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I bet that car looks nothing like what they come to Australia with!

Also in some pics it looked almost white. I was excited that they may have dropped the silver and gone red and white , but oh well :(

yeah the white one that was posted by sav man looked shit hot. chrome has been done

Mates? Well he wont have many distractions for the coming season. Nobody on the grid likes him. His Mrs dumped him. He walked away from this Dad. Dennis isnt around as much to protect/support him. Whitmarsh seems more open to the two drivers and has never used words like "petulant" to describe Button...but has used such language for Hamilton.

His support network on race weekends seems non-existant. Hoping his 2012 season is a cluster fark and his candle blows out and McLaren dont meet his pay demands at end of year. He will be remembered as a great talent, who was lucky to win a WDC whose most mature performance as an F1 driver was his first season. After that hsi head seems to spend half the time off in the clouds, and the other half up his ass. :domokun:

lol, roy burn.

Lewis Hamilton eager to sort out F1 future with McLaren early

Lewis Hamilton is eager to sort out his future with McLaren early in the 2012 campaign so that speculation about his plans does not overshadow what he

hopes is a world championship winning campaign.The Briton is out of contract at the end of this year and, while it is likely he will remain at McLaren, there have been

frequent rumours about a potential switch to Red Bull Racing ever since heheld a secret meeting with Christian Horner at last year's Canadian Grand Prix.

But although nothing has yet been sorted, Hamilton has indicated that he will sit down with his McLaren bosses after the first few races to decide on an action plan for the future.

"At the moment the focus is on the preparation we have coming up for the season," he was quoted as saying by the Press Association. "Probably after the first couple of races it's something we will probably want to get out of the way.

"We can then focus on the rest of the year without the team being concerned and without it being something hanging around, so then you guys (the media) won't have to ask questions about it.

"So I'll try to get that out of the way at some stage, probably in the earlier part of the year rather than later."

Hamilton returned to the public spotlight at the 2012 McLaren launch in Woking on Wednesday following a difficult end to last season - dogged with on-track frustrations and difficulties in his personal life.

But having had a winter to sort his mind out, Hamilton reckoned he was going to be much stronger this year than he was throughout the campaign.

"I want to win every race. I think I can," he said. "I think I've the ability to. If the car is where we hope there's no reason why we can't do that.

"The only thing that ever gets in your way is your own mind and your own insecurities or obstacles that you put in your way. The most important thing is to put those things aside and to overcome them, and I think I have.

"So I feel right. Standing right in front of you I feel stronger than I was a few months ago particularly, but even more so than I was last year at the start of the year."

http://www.autosport...rt.php/id/97263

"I want to win every race. I think I can," he said. "I think I've the ability to.

the little bitch that could?

Edited by tweety bird

Q&A with Vodafone McLaren Mercedes technical director Paddy Lowe and director of engineering Tim Goss

After a successful 2011 season, what were your main aims with the development of the MP4-27?

Paddy: "Our main objectives for the 2012 season were to optimise downforce despite the changes to the blown floor, and to improve our understanding and utilisation of the Pirelli tyres, which were new to us last year.

Tim: "Although you can't see it, there's a lot on this car that's changed. However, this year has seen more of an evolutionary set of rules, so there's less of the unpredictability that comes from balancing resources

between seasons during a time of greater regulatory change."

Paddy: "Every year, we sit down and want to design a race-winning car. We didn't have the quickest car at the start of last season, but we're doing everything possible to build the quickest car possible."

What are the key visual differences between the 2011 and 2012 cars?

Tim: "I think the most obvious change is the loss of the U-shaped sidepod, which we pioneered on last year's car. We reverted to a more conventional sidepod shape for this season because the U-shape was less

suited to the new exhaust geometry restrictions. For 2012, the exhaust tailpipes now have to exit along the U-channel – so that particular feature was no longer really viable due to the new geometry restrictions. As a result,

we decided to adopt a different approach to the way we feed the rear of the car. We have cleaned up the roll-hoop area and now have much tighter rear bodywork."

Were there any particular challenges in adapting to the new 2012 regulations?

Tim: "The regulations around the exhausts are very prescriptive: the exhausts must now exit within a very tight space at the rear of the car in order to minimise their aerodynamic influence. The final 100mm of the

exhausts must be cylindrical – so they can no longer be oval, or flattened – and must be sited at a particular vertical and horizontal angle – between 10 and 30 degrees upwards. That's to direct the exhaust exit away from the floor."

Paddy: "One of the more satisfying challenges was being able to develop and expand our knowledge of the Pirelli tyres. It's our second season with Pirelli – 2011 was very much a learning year. We have used our

experience from the past 12 months to design the car's layout, aerodynamics and vehicle dynamics around improved tyre utilisation."

Have there been knock-on effects to the design of the car due to the exhaust restrictions?

Tim: "They have the inevitable impact on the flow-fields around the rear of the car, yes. In previous years, the exhausts exited directly into the rear corner of the floor; we can't do that any more so, as you'd expect,

that changes the flow characteristics at the rear of the car. The knock-on effect is that all of the aerodynamic devices at the rear of the car have had to be re-designed."

There have been a few departures from the technical team over the winter – are you comfortable with that?

Paddy: "I always say this, but Vodafone McLaren Mercedes is an extremely broad organisation. Bear in mind that we have 200 engineers working here – and, if those people all stayed in their job for 10 years,

then we'd lose 20 engineers a year.

"Actually, we lose far fewer than that. It's easy to focus on those leaving, but we have just as many people arriving here. Also, we pride ourselves on bringing on new, young and clever guys, helping them get into

the business. Inevitably, at some point, a few of those feel the need to fly the nest and join the competition – it's not something you can avoid. But we've got a very strong group of fantastically committed individuals

here and we're proud of the work we've all done on MP4-27."

http://www.mclaren.c...technical-qanda

Edited by tweety bird

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