Why is McLaren testing with a 2008 rear wing?

[Scott]

Why would they try to simulate 2009 downforce using a completely different 2008 spec rear wing?  Anyone have any idea why?

From F1 Live:

Heikki Kovalainen and Lewis Hamilton shared driving duties this week in Spain for McLaren Mercedes, with Kovalainen heading up the test’s first two days and Hamilton concluding the work on Thursday and Friday.

While the opening day was briefly marred by a midday rain-shower, the remainder of the programme was carried out under clear blue skies and warm sunshine, allowing the team to put some serious mileage on the new car.

The majority of the four days was spent finessing the new car’s balance and set-up on slick tyres while also putting background miles on the KERS device - which proved largely trouble-free during all four days.

The team drew attention not just because of the encouraging lap times, but also because they opted to run the 2008-specification rear wing on the 2009 challenger once again. With the exception of Toro Rosso Ferrari, the other teams testing this week both at Jerez and Sakhir, ran 2009-spec rear wings.

"The team carried out the majority of its running using a hybrid-spec 2008 rear wing in order to more effectively simulate expected downforce loads and will bring a raft of new components to next month’s test, back in Jerez." the team stated.

Hamilton set the second fastest time behind Sebastien Bourdais today as the Frenchman wrapped up testing with the 2008 STR3 package. Hamilton's time of 1:19.632s was the fastest recorded this week for the Woking-based team.

[John S]

Sandbagging about the correct speed in the car perhaps, or could they be trying to put more load on some new untested components to keep the fail rate down when they get into the proper action of races?

We know that all the teams think that they will not have done enough testing ahead of the season.

[Steven Roy]

As I see it there are three options
1 sandbagging
2 they are in deep doo doo and can't make the new wing work
3 they came up with something really good and are either still working on it and don't want to go public until they get one more step on it.

[Scott]

1 seems pointless - there are other ways of sandbagging while at least getting real data (run it full of fuel with tons of ballast)
2 I hope not
3 That would be nice, but why not use the first generation rear wing and save the good one for the season and again, at least they get real data.

So I guess they are in deep doo doo.

[Steven Roy]

I would be surprised if they are in serious trouble.  I expect McLaren to have the astest car at the start of the season.

My guess would be either they have something revolutionary that they don't want anyone to see till as late as possible or the wing is a distraction.  When Lotus built their first ground effect car instead of trying to hide the fact that they had ground effect tunnels in the sidepods they put out a story that they had a revoltionary gearbox.  Every time the car arrived in the pits mechanics pounced on it and covered the gearbox.  The world was so busy trying to get a glimpse of the top secret box that no-one noticed the ground effect tunnels.

[Scott]

Looks like they've been reading GP Wiz and wanted to give an explanation:

McLaren has recently been using a 2008-spec rear wing on its new MP4-24 as a ‘reference point’, test driver Pedro de la Rosa insists.

At times during its Portimao debut, and then again last week at Jerez, the 2009 car conspicuously featured the lower and wider wing of the title-winning MP4-23.

Throughout the wing anomaly, the explanations have been varied. Initially, at the wet Portuguese test, the McLaren press office said the 2008 wing was used ‘as a precautionary measure to increase downforce’ in the conditions.

Last week at Jerez, when the European weather had improved, McLaren said the 2008 wing was used because the team is currently ‘without a high-downforce 2009-spec’ piece.

Latterly, it was explained that the Jerez wing is actually ‘a hybrid-spec’ wing ‘in order to more effectively simulate expected downforce loads’.

The team added that ‘a raft of new components’ will appear at the next winter test.

In the pages of Spain's Diario Sport, de la Rosa said of the recent reappearance of the 2008 wing: "We wanted a comparison point, a reference, to compare (this year's data) with the data of last year.

"In any case," he added, "we are always using proper aerodynamic loads, (it is) not to deceive or to waste time."

[cosworth151]

Maybe Vodefone just wanted a larger billboard for thier advert.

[AJM]

i'm secretly hoping they have a revolutionary new wing up their sleeves rather than being in deep doo-doo! 

Having said that, didnt the launch car have a 2009 wing on it?