McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh believes MP4-27 is not missing anything – Formula 1 news
McLaren team Principal Martin Whitmarsh says that he is not much concerned over not using the stepped nose design.
McLaren are the only team that have not gone with a stepped nose design which lead to Whitmarsh being worried that the team might have missed a trick by not going with it. The team did not have a satisfactory run at the first pre-season test at Jerez.
“I've asked our technical guys if they are sure that we have done the right thing and they have told me not to worry,” Whitmarsh is quoted by Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport.
Lewis Hamilton after driving the car said that it is not the complete package it needs to be, though he was mentioning the technical difficulties in the car. The nose has not had any effect so far and it may not even be prominent enough until the start of
the season. The first race will give a better idea of how much of an advantage or disadvantage the car has without the current popular design of a stepped nose.
Whitmarsh added that the team has come up with an evolution to the MP4-26 and the stepped nose was forcing them to move away from the design philosophy that they wanted to keep and so it was decided that the stepped nose was just not the way to go.
“This car is an evolution,” confirmed Whitmarsh. “In terms of radical innovations that are visibly obvious, I'll have to disappoint - these rules just don't leave that sort of room anymore.”
It does have its benefits too, the driver will have better vision and lower centre of gravity but how big of a difference it will make is not clear at the moment.
The second pre-season test is being held at Barcelona on February 21, 2012, and will be featuring all the 2012 cars except HRT’s as their car failed the compulsory crash test and will be lucky to feature in the third pre-season test. Barcelona will also
be witnessing the first sightings of the Mercedes W03 as it missed the first one due to developmental procedures.
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