McLaren testing radical new wing

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By Jonathan Noble Monday, April 30th 2007, 11:20 GMT


McLaren are evaluating the introduction of a radical front wing for next month's Spanish Grand Prix after running the new design in public for the first time in testing at the Circuit de Catalunya today.

The wing, which features an extra plane that spans above the nose and is mounted on the front wing end plates, is the result of what the team have openly admitted has been an aggressive development programme ahead of the Barcelona race.

The four-week break between the Bahrain Grand Prix and the race in Spain has allowed all the teams breathing space to work on developments, and McLaren's wing is already believed to have been evaluated during their straightline work they conducted in Menorca last week.

McLaren's main rivals Ferrari and BMW Sauber have both made use of an extra high-plane this year on the front wing, although these have been attached to the side of the nosecone rather than running above the top of it.

McLaren F1 CEO Martin Whitmarsh said last week that the fight for the championship between Ferrari and his team would almost certainly be decided by the rate of development the two outfits were working at.

"It is now very clear that this year's championships will be as much decided in the race to develop the car as the racing that occurs on Sunday afternoons," he explained. "We are now in the middle of a relatively large and unprecedented gap in Formula One racing, with a four week interval.

"During this time we are testing at the Barcelona circuit where the next race will be held. We would therefore target the largest incremental improvement in car performance from one race to another.

"This will not just be with Vodafone McLaren Mercedes, but within all of the teams in the sport. As a result, the whole organisation is working extremely hard to ensure that we make as big, if not bigger, incremental improvement to the lap time performance of the MP4-22 versus any of our competitors."

Confidence at McLaren is high after a strong start to the campaign that has resulted in both Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton tieing with Kimi Raikkonen at the head of the drivers' championship.

Hamilton's impressive arrival in F1 has been further sealed by the Briton admitting last weekend that he is no longer just dreaming about taking his first victory in the Spanish Grand Prix.

"I don't dream about [winning] Spain - I definitely think about it," he said in an interview with ITV. "Everyone has a dream, and although I'm living my dream still, there's more dreams and more ambitions that will keep me going for plenty of years to come."

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McLaren likely to race new wing in Spain

By Jonathan Noble Friday, May 4th 2007, 09:35 GMT


McLaren test driver Pedro de la Rosa thinks it is likely that the team will race with their new radical front wing at next week's Spanish Grand Prix, following evaluation of it during testing in Barcelona this week.

The Woking-based outfit caused a stir at the start of testing on Monday when their MP4-22 was fitted an extra wing element that was mounted onto the front wing endplates and spanned across the nose.

Although back-to-back evaluation of this wing set-up against the normal configuration has shown only a slight improvement, de la Rosa thinks the benefits are enough to justify bringing the wing into action for world champion Fernando Alonso's home race next weekend.

"It's been a positive test," de la Rosa told autosport.com. "Some days were lost because of the weather, but all in all the new aero package was good.

"I think the wing is likely to be introduced at the next race. Let's say that Fernando and I both felt that there was a small improvement with the wing."

Although rivals Ferrari appeared to have the edge in the test, topping the times on two out of the three days, de la Rosa feels that the relatively competitiveness of the two teams could shift around because of the weather.

The conditions also meant that the fastest tyre in the test may not be the best one for next week's race.

"In this week's conditions the medium (the softer of the two tyres used) was the faster," he said. "But it was unusually colder than normal. We may see a bit higher temperature in one week's time, so let's wait and see."

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McLaren confident of step forward

By Jonathan Noble Friday, May 4th 2007, 11:04 GMT


McLaren believe they have made a step forward in performance since the Bahrain Grand Prix, but think it is too early to say whether it is enough for them to edge ahead of Ferrari.

Both championship contenders have been pushing development hard in the past few weeks in their bid to establish themselves at the head of the field, but the rate of their progress will only be judged at next weekend's Spanish Grand Prix.

McLaren F1 CEO Martin Whitmarsh said: "Our target going into every race is to win, and we have been working at a feverish pace across the McLaren Mercedes team since the Bahrain race to develop the MP4-22 to enable us to meet this target.

"It has been a busy period on and off track and we do feel that we have taken a step forward. We have to wait until we get to race day to fully understand the size of the step, as we are by no means alone in pushing performance."

World champion Fernando Alonso says he is approaching his home race in a positive frame of mind, despite his disappointing fifth placed finish last time out in Bahrain.

"The race in Bahrain was not great for me, but I have arrived in Spain leading the world championship and that is a good position to be in going into the European season," said the Spaniard.

"We had a strong test at this track earlier this week and we got to understand more about how the car performs at the Circuit de Catalunya and the changes to the layout."

[parts4smarts]

if it proves to be successful, there will be questions/challenges re it's legaility
harald

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Ron Dennis once said: you are not cheating until you get caught.