McLaren: Fuel and pit errors add to problems

2011 British GP team review

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McLaren abandoned their planned rear wing upgrade after it did not perform as desired in practice.

But the situation got worse in qualifying, as the team seemed to be badly affected by the new restrictions on exhaust-blowing.

Lewis HamiltonJenson Button
Qualifying position105
Qualifying time comparison (Q3)1’32.376 (+0.478)1’31.898
Race position4
Laps52/5239/52
Pit stops33

McLaren drivers’ lap times throughout the race (in seconds):

https://www.racefans.net/charts/2011drivercolours.csv

12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031323334353637383940414243444546474849505152
Lewis Hamilton120.323112.86111.779114.055112.279112.273111.387110.886111.404111.461111.096108.305127.002104.017103.156101.643100.996101.24499.87799.82799.2199.22299.5896.235116.797.6398.85898.28798.24798.01698.11997.41297.81497.72697.80998.13994.517114.25496.1896.80196.45397.30996.78297.15896.96198.49497.498.39698.47698.25598.6799.202
Jenson Button119.638115.714113.023113.629112.812113.078112.975112.315111.75111.532107.865127.49106.073106.568102.783101.475101.136100.916100.95899.96999.70799.23599.28399.19498.9496.032116.95598.21597.86997.98196.98297.28497.46197.26997.19797.26697.33597.37993.666
Lewis Hamilton, McLaren, Silverstone, 2011

Lewis Hamilton

Poor tyre choice in Q3 compounded McLaren’s woes for Hamilton, leaving him tenth on the grid.

Having aborted a run on soft tyres in Q1 when it began to rain he used the same tyres again at the beginning of Q3. The intention was to use a new set at the end of Q3, but the arrival of more rain made that impossible.

He made rapid progress from tenth on the grid picking up four places, sweeping past Paul di Resta on the run to Stowe on lap one.

He picked off Button on the run to Brooklands on lap two and chased after Felipe Massa’s Ferrari.

After his messy performances at Monaco and Canada, it was back to classic Hamilton – though he was perhaps a little too fond of the run-off at Brooklands, sliding wide onto the asphalt more than once.

He switched to slicks before Massa which allowed him to get past the Ferrari. His next target was Fernando Alonso.

On lap 15 at Copse Hamilton ducked out from behind the Ferrari and took third place.

But it proved a temporary switch. Ten laps later Alonso, his tyres now fully up to temperature, took the place back easily in the DRS zone.

As the conditions swung from wet to dry, Hamilton found himself defending instead of attacking. He came under sustained pressure from Sebastian Vettel, who had been delayed by a slow pit stop. Vettel didn’t find a way past, but by making a final stop one lap before Hamilton he was able to demote the McLaren.

Hamilton now had Mark Webber on his tail, and his team warning him that he had to back off to save fuel.

“We’d expected him to encounter more traffic in the first part of the race than he actually did,” explained Martin Whitmarsh. “As a result, he used more fuel early on than we’d anticipated he would.”

Webber got past Hamilton in the DRS zone in much the same way Alonso had.

With six laps to go, Hamilton urged the team to give him more information on his fuel situation as Massa was reeling him in once more. It came down to a desperate tussle on the final lap.

Massa tried to get around Hamilton on the outside at Vale. Hamilton clipped the Ferrari and switched back to get the inside line at Club. As Massa took to the run off, Hamilton pipped him to the line by two-hundredths of a second.

Hamilton said: “Before the end, I had to start saving fuel: you have to lift and coast, which means the brake temperatures drop. So I had no brakes, and that’s why I kept locking up. That allowed Mark to slip ahead of me and meant I was defending from Felipe in the closing laps.

"On the final lap, the team gave me the order to push as hard as I could, but Felipe had already closed the gap by that point, so it was difficult to defend. That last lap was as close as it’s ever going to get!

“In the final corner I stayed on the inside and braked as hard as I could. Fortunately, we both got around the corner in one piece and I just pipped him at the finish.”

Whitmarsh praised Hamilton’s last-lap efforts as a “testament to his indefatigable competitiveness”.

Lewis Hamilton 2011 form guide

Jenson Button

Button was the quickest McLaren driver in qualifying but could only manage fifth, one-and-a-half seconds off Mark Webber.

He started well, passing Massa, but fell back behind the Ferrari and his team mate as he struggled on the intermediate tyres.

He came back into contention after switching to slicks, attacking Massa on lap 14. He swept around the outside at Stowe and took the place under braking at Vale.

The team planned to pit Button on lap 37 to jump him ahead of Webber. But after telling him their plan on the radio it was broadcast and overheard by Red Bull, who immediately responded by bringing Webber in.

Having lost the opportunity to get him past, McLaren brought Button in on the next lap. But his front-right wheel man dropped the nut and the car was mistakenly sent out onto the track. The wheel worked loose immediately and Button pulled over at the pit lane exit.

Whitmarsh defended the team afterwards, saying: “Our pit crew has done a fantastic job all year – but on this occasion they released Jenson before his right-front wheel had been properly attached.

“It was a case of human error in the heat of the moment – but, as I say, and as I want to stress the point, our pit crew has completed dozens of faultless pit stops under extreme pressure this season and today’s error was therefore totally atypical.”

Jenson Button 2011 form guide

2011 British Grand Prix

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    Keith Collantine
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    79 comments on “McLaren: Fuel and pit errors add to problems”

    1. It was a mixed result for McLaren. They should be pleased that they salvaged something out of what was promising to be a horror of a race, and Hamilton managed to drive really well without doing something stupid. But the fact that they were nowhere near Red Bull or Ferrari is worrying for them. They were clearly the 3rd best team this weekend and in Valencia too… Not just a ‘blip’ now.

      Not really worried about the pitstop/fuel errors though – They can happen!

      1. It is hard to say if it is a problem long term as this race is obviously special circumstances due to the single race EBD ban. I wonder if they will be back to being competitive next race with their EBD back? Valencia appeared to be a problem though but I think I read that this was down to tyre wear in the heat.

      2. Hamilton had a good race and Button was good as well until his retirement. But the pit stop error and the wrong calculations of the fuel left made them lose many points.

    2. I noticed that the lap Button was supposed to be coming into the pits and didn’t (Due to the FOM deciding to broadcast his intentions to the world) A wheel nut was dropped and rolled across the pitlane. One of the mechanics was quick to retrieve it but I wonder if it was this nut that was in the end missing from the gun? I wonder if in all the confusion someone forgot to put it back?

      1. Good observation. More to the point, the nut going rolling on the ground was odd enough. It could have been the spare, but still, those things have to be under control. If a car was coming they would have been fined for that too no doubt. And this is not the first time McLaren have had trouble getting the nut on the wheel. It goes down to more than butter-fingers, no doubt, and more to practice and method. Add to that the failure of the lollipop man and you don’t have a pretty picture of a once reknowned pit crew.

        1. To be fair the guy on the front wheel put his hand up in frustration. The lollipop man in the heat of the moment took that as a finished sign and let button go.

          It may not be butter fingers but rather the design of the nut or gun. Having said that Red Bull certainly seem to have a better drilled pit crew lately (Their mistake as silverstone was a rare error) so maclaren certainly need to work on it.

    3. How did the situation with the fuel arise ? Too less from the very start, or Hamilton pushed too aggressively ?

      1. It appears that they did not plan on Hamilton overtaking as many as he did on the first few laps. A bit dumb really given how good he is in wet conditions…. They thought he would be held up by slower drivers and hence would not need as much fuel.

        1. Whitmarsh’s comment is like the thirteeth chiming of a clock. So he means they massively under-filled him because they assumed he would be jammed up behind a Sauber, a Force India, and Button— for how long?

          It’s almost as if Hamilton’s strategy was based on the assumption that he could not get ahead of Button at any point; indeed, the strategy basically guaranteed that he would not. I’m sure Hamilton will find Whitmarshs’ comments as worrisome as they are nonsensical.

      2. But obviously Hamilton was going to drive aggressively, he started in 10th!

      3. The quote from Whitmarsh in the article explains it.

        1. Yes but kind of sad McLaren don’t realize just how good a driver they have.

          1. They got it massively wrong, though. Hamilton was saving fuel before half-way. That’s unacceptable. Far better to put too much in: you can burn it off on a high-mix…

            McLaren constantly cost their drivers, Lewis in particular, points, wins, and championships. They are too reliant on their computers: they lack common sense. I’m not sure Martin is up to the task. But their main problem is aero.

            1. Yep, agree with everything. I also think the emphasize on ‘computer advice’ has made Hamilton too reliant on the team’s decisions (computer-made) which hasn’t helped him develop a vital part of his racing (contrasting with Alonso) and doesn’t seem to have exploited Button’s racing nous much either. It’s like Monaco this year – it seemed ‘obvious’ watching that a crash was going to stop Hamilton from getting a late run. But how is a computer going to make that call?

              Hamilton’s pass on Alonso at Copse also showed what he could achieve with a car that handles high-speed corners better in dry conditions. McLaren always seem obsessed with straight-line speed though.

            2. This reminded me of the most recent Top Gear episode shown on Sunday, where they reviewed the Mclaren MP4-12C (and compared it to the Ferrari 458).

              Clarkson made the comment that the Mclaren, whilst excellent, felt like it had been made in a scientific laboratory. You do get that feeling from Mclaren a lot – their upgrades, strategic decisions – which perhaps means they only go by what the numbers say a bit too often.

            3. this didnt cost the driver anything, by using more fuel at the start, he gained more then he should have, and woudlnt have finished the race if running on the same max-engine performance mode for the entire race. if the engine performance mode wasnt set to max at the start then his progress at the start wouldnt have been as great, so in the end the result is the maximum he could have got, and maybe better then if the engine wasnt set to maximum at the start, as he may have been more held up by slower cars.

            4. @dfketr – pure conjecture on your part, I’m afraid. We’ll never know what would have happened had their been more fuel in the car, nor whether he really did “gain more than he should have” at the start.

            5. @Simon

              To be honest Top Gear reviews (like all car reviews) always have to have some negatives to go along with the positives in order to almost make the review seem more genuine. Most of the time every car will have an obvious weakness that they can use but it seems like the Maclaren is pretty near to perfection. It beats the opposition in every area but the one thing it does not have is History.

              Plus Ferrari, Jaguar, Aston Martin etc all have an established customer base which over many decades has fed back information which leads them to add in those tiny little touches that add personality. Maclaren do not have this established customer base so I imagine these additions will make their way on to subsequent cars.

            6. as far as the reviews go, don’t forget that Ferrari never ever lets anyone review their cars if they are not allowed to get a couple of days on that track to optimize the car exactly to it, so the car fits perfectly.

            7. Indeed why wouldn’t you put enough fuel in to win the race by going as fast as you can?

            8. Because if you put more fuel in than you need you’re carrying extra weight, making the car slower.

            9. @lee, actually, every magazine review of the McLaren says the same- it isn’t unique to Top Gear. Reviewers find it a bit joyless.

            10. And about ALL reviews having to have negatives, there are comparitively very few minor ones for the 458- until now that the McLaren exists to show it up in a few areas anyway.

      4. Too little from the start.

        As the article says, they expected him to be tied up behind people atleast for a while at the start, but Lewis being Lewis got around those slower cars at the start and was quicker than what the team expected, based on their performance in FP, and so, burnt fuel at a higher rate.

        1. Jeffrey Powell
          14th July 2011, 16:47

          I cannot understand why the team should put less fuel in the car and then say Lewis was not expected to go so fast. I would have thought the only reason to lighten the car would be to make it faster at the start as the effect reduces more quickly as the race goes on. Even if they were expecting more rain and therefore less fuel consumption surely they knew there was a much stonger than 50% chance Lewis would be up with Button after just a very few laps.

    4. While saying the team is going backwards, actually they were pretty much even with Red Bull and Ferrari on race pace (well Fernando was faster).

      Buttons luck just does not fit Silverstone, I am starting to believe that the moment he wins here, he will have to quit the sport for it will be sap all his talent to do so :-)

      1. Button has had a race-winning car for 4 seasons of his career. His best chance was when he was in the Brawn – otherwise he’s had to beat Lewis, Alonso, or Vettel and that just isn’t going to happen all things being equal.

        1. That’s debateable though- his win in 2006 was brilliant but no doubt helped by the demise of faster cars and the conditions. Although it was good enough for pole in other places, it wasn’t actually good enough for a win under normal racing conditions. Unless you mean 2004 when he was 3rd in the championship- the problem there being he was best of the rest but still so far behind the Ferrari he didn’t stand much of chance.

    5. I expect them to be a bit closer to Ferrari and Red Bull with exhaust blowing allowed in Germany again.

      At the same time, I wonder whether they should start focusing on a smaller number of updates that really work, rather than continually putting bits on the car in the hope that they will bring 0.05s of lap time.

      Last year, Mercedes stopped developing their car quite early, but managed to improve their performance just by gaining a better understanding of their car and how to set it up. At McLaren, on the other, it seems the drivers have a different car underneath them at every race weekend.

    6. I’ll get panned for saying it, but McLaren’s problems are Whitmarsh and Button. Not aggressive enough management, sometimes seems complacent in fact, and Button means compromising the car delivered to Hamilton – not a problem either Red Bull or Ferrari would contemplate. Hence 3rd place for McLaren.

      1. I am not sure Button is the problem as the car simply is not good enough. I think they try to be too clever sometimes and end up with too many problems as a result. I think they need a new head designer who can control the undeniable talent they have and focus it on making just a few design elements work brilliantly rather than making lots of design elements work ok. I think their issue is that when things are not working so well they find it hard to understand exactly which bit is causing the issue which then leads them into a firefight.

        It does not help that RB are running an illegal wing though…. Although you could argue that they should just get on with making one the same…

        1. ditto that last bit. I think Button is a distraction precisely because he’s a fine driver (better than Kovalainen for example) though not as quick and very different in style.

          1. Just because theres a difference in driving style, doesnt mean theres a difference in development.

            Teams develop to add downforce, they change the balance by tweaking the amount of rear/front wing and brake materials etc after this. Just cause the two drivers require different outcomes doesnt mean the bulk is all that different

            1. I realize that’s the argument, just not convinced.

            2. Last year there were a couple of occassions (monza and Silverstone spring to mind) where Hamilton and Button had different reactions to updates as well as went with completely different setups on their respective cars. I cant help but think that a lot of Mclaren’s resources and data could have been more efficiently used if the had more focus on one driver. And I dont think Jenson will ever be a WDC again, so maybe they should focus their efforts on Hamilton.

            3. Well that is not entirely the case. The cars wheel base, Suspension design and physical balance is all designed for a particular handling outcome. Some of this is to manage the mechanical grip etc but other aspects affect how stable the car is in corners etc which directly affects the drivers style. However I am not sure the driving styles of Button and Hamilton are as far apart as some think. Hamilton is clearly the better racer but Button seems to like a responsive front end on the car too.

            4. I also do not think that it helped that the teams got tyre data late and that the tyres they used in testing were not the same as the tyres they are now racing on. It looks as though each team gambled on what they thought the final tyres would be like and some gambles paid off while others did not. Look at Ferrari, they are hopeless on hards and even on softs in colder conditions, but put that Ferrari in the heat and it flies. Maclaren on the other hand are like lightning on hards and cold tyres but have an issue in the heat with tyre wear.

            5. David BR
              “Yes but kind of sad McLaren don’t realize just how good a driver they have”…yep you are right, they dont realise how good Button is, they should let Hamilton go and earn millions and maon about the failures of anoither team and concentrate on giving JB a decent car

            1. *Frown*

      2. Button is the problem? Ha!

        First, Who exactly do you plan for Mclaren to replace him with?

        And secondly! Who is the driver who keeps getting himself into trouble? Button it is not.

        1. I think Button and McLaren under Whitmarsh are ideally suited. It’s Hamilton who I’d like to see leave.

        2. And for Ferrari, if you’re asking. I realize the chances aren’t exactly high.

    7. Race pace was not bad as quali. Now I hope Mclaren and Ferrari both outpace Redbull as soon aso possible. It’s the only way to have real championship battle!

      1. That’s a necessary but not a sufficent condition. Another such condition is that we need RBR (Vettel) DNFs. Vettel has pretty much won the WDC already: too easy.

        1. (never going to happen) but in case both McLaren and Ferrari outpace RBR, Vettel would find himself in 5th. (if never beaten by Webber)

          A DNF here or there would be nice, but it would mostly depend on how the wins would be divided over Alonso, Button and Lewis.

          McLaren will have to pick one to avoid both drivers stealing wins.

          But, since I expcet RBR will remain the fastest team until the last race of the season, all this is strictly hypothetical.

    8. Thank goodness the exhaust rule has been reversed. McLaren have apparently spent ’18 months’ perfecting their system, which was banned at Silverstone.

      Hamilton was stunning in the wet, in the third best car (his downforce, grip, traction defecit to the RBRs and Ferrari’s doesn’t go away in the wet; rather, Hamilton is able to shine – compare his performance to JB’s). Furthermore, almost as soon as the drivers switched to slicks, Lewis dropped-off: in the dry, there’s far less driver skill.

      What was his best overtake? Passing Alonso into what used to be turn one with his slick tyres throwing up metres of spray? Or overtaking those two cars at the start in one corner before chasing Di Resta, Button, and Massa.

      And he never gave up, as shown with Massa. McLaren, once again, ruined things for Lewis though, with monumental errors in both qualifying and the race.

      1. At least they’re not doing it when he’s fighting for the lead!

      2. Monumental errors during the race? What are you talking about?

        1. I think he means underfuelling Lewis for the race?

      3. Pretty much agree. The difference was visible I think when Vettel was chasing after Hammy at the tail. Shaky turning of McLaren vs smooth and sticky turning of RBR.
        Still most of the efforts was ruined by no less than fuel insufficiency is joke. Wished to see him chasing down Vettel again which never happened.
        McLaren sure needs to do something to improve the performance not only in the car but in pit side and overall organization, recalibration of resources ahead of race.

      4. so what about Buttons move on Massa, far more exciting and dangerous that Hamilton pass on Alonso, Button is a good racer he just doesnt need to be whingeing in the press about hopw good he is and hopw everyone lets him down, he just gets on with the tools he has and delivers the best he can. hamilton..overblown…overhyped …and still has a lot to prove

    9. Why did they broadcast Mclaren’s message? did the FIA or FOM (whoeve’s in charge of that) explain?

      Because it affected the outcome of the race in the end. Aren’t radio messages controlled a bit?

      1. FOM decide what radio messages are broadcast. But all teams are monitoring pretty much all radio messages anyway i believe.

        1. Yea, unless teams decide to start encrypting their radio traffic, all other teams can monitor it anyways.

        2. I believe that the teams can only hear what we can hear on the radio, no preferential treatment. It would all bit a bit cloak and dagger for the fans otherwise I guess?

    10. Well!! I think this race should put an end to myth that mclaren are the best in season developers. Because obviously during the last few races ferrari have overtaken them. They had one season where they did it the best and their fans keeps on bragging about it. Even last season ferrari out developed them and this year seems to be heading towards a similar conclusion. I am just waiting eagerly to hear the words “kitchen sink” coming from the mclaren garage.

      1. Eh?

        Race-pace wise Mclaren have really only ‘dipped’ in form in the past 2, Valencia was a tyre wear issue, overheating the rears. Silverstone.. Well Lewis proved their race-pace wasnt bad at all.

        1. Well once the track dried out ,ham was a mobile chicane. I mean look at ferrari.They were lapped in barca. And now they finished 16 secs ahead of Rbr. And they did so by being the fastest in an aero dependent circuit-an Rbr territory. Sure you can say the off throttle Ebd ban might have slowed them down but still ferrari was as planted as anything in Sec2 where the ban had the least impact.Compare the car in barca on soft tyres and Sec 2 and you will see the awesome development. Now thats what Mclaren is missing this season.

          1. “Well once the track dried out ,ham was a mobile chicane.”

            What are you talking about?

            He was able to get upto 2nd long after the majority of the circuit was good for slicks, and only fell backwards because he was told to fuel save agressivly.

      2. Not entirely true at all. Maclaren have been one of the hardest hit by the EBD ban as they developed their entire car around the concept. Take the EBD away and you take away the core of the car. Even so Hamilton managed 4th and Button was going well too before the pit error.

        The FIA really need to stop changing the rules mid season unless it is for safety reasons.

    11. I really don’t know why people keep bashing JB???Clearly he is just slightly slower then LH but he often compensates with smart calls.It is obvious that he has problems at start because of high fuel load and balance of the car.If he manages to be close at the top after 1/4 or 1/3 of the race his pace goes wild as we have seen in many races.We have seen that in Monaco and we have seen that in Canada.This weekend he was getting real pace before that awful pitstop and i can assume because of that stupid radio message pit crew got confused and did what they did with the wheel nut.I can bet my money he would pass LH and Massa or maybe even catch Webber and Vettel.Look at lap times and u will see that he was catching all front runners before last pitstop.As far as fuel load for LH is matter,SURELY nobody can make that mistake that he need’s to save fuel 1/4 of race.He burned lot of fuel chasing Alonso and latter defending from Vettel.What is score table now? JB109-LH109 even with JB DNF this weekend.If this was MCL from 80′ with JB and LH this would be classic teammate battle for WDC like it was between Alain Prost and Aerton Senna.One smooth but still very fast and one very fast,agrresive with slightly dirty or over agrresive moves,call it what u like.

      1. It did look like Button was going to catch Hamilton, and with Hamiltons fuel problem he would of got past…. such a shame we didn’t get to see it.

      2. Certain fans criticize Button because they have developed this odd belief that all drivers should try to copy Senna’s style, which I think is rather ignorant.

        1. Do you know anything about Senna’s style? Can you explain advantages? If you can, fire on…

          1. Senna’s style was – Either get out of the way or I am gonna crash into you.

      3. Totally agree, it is amazing when I read the comments here just how much Button criticism there is, he was looking good for a possible 3rd place but for sure some points in 4th / 5th at worse but got a DNF, he was going well in Monaco until that last saftey car prevented a possible win (anyone criticising LH for screwing Buttons race here ???) , all in all a better season in many ways than Hamilton without the drama, simply because he gets on with it without the tears and tantrums and silly statements to the press he seems to be tagged as useless compared to hamilton, well as I see it both have 1 WDC and both are on same points this season and both have one victory so how is LH so much better?

    12. Anyone who critises the tyre fitter, should be shot! If you actually watch the pit stop, you will notice that the tyre fitter does NOT

      1. signal to say he is ready, it is the lolypop guy who lets hamilton go before the whole crew have decleared it is ok to go!

    13. Mclaren will come out of this race having their head down.First it was the Lollypop guy’s fault releasing Button first then they short fueled Hamilton.They need to work on that a lot.I guess from next race with old spec they will be back.

    14. Shame the McLaren team couldn’t provide a home win for the home team, but it they received a great response anyway. We even got the treat of Hamilton doing a donut right in front of us. The crowd were really supportive of the team and it was such a great atmosphere with all the rocket red hats.

    15. “We’d expected him to encounter more traffic in the first part of the race than he actually did,” explained Martin Whitmarsh. “As a result, he used more fuel early on than we’d anticipated he would.”

      well that’s just stupid of them. HAM was p10, not p18 or anything… plus it was wet at the start. did they really expect Hamilton to be stuck behind traffic for ages?

    16. Button and Hamilton are both great drivers but McLaren has drop the ball since Whitmarsh has been team manager. Team and car issues have been McLaren’s problem since 2009. If there are no changes in the design and management departments they will find themselves struggling with Merc, Renault and Sauber.
      Such a shame, so many resources and so little to show for it.

    17. Stunning stuff from Hamilton, tempted to give him my driver of the race vote. From 10th to 4th is great and he certainly provided drama while he did so. I also liked his ‘platinum card’ joke.

      Disappointment for Button, he sounded so frustrated on the radio. I have been sticking up for that mechanic ever since, surely it was the lollipop man’s mistake?! As soon as the camera focussed on a rather confused mechanic looking at two wheel nuts I couldn’t help but think ‘hmm, one of them should be on that car’.

      Qualifying sounds like a typical McLaren approach, too much though.

    18. After the 2nd round of pit stops he was blocking(very well i must say) vettel. He was around .5-1 sec slower. Surely he was not saving fuel so early. Ferrari were lapped by Mclaren at barcelona . And now they have the pace to not only overtake back, but to build a gap of over 10 secs in handful amount of laps that too in the most aero dependent circuit. Ferrari brought a huge update which acc. To stella gave them around a sec.(autosprint). Now Mclaren brought a few new items and they didnt even race it. In valencia there were even talks of the mclaren going back due to updates. So i think i am right in saying that Mclaren have been thumped by ferrari on the development ground so far.

    19. After the 2nd round of pit stops,he was just blocking(very well i must say) vettel. He was around .5-1 sec slower.Surely he was not saving fuel so early. Ferrari were lapped by Mclaren at barcelona . And now they have the pace to not only overtake back, but to build a gap of over 10 secs in handful amount of laps that too in the most aero dependent circuit. Ferrari brought a huge update which acc. To stella gave them around a sec.(autosprint). Now Mclaren brought a few new items and they didnt even race it. In valencia there were even talks of the mclaren going back due to updates. So i think i am right in saying that Mclaren have been thumped by ferrari on the development ground so far.

    20. I agree with tharris19 – How long would Whitmarsh last as a football manager?

      Not very long, I’d bet.

    21. Button the problem!

      It’s no secret that 90% of the car set up comes from Button’s side of the garage. Just ask John Watson.

    22. Scuderia Britalia Racing "Lucas - Mr. Veloce"
      18th July 2011, 19:48

      Hey Keith, I am really despeate for an answer so please listen. I am doing a powerpoint on which what I think would be the team’s driver’s next season. What I like is a little shakeup in the driver’s market, I don’t like one season to be identical to the other in terms of the drivers and where they are and the calender and what races are in order. I was just wondering, if Hamilton was to leave McLaren for Red Bull in place of Webber and Button departed for Ferrari replacing Massa, who would be McLaren’s drivers?

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