Talk:McLaren MP4/5

Racing car template

I've had a stab at a template for racing cars (see template:Racing car) to summarise the usual data. I've used the F1 templates as a starting point and applied it to the Brabham BT46 article. If anyone's got an interest in this, please have a look at the template and modify or suggest changes as appropriate. After a few people have had a go at it and we have something we're happy with we could start to use it more widely. Note that it's not meant to be specific to F1, by the way. Cheers. 4u1e 09:37, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

Move to Ferrari

I removed the part where it says "Prost then announced he would move to Ferrari in 1990" after the Japanese Grand Prix, he actually announced it just prior to the Italian Grand Prix. Ian X490 11:17, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

Question about Transmission

Did MP4/5B use semi-automatic transmission in 1990 Australian GP? Berger missed a position to Mansell because of running slow in a zone of quick gear changes. Senna said his spin-off and colision were due to gear-box problems also. Answer, please. Thanks.

JMRRF - Porto, Portugal 2008

No. As I remember in 1991 Senna and Berger were still using the manual sequential shifter. I think that Mansell and Patrese in the FW14B were the only drivers fortunate enough to have the semi-auto transmission at that time. E_dog95' ^{Hi '} 20:13, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

Sorry, but the first semi-automatic transmission F1 car was the F640 (Ferrari), concept by John Barnard for the 1989 season. The introduce of that technology brought always many electronic problems. Williams and Mclaren made it simultaneously in 1991, but I suspect Mclaren (hading already won the Drivers and Constructors Championships) experimented semi-automatic transmission in the last 1990 GP. If you find it out, I'll be greatful.

JMRRF - Porto, Portugal 2008

No need to be sorry. I had forgotten about those Ferraris. When Senna won the world championship in 1991 he did so with a manual shifter. E_dog95' ^{Hi '} 23:26, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

The portuguese wikiversion has a rightsided board with some car features. You can confirm: MP4/5 http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/McLaren_MP4/5 was manual, MP4/6 http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/McLaren_MP4/6 was semi-automatic.

JMRRF - Porto, Portugal 2008

I don't know what the source is for that article. If it says that the MP4/6 of 1991 was equipped with a semi-auto transmission I think whoever wrote it is mistaken. I watched the entire 1991 season (Go Mansell!) and as I remember it the Williams and the Ferrari's were the only cars with the new transmissions. This independent (not Wikipedia) source confirms that the MP4/7 of 1992 was the first McLaren with the semi-auto. E_dog95' ^{Hi '} 00:54, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Here's http://www.statsf1.com/default.aspx?from=/constructeurs/modeles/modele.aspx%3FidModele=92%26LG=6 another page that confirms MP4/6 was already semi-automatic in 1991. The site is brazilian but the author didn't translate the content from his sources either (remains in french, in this case). Remember that in 1991 Brazilian GP (beginning of the year) Senna was almost retiring because of driving "with only two gears" (a very probable consequence from semi-auto gear-box). I know it's difficult to know the truth since www.mclaren.com doesn't specify it. Maybe someday we'll know if MP4/5B was already testing semi-auto transmission in 1990 Australian GP. Regards.

JMRRF - Porto, Portugal 2008