McLaren MCL36

[101FlyingDutchman]

Reckon you can expect a lot of teams to have the mirror stay/support similar to the Merc. Adopting more flicks to guide the air over the side pod in a legal but unintended by the rules way

[f1rules]

yeah i read somewhere that there will be a meeting this week regarding mirrors and its support, inspired by mclaren111's finding i thought id look at some evening pics and seem mclaren added one more flow conditioner. I do expect the mirror support to be even more advanced very soon. And the entrance to the floor is the same for a long time. I do expect to se development there very soon, green circle



another here from
@hasanbratic
@SalaStampRacing

[MrGapes]

With regards to the Mirrors, if any team was to go for something as extreme as Mercedes, or even similar I'm sure they need to alter there sidepods, the Merc style wing is essentially a element of the sidepod, and there are limits as to the amount of sections in the sidepod volume, thus teams with undercuts wouldn't be able to have the same solution, the closest team that probably could replicate it is McLaren, even then that would require major alteration to the current sidepods.

[DragonSGC]

https://d3cm515ijfiu6w.cloudfront.net/w ... 00x367.jpg


Different Mirror Support...

Is it me or in this picture the sidepods have been made less wide around the shoulder, the bump caused by the upper SIPS was not nearly as pronounced as the lunch spec car.

[mclaren111]

https://d3cm515ijfiu6w.cloudfront.net/w ... 00x367.jpg


Different Mirror Support...

Is it me or in this picture the sidepods have been made less wide around the shoulder, the bump caused by the upper SIPS was not nearly as pronounced as the lunch spec car.

It looks like that to me as well, but it might just be angles & shadows...

[Henri]

McLaren have good pace if they can solve the break issues

[Airshifter]

I'm surprised people are so fussy about the little mirror stay on the Merc (the vertical one). It's not like that is performance defining. Mercedes will happily run without it if asked imo.

They wouldn’t have them if they didn’t add performance… My expectation is that it deemed legal, a lot of teams will approach them… The vortexes generated by them help clean up the flow to the back of the car, which is a key aspect for performance.

Being the new regs, someone has to push the limits of the regs to find out what will and won't be allowed. But I completely agree, nobody would do it if it had no benefit.

But overall McLaren look well planted. They just have to get those brake issues reeled in and find out where they really are. I'm hopeful they will perform well this year.

[organic]

Edit as mods took action

[SmallSoldier]

Top view of the separate winglet on the floor of the MCL36



Another angle:

[f1rules]

better view of the hotair outlet from Sam Collins f1 tv

[SmallSoldier]

Pull rod adjuster:

[SmallSoldier]

Variations tried in Bahrain:

[f1rules]

so mclaren released som high res render pics with the updated sponsorship, the new renders feature the always basic floor, but include the new mirror mount and flow conditioner, so that part is real, and further they have a small addition in the diffuser, so im sure they either had that at the end of the test or they will have for this weekend, they dont model someting like that for fun, open the high res vers to se it better
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FN_Kl4ZXwAc ... =4096x4096



https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FN_UkfaXEAQ ... =4096x4096

[Vanja #66]

Top view of the separate winglet on the floor of the MCL36

https://i.imgur.com/nCx74sB.jpg

Another angle:

https://i.imgur.com/dzDidVz.jpg

Looking at these McLaren and Ferrari latest floors the last few days, few things come to mind. Fairly obvious maybe, but looks like these flap slots utilize several effects to cure porpoising, while they may also add on to cause it in the first place. Flaps undoubtedly energize the floor sealing vortices, which are formed basically at the very front of the outboard floor edge. This sealing adds up to overall porpoising, without it the air might even bleed out from the tunnels on its own as they get closer to the ground. However, maybe at a critical ride height these flaps get so close to the ground they form a pressure zone lower than the one in tunnels and start drawing air out and away from them. The outboard vortex, which is already there, might even add to this local suction and prevent porpoising before it can get out of hand.

Of course, all this would have to be carefully adjusted with rear suspension etc, feels like the critical ride height point for this potential phenomena is fairly sensitive and getting this area too close to the ground might ruin the whole thing. Having those cable stays would also ensure the critical gap to the ground is kept as steady as it can be.

[SmallSoldier]

Top view of the separate winglet on the floor of the MCL36

https://i.imgur.com/nCx74sB.jpg

Another angle:

https://i.imgur.com/dzDidVz.jpg

Looking at these McLaren and Ferrari latest floors the last few days, few things come to mind. Fairly obvious maybe, but looks like these flap slots utilize several effects to cure porpoising, while they may also add on to cause it in the first place. Flaps undoubtedly energize the floor sealing vortices, which are formed basically at the very front of the outboard floor edge. This sealing adds up to overall porpoising, without it the air might even bleed out from the tunnels on its own as they get closer to the ground. However, maybe at a critical ride height these flaps get so close to the ground they form a pressure zone lower than the one in tunnels and start drawing air out and away from them. The outboard vortex, which is already there, might even add to this local suction and prevent porpoising before it can get out of hand.

Of course, all this would have to be carefully adjusted with rear suspension etc, feels like the critical ride height point for this potential phenomena is fairly sensitive and getting this area too close to the ground might ruin the whole thing. Having those cable stays would also ensure the critical gap to the ground is kept as steady as it can be.

I believe you may be right on this… They added additional vortex generators on the floor before the flap (picture below)… I still believe that Enrique Scalabroni was right when he mentioned that a critical part of avoiding porpoising resides on the ratio between the inlet of the Tunnels and the smallest volume of the Tunnel itself… If the opening is too big, you will “choke” the Tunnels… If the ratio is just right so that you aren’t choking them even at your theoretical lowest ride height, the effect is minimized… Mclaren seems to have one of smallest openings to the Tunnels (although I have no way to verify this, but is the impression from several pictures of the Tunnel inlets).

The additional vortex generators in the floor: