McLaren Moments #1 – Testing in Barcelona and Jerez, March 2009

Over the past few years I have been discovering new parts of Formula 1 which go toward making up the whole season – in 2009 it was pre-season testing. As a McLaren fan I was waiting with baited breath to see how the new MP4-24 was going to perform.

Lewis Hamilton testing in Jerez, Spain in February 2009

Things seemed to be going well for McLaren in February when the testing took place in Jerez, Spain. From my limited knowledge of testing this didn’t appear to be the test of how fast the cars would go but more a fact finding mission – highlighted by Sebastian Bourdais being the fastest man in his Torro Rosso by some 2 seconds a lap on the final day of testing!

It was a month later in Jerez and Barcelona that would be more of an indication of how the cars would fare heading into the first race in Australia, and it was during this testing session that things started to take a turn for the worse for McLaren.

Heikki Kovalainen testing in Jerez, March 2nd 2009

March 1-5 2009 – Jerez, Spain
Day 1 – Pedro de la Rosa – 7th out of 8 drivers
Day 2 – Heikki Kovalainen – 6th out of 7 drivers
Day 3 – Heikki Kovalainen – 4th out of 8 drivers
Day 4 – Lewis Hamilton – 8th out of 9 drivers
Day 5 – Lewis Hamilton – 3rd out of 6th drivers

Not the strongest set of testing, and at this point I was a little concerned. Bear in mind just a few months ago we’d seen Lewis Hamilton crowned the Drivers Champion, how could the MP4-24 be so much worse than the MP4-23? At this point, as a McLaren fan, you start to persuade yourself that maybe McLaren are still testing various bits of the car and not going for out and out speed, it’ll be better in Barcelona.

Lewis Hamilton testing in Barcelona, March 12th 2009

March 9-12 2009 – Barcelona, Spain
Day 1 – Heikki Kovalainen – 10th out of 10 drivers
Day 2 – Heikki Kovalainen – 9th out of 11 drivers (10th & 11th Torro Rosso)
Day 3 – Lewis Hamilton – 10th out of 10 drivers
Day 4 – Lewis Hamilton – 8th out of 11 drivers

Things took a turn for the worse, if you can believe that, in Barcelona as McLaren seemed to fall even further behind the leading cars. This set of testing also saw the introduction of the new rear diffuser on some cars (not McLaren), and the circus that ensued. It also saw us introduced to the brand new Brawn GP cars, and their blistering pace. Maybe McLaren are sandbagging, yes, that’s what must be happening because they surely can’t be that bad, can they?

March 16-19 2009 – Jerez, Spain
Day 1 – Lewis Hamilton – 4th out of 5 drivers
Day 2 – Lewis Hamilton – 4th out of 4 drivers
Day 3 – Heikki Kovalainen – 1st out of 2 drivers
Day 4 – Heikki Kovalainen – 2nd out of 2 drivers

So that was the end of the testing, and the last session in Jerez didn’t seem to point in the desired direction of the McLaren MP4-24 being a race winning car (remember that come Hungaroring). At the time I was hoping that there were last minute modifications that would make Lewis and Heikki competitive come race day, but it wasn’t a fun time to be a McLaren fan.

Gary Paffett Finishes 3rd day of Testing in Jerez in 3rd plus Testing Analysis

Gary Paffett posted a 1:18.746 fastest lap time in Jerez, Spain on Thursday 3rd December, which was the 3rd fastest of the day, just 1/10th of a second behind Paul Di Resta in the Force India at 1:18.736. However, both were blown away by Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull who drove a very impressive 1:17.418 to top the fastest laps table for the day. In fact, Ricciardo’s fastest lap on day 3 was the fastest of the whole 3 day testing session.

For a bit of fun, and flawed in a few ways, I decided to look at the placings achieved each day and award points based on most for 1st, and least for last place. Only the fastest driver for a team counts where they have more than one driver. It tots up as follows for the 3 day testing session:

Who's that in first?

Look at that, McLaren in first – let’s hope that the post-season testing of the MP4-24 is mirrored when McLaren start testing the MP4-25 next year.

Gary Paffett Fastest for McLaren on Day 2 of Testing in Jerez

Gary Paffett was the only driver to get below the 1 minute 19 seconds mark in yesterday’s testing session, as he posted a quickest lap time of 1:18.718, to beat out new Williams driver Nico Hulkenberg who registered a 1:19.243.

No photos available for yesterday’s session yet – I’ll update this with any if and when they become available.

As encouraging as this testing session has been it’s the testing of the new McLaren MP4-25 next year that will be more telling for what lies ahead for McLaren in the 2010 season. An improvement on last year’s testing is a must, at the top or there abouts of the test times is expected.

Paffett and Turvey Test for McLaren in Jerez

Jerez, Spain is the location for the young drivers testing which sees Gary Paffett and Oliver Turvey driging the McLaren MP4-24, the same car that Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen drove in 2009. Paffett, who was a McLaren Autosport BRDC Award winner in 1999 and has been testing for McLaren since 2006, was first out, followed by fellow McLaren Autosport BRDC Award winner (2006) Oliver Turvey. The testing in Jerez has been specifically a ‘young driver’ event which means only drivers with limited Grand Prix experience can take part.

Gary Paffett driving the McLaren MP4-24 in Jerez – Tuesday December 1st

Paffett was the 3rd fastest of the day with a time of 1:19.426, trainling second place Paul Di Resta of Force India in 1:19.369 and fastest of the day Andy Soucek of Williams in 1:19.158.

Oliver Turvey driving the McLaren MP4-24 in Jerez – Tuesday December 1st

Turvey ended up 11th of the 12th drivers with a time of 1:20.856, however Autosport reports that he was the most improved driver in the final 30 minutes of testing. Turvey completed 27 laps, compared to Paffett’s 54. The full list of times for the day can be found over at Formula1.com.

It must have been an incredible experience for Turvey, to drive the current Formula 1 car for McLaren in official testing. The change in direction of this annual testing session is great for the younger and less experienced drivers and hopefully help them should they need to step into a real race situation, something we saw happen more than usual this season. Testing continues in Jerez today.

McLaren Driver Nominated for BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2009

OK, so that headline may be a little mis-leading, as it’s actually 2010 McLaren driver Jenson Button who has been honoured with a nomination for Sports Personality of the Year 2009. This is the third year in a row a British Driver has been nominated and in 2007 and 2008 it was an actual McLaren driver, Lewis Hamilton. Both times he came 2nd, losing out to Joe Calzaghe in 2007 and Chris Hoy in 2008.

This year Jenson Button is up against the following nine fellow nominees:

David Haye – World Heavyweight Boxing Champion
Mark Cavendish – won an unprecedented 6 stages at this year’s Tour de France (Cycling)
Phillips Idowu – Triple Jump Gold Medallist at the World Athletics Championships
Tom Daley – 15 Year Old World Champion Diver
Andy Murray – A successful British tennis player, a very rare bread!
Jessica Ennis – Heptathlon Gold Medallist at the World Athletics Championships
Andrew Strauss – Captain of the English Ashes winning team
Ryan Giggs – to quote the BBC website: the most decorated player in English football history
Beth Tweddle – Floor Gold Medallist at the Gymnastics World Championships

Jenson is up against some stiff competition, and the last time an Ashes winning player was nominated (Andrew Flintoff in 2005) they won. Voting details can be found here. I’ll be voting for Jenson, and if he wins it’ll be the first Formula 1 driver to win since Damon Hill in 1996.

McLaren in the News – 30th November 2009

2010 car will be more aggressive: McLaren @ The Times of India, Racing
Monday 30th November
LONDON: Formula One world champion Jenson Button will start next season with a more aggressively designed McLaren than the one Lewis Hamilton

“It’s still too early to be able to say with any confidence how competitive we’ll be,” engineering director Paddy Lowe said in a Q&A provided by the Mercedes-powered team on Monday.

“All we can say with any certainty is that we’ve approached this (20010) car more aggressively than we perhaps have in the past.” (read more…)

Turvey to test for McLaren F1 team @ The Times of India, Racing
Monday 30th November
LONDON: Britain’s Oliver Turvey will have his first taste of a Formula One car with McLaren in southern Spain this week, the team said on Monday.

Turvey, 22, secured the test as a prize for winning the 2006 Autosport BRDC (British Racing Drivers’ Club) young driver award, following in the tracks of David Coulthard and world champion Jenson Button.

The three-day Jerez test is reserved for drivers with limited F1 experience. “I’ve gone over this moment so many times in my mind,” the Cambridge University graduate told the McLaren website. “My aim is to enjoy the experience, but also to learn as much as I can from it.” (read more…)

Herbert: Button must build McLaren ties @ Autosport.com
Monday 30th November
Jenson Button can boost his chances of taking the fight to Lewis Hamilton at McLaren in 2010 if he establishes strong ties with the men he will work most closely with as soon as he can.

That is the view of former grand prix driver Johnny Herbert, who thinks his own experience of going up against Michael Schumacher at Benetton in 1995 has taught him the importance of building-up good relationships with team staff.

“The biggest thing I would say to Jenson is to just settle as quick you can – and make the biggest effort now to integrate with all the people, and all the personnel,” Herbert said in an interview with AUTOSPORT. “Now is key to getting those relationships early and positive. (read more…)

Hungry Button will give us bite @ The Sun F1 & Motorsport
Monday 30th November
McLAREN believe Jenson Button’s “hunger” will give the team extra bite next year.

Managing director Jonathan Neale revealed the Woking squad’s engineers are “excited” at the prospect of running the world champion alongside his predecessor Lewis Hamilton.

But he dismissed suggestions of a war between the pair and promised they would get equal treatment. (read more…)

McLaren: teaming Button with Hamilton will work @ The First Post
Monday 30th November
eaming up of current Formula 1 drivers’ champion Jenson Button with his predecessor Lewis Hamilton is a great idea, but McLaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh is bullish that the team can make the partnership work and has said that managing the pairing is a “very nice problem to have.”.

Whitmarsh, the principal for the Woking-based team, told the BBC: “We’ll be able to manage the demands and expectations of our drivers. They know what it takes to win and I’m sure they’ll both be very motivated to push each other to greater results.” The drivers will be considered as equals in the team hierarchy, and will receive exactly the same numbers of staff and resources.

It won’t be the first time that McLaren has fielded an all-star team: in the late 1980s Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna won back-to-back world championships for the team, despite having a fiery relationship, and two years ago Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton raced together during the Briton’s first season in F1. That experiment ended acrimoniously as the Spaniard was convinced that Hamilton was getting preferential treatment. (read more…)

No more Racing Line Magazine for McLaren Members

As part of your membership of the McLaren Members Programme you get a monthly magazine called Racing Line – The McLaren Group Magazine, or at least you used to.

Issue 141

The photo you see above is of issue 141 of Racing Line, the very last issue of the McLaren Group Magazine. Martin Whitmarsh writes inside this landmark issue:

The rise of the internet and the prevalence of digital media in all aspects of our lives have reshaped the way that a large and fast-moving company, such as ours, communicates with its supporters and Partners, though. As a result, this 2009 season round-up will be the last print issue of Racing Line.

But, in the same way that McLaren first pioneered a more intimate and unique way of communicating with its supporters and Partners in the 1990s with Racing Line, we’ve chosen to broaden your experience with a new and dynamic website for 2010,, which will become the primary focus for all information about the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team, and offer you greater opportunities than ever before to interact with us.

The first thing to take from this is that Racing Line looks set to continue, albeit in digital format. It’d be a shame to lose it all together as it’s a great insight into areas of McLaren that are usually kept away from the public eye. The photos are also second to none and most front covers would not look out of place framed, and on the wall.

I’ve had an assurance from the McLaren eShop, via their official Twitter account that things will get going in January and we, as members, will be very much a part of that.

It was via their Twitter account that I ended up appearing in the first issue of my membership, issue 135 back in May. They were asking for photos of us getting ready to watch the Malaysian Grand Prix so my wife took this one of my son and I, he was then almost 1 year old!

Racing Line, featuring us!

Our photo appeared on page 40 as part of an article titled Go On – Have A Twitter.

So, all eyes will be on January and the emergence of a new, all singing and dancing McLaren website – if it’s half as good as their recent car development we should be in for a treat!

Poll: Who will get more Points for McLaren in 2010 – Lewis Hamilton or Jenson Button?

In the past 2 seasons, with Heikki Kovalainen as his team mate, all the smart money has been on Lewis Hamilton to bring the lion’s share of the points home for McLaren and that has proved right. Now Kovalainen has been replaced by Jenson Button, the current world drivers champion, does that mean Lewis Hamilton’s position as the number 1 driver at McLaren is under threat and will he win more points than Hamilton next season?

Lewis Hamilton Voted Number 1 F1 Driver in 2009 by 2 Publications

Despite the not so impressive first half of the season, it seems the Formula 1 world have recognised that the car was to blame and not Lewis Hamilton. This was evident in the second half of the season when improvements to his McLaren MP4-24 saw Hamilton back on top again, twice, in Hungary and Singapore, and competing for the top spot in most other races.

Hamilton thanks his car for victory in Hungary

Lewis Hamilton has been voted the number 1 Formula 1 driver of 2009 by not one, but two of the most prestigious publications in motorpsort.

Autosport
Arguably the number 1 motorsports magazine in the world has a 2009 Formula 1 season review issue out at the moment which rates the top 10 drivers of 2009. At number 1 is Lewis Hamilton. The 9 drivers below him were rated as follows:

2 – Jenson Button
3 – Sebastian Vettel
4 – Mark Weber
5 – Robert Kubica
6 – Fernando Alonso
7 – Felipe Massa
8 – Kimi Raikkonen
9 – Rubens Barrichello
10 – Nico Rosberg

Very interesting top ten indeed – I’ll be picking up my copy tomorrow to see what justification there is for Barrichello being in only 9th place. Sure he didn’t do as well as team mate Button but he did his part to ensure Brawn GP won the constructors championship and towards the end of the season he was a better driver than Button himself. Also, Kubica in 5th – was that based on Brazil alone?

You can flick through a tiny version od the current issue over at Autosport.com

GP Week
If you didn’t know already, GP Week is a free, yes FREE, online publication with excellent written content and superb photos. They have rated the top 5 Formula 1 drivers of 2009, and like Autosport have Lewis Hamilton taking the number 1 spot. The other 5 are as follows:

2 – Sebastian Vettel
3 – Jenson Button
4 – Mark Weber / Rubens Barrichello
5 – Sebastian Buemi

The first thing you’ll notice is the inclusion of 2 drivers at #4 – there’s your top 5 there guys, but I will let you off as the extra driver is Buemi who performed very well considering his absolute dog of a car. Interesting to see they rate Rubens Barrichello a lot higher than Autosport, and rightly so in my mind.

So, anyone agree or disagree with the two sets of rankings?

McLaren in the News – 20th November 2009

Mercedes war with McLaren over Jenson Button switch @ Mirror.co.uk Motorsport
Friday 20th November
Mercedes last night declared war on McLaren over Jenson Button’s switch.

The bad blood between the two teams spilled over less than 24 hours after his £12million move to Woking.

Furious at being dumped for McLaren, the Brackleybased operation has refused to allow Button to start work for his new bosses until after Christmas.(read more…)

New challenge drove Jenson @ Sky Sports Formula 1
Friday 20th November
Jenson Button insists that the challenge of driving with and against Lewis Hamilton as McLaren team-mates was the main reason behind his switch from Brawn.

Button left the team he won the World Championship with in order to move to Woking-based McLaren and complete a stellar all-British line-up with the last two F1 world champions at the same team.

A lot has been said after Button’s decision, with Brawn boss Nick Fry still feeling some bitterness at what he sees as a lack of loyalty from the driver towards a team that gave him a title-winning car. (read more…)

Hamilton/Button would be ‘excellent’ lineup – Massa @ MSN Formula One
Friday 20th November
Experts and pundits are questioning the wisdom of Jenson Button’s reportedly likely move from Brawn/Mercedes to McLaren for 2010.

Sir Jackie Stewart and David Coulthard have advised their British countryman to stay put rather than accept a bigger-money offer from McLaren, where 2008 world champion Lewis Hamilton is regarded the unofficial number 1 driver.

The Daily Telegraph said Button, 29, has been assured equal billing, but Martin Brundle – who drove for the team in 1994 – told BBC radio on Tuesday: “In the past they (McLaren) have had a history of really being able to only fully support one driver.” (read more…)

McLaren races back into the black thanks to Hamilton F1 win @ Evening Standard Business
Friday 20th November
Lewis Hamilton’s Formula One world championship victory last year drove his McLaren team from the red to a £14 million pre-tax profit according to its accounts to 31 December 2008.

It comes as good news for the outfit after Mercedes said on Monday that it is selling its 40% stake in McLaren to the team’s co-owners and investing in rival Brawn GP, which took the F1 title this year.

Mercedes is said to be annoyed at the scandals which have dogged McLaren over the past two years. In April the team was given a suspended three-race ban for misleading officials and in 2007 it was fined $100 million. (read more…)

Jenson Button will be pushed by Lewis Hamilton @ Mirror.co.uk Motorsport
Friday 20th November
Now Jenson Button has joined Lewis Hamilton at McLaren we have the prospect of two young Brits in the same car driving at speeds of up to 220mph, and for once the police won’t be in hot pursuit.

Button has been forced out of Brawn because Mercedes are taking over, and they want a wholly German team, preferably with blond hair, blue eyes and jackboots. After his world title win Button said to them: “Show me the money.” They replied: “Show me your papers.”

Button was so anxious to escape the German camp there were fears he’d end up on a motorbike wrapped in barbed wire. Last week he was spotted at McLaren HQ, where it’s rumoured playboy Button demanded the same pay as Hamilton, the same status as driver, and the same Pussycat Doll. (read more…)