McLaren's manual starts impress Nick Heidfeld Mar.12 (GMM) While everyone seems convinced that Ferrari has engineered the absolute fastest car on the grid, Nick Heidfeld has a different take, suggesting that the silver cars from Woking might actually snatch the early advantage once the 2008 season kicks off this Sunday.
The German, currently behind the wheel for BMW Sauber, mentioned to Sport Bild that one of the most striking things he observed during the recent winter testing period was just how blistering the launch of the McLaren MP4-23 was when the drivers were working through their practice starts.
Coinciding with the introduction of the McLaren-supplied control ECU this season, both traction control and launch control have been strictly prohibited. The 30-year-old Heidfeld is essentially betting that the Mercedes-powered team will have the jump on its rivals when it comes to how Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen make their manual starts in 2008.
"McLaren have a starting system that allows Hamilton and Kovalainen to pull away with only 9,000 revs. On the other hand, we (BMW) need to use much higher speeds when we begin to accelerate," the veteran driver noted.
this all ties back to the SECU... it looks like McLaren will hold the upper hand... and now we finally see why...
we just don't know how long it's going to take for the rest of the field to figure out how to catch up to that SECU setup.
But if we're going down that road, then we might as well host the championship every two years... because honestly, the money wouldn't even be wasted on those tedious qualifying matches... and it should probably run a bit longer too... imagine having six groups of four, where the top two from each move on along with the four best third-place finishers followed by a knockout tournament style all the way to the final winner.
Lisa Miller7 said:you gotta be kidding me, right?? you know damn well how many suspensions should've been handed out for the stuff they did to our guys... how many times the Americans kept the ball during traveling or charging calls and completely shut down our fast breaks😠..f***ing hell, they didn't hand out a single two-minute penalty once
exactly...
that holding of the ball absolutely should have been penalized... it happened at least ten times over the course of the game...
The ball hit Vukić somewhere near his groin, but it wasn't intentional and he certainly didn't direct the ball away... there was no way a kick should have been called there...
the fouls being whistled are an absolute disgrace
but regardless, Lino, you shouldn't have let us play four minutes shorthanded like that, especially not in the final ten minutes of the game
Susan Fox86 said:They were shaking in their boots.
And despite all the officiating garbage, we almost had them; they were saved twice by the posts and a goalkeeper who actually has a face.
Real officials who want to cheat are subtle about it. These guys were just butchering the game. Our suspensions were laughable. And then there was that call on Vori right when we finally had the man advantage. First, they call a non-existent offensive foul when he picks up the ball on the line, then they suspend him because apparently the ball 🤮slipped onto his foot while he was dropping it. Usually, you call that to stop a clear fast break, but this time the play and the argument lasted twenty seconds—there was zero chance for a counterattack.
There were at least a dozen catastrophic errors stacked against us.
I'll say it again: we weren't playing great. Our team looked exhausted and spent, but the officiating was criminal. We managed to drag those amateurs across the finish line even though they looked lost in the final fifteen minutes. If you asked half the people in the stands where they were or what sport they were even playing, they wouldn't have known.
Justin Ward4 said:and honestly, young Čupić is just carrying on that legacy of elite right wings we’ve come to expect—the kid actually looks like Edward Norton, 😂which is a bit of a distraction if you ask me.
I suppose that's just the hallmark of Generation X, 🤣isn't it?
The Vrancug crew seems a bit caught off guard here... but honestly, they’re tough as nails, just absolute powerhouses out there... truly solid... and that guy Gill is really the only one who won't fall for any of those flashy moves Balić tries to pull on him.
wearyeagle2 said:Vanja, I’m starting to feel a little less alone in my defense of Červar. Honestly, trying to argue against the raw statistics is just a fool's errand, like trying to fight a windmill. 🤣
you might as well throw in the towel too...
the guy is an absolute charlatan...
it's a good thing someone actually caught onto the kind of nonsense he's barking during those timeouts...
What can you even say about these kinds of massive shake-ups... anything is possible at this point, I suppose, but the absolute bottom line is that Fernando Alonso is leaving...
McLaren want Nico Rosberg to replace Fernando Alonso October 4, 2007
Word on the street is that McLaren has already set their sights on Nico Rosberg to take over Fernando Alonso's seat next season.
The Spaniard is almost certain to depart the team at the end of the current campaign after his relationship with the Woking-based outfit completely fell apart.
Since McLaren is now left hunting for a new teammate for Lewis Hamilton, The Daily Mail is reporting that Williams Racing's star prospect, Rosberg, is actually Ron Dennis's number one choice.
'He checks all the boxes: being German makes him an ideal fit for McLaren's engine partners at Mercedes-Benz. Plus, since his peers call him 'Britney Spears', he’s got massive marketability potential.'
That said, the paper notes there might be a snag involving his father, Keke, who may not be thrilled about his son—currently killing it in his second Formula One season—teaming up with Lewis Hamilton, the guy who famously had the measure of him in karting. There is also the matter of his contract with Williams Racing; the team principal, Sir Frank Williams, recently called Rosberg a "fixture for next year" and made it clear they intend to keep the 22-year-old.
'Then there is the alternative: Renault's Heikki Kovalainen, who finished right behind Hamilton in last weekend's Japanese GP. The Hamilton camp would welcome the 26-year-old Finn and he could yet form part of Fernando Alonso's severance deal,' according to The Daily Mail.
If the rumor mill is to be believed, we could see Fernando Alonso heading back to Renault while Kovalainen makes the switch to McLaren, which would leave Nelson Piquet Jr. to step in as Fernando Alonso's new teammate.