McLaren to extend MP4-23 development

Eurosport - Wed, 01 Oct 23:45:00 2008

McLaren revealed that, contrary to the team's own expectations, they will be working on a raft of technical updates for the MP4-23 car ahead of next month's season finale at Interlagos as they bid to wrest both F1 world titles from rivals Ferrari.

2008 Malaysian GP McLaren Whitmarsh - 0

The Scuderia's failure to add to their points tally at last weekend's inaugural Singapore Grand Prix has allowed McLaren to finally close the once-commanding gap between the teams in the constructors' championship.

With Lewis Hamilton also extending his individual advantage over Felipe Massa to seven points, the Woking team are now in the driving seat in both sets of standings, but know that, in the constructors' battle especially, things are far from over.

As a result, development work has been ongoing at the team's technical centre in the UK to wring one final performance jump out of the MP4-23, even though the team are hard at work on the design and build of their 2009 challenger which will be running to a heavily revised set of regulations.

"Ordinarily, the Singapore weekend would have been our last big upgrade package of the season," McLaren CEO Martin Whitmarsh revealed in the wake of Hamilton's third place in F1's first night race.

"But we've now got an upgrade package focused on Brazil, and will be looking to see whether we can pull any of those improvements forwards.

"There will still be little bits and pieces brought to the car for the two Asian races, but the package of upgrades won't be as big as the one we brought to Singapore."

The inaugural Singapore event proved to be a bigger challenge than many teams expected, not only because the entire travelling party had to get used to the unusual weekend schedule - which meant attempting to remain on European time despite the seven-hour time difference - but because the Marina Bay circuit turned out to be tougher than anticipated.

"The bumps were a factor that caught everybody by surprise," Whitmarsh admitted.

"Before we arrived for the race weekend, we sent people there to do an accurate survey of the track surface for use in our pre-race engineering work. Inevitably, with a new circuit, the track surface evolves and the asphalt settles - a factor that we either didn't measure or that developed after we'd done our survey.

"Otherwise, everything worked amazingly well. Both drivers were incredibly dedicated - and the team that set their schedule up, led by Aki Hintsa, put a lot of work into it.

"But it was quite a bizarre experience. I went back to the hotel after the sessions, had something to eat and then sat with our drivers until 4am. You left them to go to bed and they would be putting on a movie - it was quite a strange feeling, but it worked very well."

While the street circuit received a generally warm welcome, there were changes that either had to be made during the weekend - including the removal of some brutal corner-cutting deterrents - or will be suggested before the circuit returns in 2009.

"The bumps were the most unexpected element of the weekend, but we also need to look more closely at the pit-lane exit and entrance," Whitmarsh commented.

"I think the race organisers will probably have to extend the entrance and exit for next year, moving them further away from the apices of corners. I'm sure that will be changed.

"However, in terms of ambience, facility and backdrop, it was just fantastic. Clearly, this has been a learning year and the organisers will have spent a lot of time overcoming the unique difficulties of attempting to put a racetrack into a metropolis, but we've seen Monaco evolve over many years and I can see the Singapore Grand Prix becoming our 'Monaco of the East'.

"The commitment of the Singaporean government and the race organisers has created an enormous amount of goodwill and that will only be reflected by the teams, who will really want to make this venue work."

Crash.net / Eurosport

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  1. Moving floor,I see that when I have a few glasses of­ champagne.

    From wizzo, on Fri 3 Oct 10:08PM

  2. THE facts are MCLAREN have been found guilty of being­ in possession of over 800 pages of FERRARI­ information.
    THE court of appeal confirmed this.
    THE­ have been found to be re lapse’s and lying to the court­ and everybody on earth.
    THEY admitted everything above­ and settled financially with FERRARI out of­ court.
    FINALLY R.D said he is going to take­ L.C.DIMONTEZEMOLO out to dinner HA HA HA."

    And­ Ferrari had an illegal floor on the car - the reason­ the documents were given to the competition but Ferrari­ are the FIA's buddies and they got no penalties. ­ Nothing like a good hypocrite sanctioning body now is­ there? Both now and in the past to boot.

    From cylonred, on Fri 3 Oct 7:05PM

  3. THE facts are MCLAREN have been found guilty of being­ in possession of over 800 pages of FERRARI­ information.
    THE court of appeal confirmed this.
    THE­ have been found to be re lapse’s and lying to the court­ and everybody on earth.
    THEY admitted everything above­ and settled financially with FERRARI out of­ court.
    FINALLY R.D said he is going to take­ L.C.DIMONTEZEMOLO out to dinner HA HA HA."

    And­ Ferrari had an illegal floor on the car - the reason­ the documents were given to the competition but Ferrari­ are the FIA's buddies and they got no penalties. ­ Nothing like a good hypocrite sactioning body now is­ there?

    From cylonred, on Fri 3 Oct 7:03PM

  4. Paul, those are interesting theories, but where's­ the proof? I have never heard of that before. The­ "ballast" issue seems a bit ridiculous to me.

    From Forza Ferrari, on Fri 3 Oct 5:44PM

  5. My eyes are bulging at the latest things here­ especially about the ballast being passed.Keep em­ coming guys.

    From wizzo, on Fri 3 Oct 4:45PM

  6. THE facts are MCLAREN have been found guilty of being­ in possession of over 800 pages of FERRARI­ information.
    THE court of appeal confirmed this.
    THE­ have been found to be re lapse’s and lying to the court­ and everybody on earth.
    THEY admitted everything above­ and settled financially with FERRARI out of­ court.
    FINALLY R.D said he is going to take­ L.C.DIMONTEZEMOLO out to dinner HA HA HA.

    From stivalas, on Fri 3 Oct 4:17PM

  7. you are right that michelin where to blame, however had­ Ferrari agreed to the chicane then the race would have­ gone ahead so on that basis i do blame Ferrari for that­ fiasco.
    Forza Ferrari you are wrong, there was enough­ data to build their current race car at that time,­ thats how mclaren knew ferrari were cheating and­ reported them to the FIA. if you look at the FIA rules­ you will find many that were used to prevent Ferrari­ from cheating, one of many the one about the podium­ drivers should not be in contact with their team until­ after the weigh in was to stop Schumacher from­ cheating. He was being passed balast weigh after the­ race so that he would be in spec (having said that,­ martin brundle also did that one!) As for rumours, well­ all the other teams suspected it but due to the fact­ that you need to pinpoint the exact part that does not­ comply plus i think you have to pay for the inspection­ should the car prove to be in compliance, no one would­ point the finger. In the case of mclaren they had the­ tecnical specs for the car so knew exactly where to­ point the finger.

    From paulhancock1123, on Fri 3 Oct 3:57PM

  8. Paul, you create an intelligent and logical case about­ moveable floor and rear wings and IF Ferrari did have­ these on their cars than it is another terrible FIA­ corruption but nothing they do for Ferrari or against­ their competitors suprises me any more. However, to­ blame Ferrari for Indi is more than a little far­ fetched. Michelin were to blame there for sure.

    From crispyduck, on Fri 3 Oct 2:27PM

  9. How can you possibly blame Ferrari for the Indy fiasco?­ Michelin screwed up, not Ferrari. As far as the other­ allegations, as you said, it was "rumored".­ Nothing was proven. Besides, that stolen data did not­ pertain to the actual cars that were competing. It was­ just general technical data and concepts.

    From Forza Ferrari, on Fri 3 Oct 2:07PM

  10. Didnt mclaren use the info to show that Ferrari were­ cheating? Ie,. the moveable floor and rear wings which­ were found to be illegal yet they managed to keep their­ points illegally gained through use of these? if it was­ mclaren they would undoubtedly have been stripped of­ their points. ferrari have been the king of cheats over­ the years, the fiasco that was indianapolis, it is­ rumoured that ferrari refused to run with the chicane­ mod that would have allowed the michelin runners to­ race because they were running a black box which­ automatically adjusted brake bias. Adding a chicane­ would have destroyed all of their settings and thus its­ advantage had the additional two corners been used.­ Dont talk about mclaren cheating without considering­ Ferraris past!

    From paulhancock1123, on Fri 3 Oct 1:14PM

  11. McL will never get rid of that big thorn in the side it­ is like a recurring nightmare coming back to haunt­ them.

    From wizzo, on Fri 3 Oct 10:27AM

  12. pond.simba is that ALL you can talk about? Change the­ record you little runt. You are a poor little man, all­ upset because his team are losing. boofricketyhoo!

    From crispyduck, on Fri 3 Oct 8:52AM

  13. mclaren highlander ur just a gimp u go on about the­ robbery last year? ummm wasnt mclaren found to have­ ferrari data? u idiot they should have been thrown out­ of the championship all together

    From pond.simba, on Thu 2 Oct 9:56PM

  14. Come on McLaren, leave no stone unturned in our quest­ for our just victory and titles and vengeance for the­ robbery of wins and titles last year by the Ferrari­ tribe with the aid of the Fia.

    From McLaren Highlander, on Thu 2 Oct 9:47PM

  15. Hey Ray. Stop sounding like Rainman and give us a­ break. The ice cream gag isn't funny ini the­ slightest! Jees I wouldn't want to hear you tell­ one of your bad jokes. You obviously seem to think that­ one is hilarious.

    From crispyduck, on Thu 2 Oct 5:23PM

  16. Well said Forza! Once again the voice of impartial­ reason. Keep up the good work mate.

    From crispyduck, on Thu 2 Oct 5:20PM

  17. Ferrari do they make icecream ?

    From I TYSON, on Thu 2 Oct 4:48PM

  18. Even if McLaren had used the data, it would not make­ sense for them to "copy" the technology. At­ best, they could use it to garner some innovative ideas­ and then develop their own version. Besides, that data­ is outdated by now. Time to move on folks!

    From Forza Ferrari, on Thu 2 Oct 3:51PM

  19. If this is the ferrari that they copied, why can't­ the so called copied ferrari keep up with it...?

    From doubletalkinjive76, on Thu 2 Oct 2:57PM

  20. pond.simba you should be called pond.slime. Do you­ REALLY think Max and the FIA haven't been all over­ the McLaren in the hope they find some Ferrari data in­ it? Think Ferarri would be more interested in McLaren­ as there is NO DOUBT that the McLaren has handled­ better in the rain and been obviously more reliable­ this year. Why is it that you always whine like a baby­ when you're team are losing. Stop being such a baby­ like Luca!

    From crispyduck, on Thu 2 Oct 2:35PM
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