2023 - McLaren Formula 1 Team

[SmallSoldier]

My issue with the new car is that they are already downplaying it & talking down the chances of a good beginning of the year. To me that just smells of a poor season incoming, even if they theoretically have big plans for development. Most teams have big developments in mind

Sounds like you’re a glass half empty guy, from where I’m standing we’ve got some really good development In the pipeline for the start of the season, which is a big positive

And luckily this season, even if you start a bit on the back foot, we are looking at roughly 3 and half month from now until race 4… Therefore, any potential handicaps at the beginning of the season would have their impact on only 3 races.

Plenty of time to keep working on development and making sure those parts make it to the track… Now, if the start is better than expected, that would be nice!

[Darth-Piekus]

Let us hope we do not start on the back foot again as despite the upgrades its hard to catch up. On another note I saw Ferrari's car and it seems too fat. I dont think appearance translates to speed but so far Mclaren has one of the best looking cars and at first sight it shows me a very good car.

[MrGapes]

Any news on a McLaren shakedown?

I assume they’ll be running today, with only 9 days till testing, there’s no time waste

I would of thought they did it the next day, but assuming Mercedes are going to shakedown the car right after reveal at Silverstone today... a team could run a car in the morning, if its not at Silverstone in the next 2-3 days, most probably the day before testing at Bahrain.

[mzivtins]

https://the-race.com/formula-1/initial- ... 1-reunion/

McLaren being a full works team would be a dream realised for a lot of us McLaren fans. Even if it bring a year or two of issues, it is worth it. You can not hope to be a winning team running someone else's engine, it just is not feasible in this day of f1

[f1rules]

yeah strange, mclaren normally wants to be well prepared, they want avoid debacles like the brake issue, they would want input from the drivers, and silverstone is taken today and there is no time for barcelona i think, maybe silverstone tomorrow?

Any news on a McLaren shakedown?

I assume they’ll be running today, with only 9 days till testing, there’s no time waste

I would of thought they did it the next day, but assuming Mercedes are going to shakedown the car right after reveal at Silverstone today... a team could run a car in the morning, if its not at Silverstone in the next 2-3 days, most probably the day before testing at Bahrain.

[_cerber1]

If I understand correctly, they plan to run the car in Bahrain.

[the EDGE]

If I understand correctly, they plan to run the car in Bahrain.

I assume you mean for the first time? cos I'm pretty sure all teams will run in Bahrain

If true, that is REALLY worrying

Its already only 2 weeks to the first race, leaving it 1 week to the first race, before the car's even turned a wheel, is Unacceptable in my book

[f1rules]

its very un-mclarensk for sure

[Ground Effect]

If I understand correctly, they plan to run the car in Bahrain.

I assume you mean for the first time? cos I'm pretty sure all teams will run in Bahrain

If true, that is REALLY worrying

Its already only 2 weeks to the first race, leaving it 1 week to the first race, before the car's even turned a wheel, is Unacceptable in my book

Maybe a filming day in Bahrain before the preseason test? "REALLY worrying" is kind of an extreme.

[organic]

Shakedown in Bahrain seems a bit daft. Thought the idea of a shakedown at Silverstone was that you're close to the factory and issues can be quickly ironed out if things crop up

I guess McLaren did their shakedown at Silverstone, testing at barcelona last year and only had problems once they ran at bahrain..

[taperoo2k]

My issue with the new car is that they are already downplaying it & talking down the chances of a good beginning of the year. To me that just smells of a poor season incoming, even if they theoretically have big plans for development. Most teams have big developments in mind

Tbh it sounds like McLaren have learned from over hyping cars in the past and are being quite pragmatic about where they think they'll be early on. It sounds like they just ran out of time to fully develop the solutions they've come up with before the start of the season. It doesn't really matter where McLaren starts a season, it's where they finish that matters. Though I expect they might already be thinking about the 2024 car as the new wind tunnel should be up and running by the time they start development work on that.

That's exactly what I thought as well.

It sounds like they had an aha moment, realised they weren't going to get the solutions ready before the start of the season so decided on an upgrade package plan. Better to have a basic car that runs reasonably well and can score points, rather than trying to get incomplete upgrades to work.

As for shaking the car down in Bahrain? I don't see an issue with that, the test happens a week before the race. So if there is a problem they'll have representative data to work on a fix ahead of the first race. Shaking down a car in cooler temperatures won't show a problem with the brakes for example, as McLaren found last year. All the teams will be under pressure to get the cars working properly. The first race could be a fun one if a lot of teams have teething problems.

[diffuser]

Shakedown in Bahrain seems a bit daft. Thought the idea of a shakedown at Silverstone was that you're close to the factory and issues can be quickly ironed out if things crop up

I guess McLaren did their shakedown at Silverstone, testing at barcelona last year and only had problems once they ran at bahrain..

Right, the average temp in Barcelona this time of year is probably 15C, not conducive for testing cooling issues. Silverstone will likely be 5 degrees cooler than Barcelona. At any rate, it not like their switching from 18" rims to 22" this year. The brakes should be an incremental improvement on last year's where they have a ton of data collected.

[_cerber1]

If I understand correctly, they plan to run the car in Bahrain.

I assume you mean for the first time? cos I'm pretty sure all teams will run in Bahrain

If true, that is REALLY worrying

Its already only 2 weeks to the first race, leaving it 1 week to the first race, before the car's even turned a wheel, is Unacceptable in my book

Maybe they don't want to run the chassis on a cold track. The launch in Bahrain will be as close to real conditions as possible.

[the EDGE]

If I understand correctly, they plan to run the car in Bahrain.

I assume you mean for the first time? cos I'm pretty sure all teams will run in Bahrain

If true, that is REALLY worrying

Its already only 2 weeks to the first race, leaving it 1 week to the first race, before the car's even turned a wheel, is Unacceptable in my book

Maybe a filming day in Bahrain before the preseason test? "REALLY worrying" is kind of an extreme.

Well maybe the capitalisation was a bit extreme, but what if they do find a problem, and they then have seven days to fix it, and they’re 1000s of miles from home

Practically every team has already completed a shake down, and McLaren have always done so well in advance before, and thats with two ‘separated’ tests

That leads me to conclude that if they’re not going to run it in advance, there must be a reason, and probably not a good one

[AR3-GP]

If I understand correctly, they plan to run the car in Bahrain.

I assume you mean for the first time? cos I'm pretty sure all teams will run in Bahrain

If true, that is REALLY worrying

Its already only 2 weeks to the first race, leaving it 1 week to the first race, before the car's even turned a wheel, is Unacceptable in my book

Maybe they don't want to run the chassis on a cold track. The launch in Bahrain will be as close to real conditions as possible.

No shakedown before pre-season is unusual. It suggest the car is not ready, production delays and late design changes.

Is this fallout from the Seidl departure over the winter? Ferrari didn't have any problems.