McLaren Launch

[Steven Roy]

http://www.mclaren.com/index.php

McLaren have posted the first picture of the MP4/23 along with a press release.

The big news is the car is not red

Photos are (slowly) being published at the link below.
http://www.mclaren.com/mediaroom/launch-photography.php

[FW14B]

Longer wheelbase than the predessor though

[Scott]

What's with the McLaren servers...I hope they are slow because the engineers are drawing so much for their 24/7 work on the car...otherwise, maybe they have an FIA virus or something - I've been waiting for one picture to load for more than a few minutes now.

[Steven Roy]

I am sure Max is going to be upset when he realises why they have used Kovalainen's number for the launch car and not Lewis's.  His punishment has resulted in Kovalainen's race number being the same as the model number.  Presumably another punishment will follow for using a punishment to advantage.

The McLaren servers are painfully slow.  I guess there must be a lot of people downloading the pics to check for Ferrari bits.

I wonder if the Vodafone logos can be judged to have been taken from Ferrari

[john f]

I still can not find a picture from directly in front.  can I get some direction please.

[Steven Roy]

http://www.gpwizard.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=4707.0

GP Wizard has one.

Welcome to the forum.  We are always looking for new posters.  I look forward to reading your opinions. 

Just be careful or the Wiz may end up giving you a job

[john f]

Thank you Steven my alter ego is openwheelfan you know me from other blogs.  Thanks for the photo.

[john f]

Well it looks like it will be fast I only hope that it is successful.  I am really waiting for the BMW.  The Ferrari is the same -- RED.  Actually they both look smoother aerodynamically.

[johnbull]

I'm afraid these cars are starting to look more like porcupines every day with all those appendages, fins, sharks teeth, horns, antennae sprouting everywhere. All of them, not just the Macca.

I frequent a couple of Italian fora and they are all going bananas with this copying fixation of theirs. Anybody would think copying is something new - they seem to be forgetting that the first team to contract a photographer just to photograph the competition was Ferrari who had a fellow on their pay roll specifically to photograph LOTUS.

[Alianora La Canta]

Welcome to GPWizard, John F. Hope you enjoy contributing to our happy little forum.

[Steven Roy]

The next time your on an Italian forum jb ask them if the new Ferrari has a monocoque chassis(copied from the Lotus 25) or if the engine is a stressed member(Lotus 33) or if Ferrari copied using wings etc etc.  If no-one had ever copied anyone else Lotus would hav won the last 30 odd championships. 

What was the last innovation Ferrari came up with?

[cosworth151]

What was the last innovation Ferrari came up with?

Flex Floors and those funky wheel disks that look like they came from a cheap Majorette die cast toy.

[Steven Roy]

The flexi floor was a mass damper which Renault and McLaren and probably others had previously.

So the one thing in its vast glorious history that Ferrari did not copy from someone else is ..... funky wheel discs.  Although if memory serves the Porsche 956/962 had something very similar.

[cosworth151]

I've been watching the reactions to the McLaren rollout. It seems that Ron Dennis had a very small part in it. It was the first time they rolled a car out at Mercedes' facility rather than their own. The Evil Dwarf was on hand, too.

This has all fueled rumors that Mercedes is going to buy out the team, Ron is going to retire, Bernie has forgiven them, ect, ect, ect.

I would have loved to see Hamilton get in the car and show Bernie how Kazuki Nakajima makes a pit stop!

[cosworth151]

I've been watching the reactions to the McLaren rollout. It seems that Ron Dennis had a very small part in it. It was the first time they rolled a car out at Mercedes' facility rather than their own. The Evil Dwarf was on hand, too.

This has all fueled rumors that Mercedes is going to buy out the team, Ron is going to retire, Bernie has forgiven them, ect, ect, ect.

I would have loved to see Hamilton get in the car and show Bernie how Kazuki Nakajima makes a pit stop!