 different versions of rear wing in the previous test and it didn’t seem to work. Its a believable theory given the circumstantial evidence.
I am sure though that the Mclaren car would be alright come Melbourne or at worst when they are back in Europe after the flyaways. This car will surely win races. But if it starts the season off the pace, Lewis can forget defending his title given how competitive other teams are.
I’m no fan of mclaren, but I’d say they are sandbagging, I’d like to see them behind on development but the mclaren technical team are some of the smartest around, so I doubt they are struggling, at worst, just a few small issues, nothing that wont keep them from challenging wins
Even Force India was not 2 seconds off the pace in 2008 racing. Given current technologies and their understanding by the teams, I would be surprised if any team is 2 seconds off the top pace. So, my guess is that McLaren is definitely sandbagging here. I am sure we will see a lot of new things during Friday testing at Melbourne.
I did not see Hamilton’s crash, but don’t you think that it could be a sign of McLaren’s problems? was he using 08′ wing? Houston, i think we have a problem…
The tragedy here is that either way it is bad news for F1 fans in general: if McLaren is hiding their game (which I find extremely unlikely considering the drastic reduction in testing time) then they must be exceptionally confident in their car, which means 2009 will be a one horse season (well, we’d get to see Lewis x Heikki, but something tells me it wouldn’t be very exciting).
On the other hand, if they truly have a problem of this magnitude then McLaren fans might have to live with a season of playing catch-up. If that’s the case, let’s hope that another team (maybe more!) take the challenge to Ferrari.
McLaren being slow wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing for the racing…some of the best racing has been when incredibly gifted drivers haul a dog of a car to finishing positions they, in all honestly, had no right being in!
Senna was famous for this.
Of course, that goes without saying (don’t worry, being brazilian I remember Senna very well indeed).
My point is that I hope to see a season with a few top teams (hopefully 2 or 3) challenging each other, rather than a season with an absolute stand out team and others fighting for the scraps. Even the great Senna couldn’t take the challenge to the Williams’ in 1992-93 simply because their car was significantly superior.
Well If not Mclaren then I hope BMW or Williams take it to Ferrari
Hard to believe that McLaren would be truly struggling with all the resources the team has. While they may not be in a true “struggle” , I think the 2008 rear wing useage indicates they have some problems that aren’t sorted out yet. Obviously, if that’s the case, they need to get their act in order ASAP.
If Mclaren are sandbagging,why are they always faster with the 08 spec rear wing?I don’t think there is any reason for them to be super-confident at this time as all teams will be keeping their cards closely(especially BMW,Williams & renault).The same was said about renault in 2007,when they struggled in testing.And they did struggle to the end.I think sandbagging at a time like this will not give any results.
They are really having a problem.
Struggling
As many have pointed out, last year was the first time in ages that they managed to put together two strong years consecutively.
Don’t forget also that at the end of 08, they and Ferrari were throwing time and money at the current cars while the rest of the grid quietly prepared for 09.
And also, all the talk about McLaren’s amazing resources conveniently forgets that Toyota, BMW and Ferrari are spending the same amount.
At some point in testing, you need to prove on track just how fast your car is, in race trim. Look at BrawnGP (Lord, that reads great, doesn’t it?!?!?!) first time out of the box, light fuel and all, they had to find out the limit of the cars performance.
If Mac can’t generate a top 3 lap time then I don’t think it’s sanbagging. Then again, I can’t believe that knucklehead RD would allow Lewis to race for 5th place at Interlagos with the title on the line either.
The point is that McLaren tend to do strange things strategically, but I’ll vote the “In trouble” ticket on this issue.
certainly struggling, i don’t think its clever compromising ‘real testing of the car’ for the sake of putting sand in others eyes. I mean seeing a slow McLaren will put skeptical Ferrari nd friends at ease?
especially after 2007 Spygate….
Of all the teams on the grid, I just can’t see McLaren being the only one to fall totally on their ****. In Melbourne I expect unique parts on the car they don’t want the other teams to see yet and suspect that is the reason they are not showing their pace in testing at the moment.
That’s just my hunch though.
I can’t wait for Melbourne to see the true pecking order. The teams can’t all be at the top so seeing who is going to be giving Ferrari and McLaren a run for their money is really interesting. I’d like to see Williams and Toyota up there and Williams’ flywheel KERS to run well.
I’d vote for sandbagging. There’s simply no way they can be this far off the pace, seeing how other teams have actually caught up with Ferrari.
I would love them to actually be struggling just to see if Hamilton is really as good as he thinks he is.
But unfortunately, they are probably just sandbagging and will back up the top with Ferrari come Melbourne
Er, he’s the world champion and his teammate came 7th. Unbelievable!
If you don’t think Hamilton has already proved this you obviously haven’t seen his amazing comeback in that infamous Turkish GP2 race.
In my opinion, they are not sandbagging, but at the end they will be one of the top contenders as every year.
If they are using 2008 rear wing because this set up simulates the downforce they will have with their final 2009 aeropackage, one must say their times have not been quite a lot extarordinary to see McLaren blowing up the rest of the teams.
So, they will be one of the title contenders, but not the superfast car some McLaren fans are imaging.
S Hughes – that was in a GP2 car and cannot be compared to F1.
Here is McLaren’s new aero floor:
http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/2562/diapo140.jpg
Its a very pretty car even if its screwed up, well done Mclaren!
i am a fan of Hamilton and Mclaren. Aperantly some people ( read many )think that Hamilton was faster of Alonso in 2007 because of the team etc..
Some of those people should do a little research because he was quick in everything he drove up to f1.
As for Mclaren this year i am on the thinking that they have problems with the car.
Interesting theory but personally I’m getting a little concerned with McLaren…
I know yesterdays test results should not be over analysed but I wonder how much support McLaren will continue offering Brawn GP at this rate…
Finally 0.6 seconds are gone.
McLaren is sandbagging. Just to be annoying – they will probably win Melbourne.
Personally I think this is a pretty big issue. I suspect it is solvable but it will hurt McLaren for the first four-six races.
It is very rare in public testing for teams to use Flow-vis paint – gives too much info about flow to competition so that in itself indicates there is an issue. How big an issue we don’t know for sure but looking at tyre wear at the rear end it is clear than back stability is an issue. Running the 2008 wing is try to replicate intended downforce to test the front of the car – probably trying to determine if the issue was at the front of the car. If there is still an issue with the 2008 rear wing attached then that indicates the problem is at the front of the car.
McLaren may sort out this issue before Melbourne but other teams are focusing on set-up in the current round of testing. Given the testing ban playing catch-up is that much harder. Valuable resources are being used up where they wouldn’t otherwise be.
Some pundits point to Renault issues in 2007 as a corollary example. Far from it. The Renault issue was a result of a cock-up on rear-forward balance, fundamentally caused by the V-keel approach. The McLaren issue feels aerodynamic.
I’m willing to bet that neither McLaren will be on the front row for Australia. Any takers?
Haven’t Renault also been using it in public this off-season?
i thought all of the big league race teams used flow-vis all the time.
I won’t take it as a bet because I agree with you.
For those who think it’s just sand-bagging: just make sure you’re not assuming that Ferrari and the rest are running at full speed and spec. If they aren’t, it could be 3-4 seconds that McLaren need to find in ,what, 16 days? Lifting off on straights or not, that’s a lot of time to find. I’d say there’s definitely a problem, but that doesn’t mean that they won’t be in the top ten every qualifying, or be challenging for podiums or even wins at some stage.
Just because McLaren may not be the fastest this season, doesn’t mean they’ll be the slowest.
I think we’ll only know if it’s sandbagging or genuine trouble when it comes to race day.
Interesting to see McLaren have taken the front wheel hubcaps to a whole new level this year. They stick out to the front edge of the tyres, and look fairly ugly in doing so.
McLaren does appear to have had some problems with its rear wing. From what I could see, it is the only team to have done significant running with a 2008-spec rear wing on a proper (i.e. not interim) 2009 car. There has also been some speculation that McLaren’s 2009-spec rear wing has been prone to stalling, which would make the handling somewhat difficult.
However, working through problems like this is what testing is for. BMW Sauber appeared to be struggling in testing last year but were quick straight out of the box in Melbourne. If any team has the resources to be able to understand the problem and work out how to fix it then it has to be McLaren.
struggling… I’m too worried about that rear wing element. They should at least have that fixed or used, even… I wonder how their speed has changed, compared to that of the others. Let’s say basis for comparison would be January.
I don’t think they have an issue at all
“The morning session was spent focusing on longer runs using an existing bodywork package in order to establish an accurate baseline ahead of the evaluation of new parts in the afternoon.”
just basic testing – not trying to throw down hot times.
Sounds like Ronspeak for “we have a problem and we’re trying to fix it.”
I’d love to see McLaren struggling, and I’m a McLaren fan. Thing is, it would give Hamilton a chance to silence all the critics who say that he’s “not that good and only wins because he has the best car”.
People often say that Schumacher, Senna et al could still win given a car that was less than the best – I’d love to see Hamilton do that this year.
On the other hand, my primary support has been for Button since he started in F1 and I’m 100% behind the Brawn GP guys this year, so I’d love to see them being the team McLaren have to beat.
As for any question over how much “support” McLaren will give Brawn GP if they’re being beaten by the customer team. Well it’s simple, they will presumably hand over the engines and have nothing more to do with it…
Either that or Ross will answer his phone, listen to someone talk and then reply with…
“What do you mean you want borrow our rear wing..!!”
As a huge LH fan, I am distraught at all this. I think they have problems and I am faced with a 2009 season of despair.
Who did you support up until 2007? You could just go back to them for the year.
No, I will always be loyal to McLaren/Lewis.
c’mon – it will be fun. Needs to prove himself.
S Hughes – “As a huge LH fan, I am distraught at all this. I think they have problems and I am faced with a 2009 season of despair.”
Welcome to life as a Williams fan!