2023 - McLaren Formula 1 Team

[Macklaren]

The fact is that we will never know. Given the cool conditions and high grip and low fuel, the McL could have been just fine on Softs and may have even challenged VER for the win! Or the tires could have dropped off rapidly and both cars would have finished off the podium. Based on all the data that McL had and what we saw with the other cars, the Hard tire seemed like marginally the better call, which is what the engineers thought at the time as well.

[LionsHeart]

The drop in tempo on the hard tires for McLaren roughly coincides with the drop in temp on the soft tires for Max. At the same time, Max did not come off far from Lando, but it would seem that he has a fast car with low tire consumption. And Lando, in turn, not being afraid for the resource of hard tires, laid out for all the money, knowing that he would have enough tires to finish.

[LionsHeart]

What is there to guess? Take a look at the leftmost graph: tire consumption and pace per medium. Everyone is racing in the same conditions. We see the decline in the pace of McLaren relative to Mercedes and Red Bull. In the second section, the consumption of soft tires by Max is comparable to the consumption of hard tires by Lando, the pace is comparable, the tire consumption is comparable. Max, having a faster car, could not go far. This speaks volumes. Put soft tires on McLaren we would have missed the podium, I'm sure of it.

[mwillems]

We are weak at the exist of slow corners, mainly due to lack of front mechanical grip and traction at the rear, and we are weak in the slow but twisty corners where you need to change direction multiple times, again due to the same reasons mentioned above. Weak front end leads to understeer, thus the difficulty, so hopefully this has been mitigated with the new upgrades (installed & to be installed in Hungary)

Are we weak on exit and in twisty corners in this configuration or this that a reference to the trait we have had prior to the update?

I confess I didn't look at corner exit at Silverstone but we were certainly not great in twisty sections and we weren't always great at corner exit.... but I always thought the team were suggesting this was down to two things, the conditions (Temps, Track Surface) and the cars ability to run off throttle and not all twisty sections are equal. Lando has confirmed that the off throttle issue is much better now anyway due to the cars new Aero.

All I'm saying is, we don't fully know what is weak on this car yet and the strengths and weaknesses are changeable based on circumstances, so Hungry represents its own challenge.

To my amateur eyes the telemetry below doesn't suggest we struggle in the twist sections, in fact in the final two twisty corners before the straight we are on a par or faster than Mercedes. It doesn't men we are perfect and there isn't work to do, but I'd just not call it weak, we don't have enough evidence yet. Not only that, this new car specification has only been tested in cool conditions and with decent track surfaces. So for me it feels quite unkown.

https://i.ibb.co/HKgpR51/Norris-v-Ham.png

Let’s not forget that qualifying usually masks the weaknesses… Brand new grippy tires are usually very good at handling slow corners

The telemetry I posted was from the race so not even that I don't think, but if ultimately you're saying wait to see how the car performs on a hot dusty track then we're in agreement

[mwillems]

You have to understand the problem that we have with slow turns is not aero.Is mechanical and it is really old .Something like 5 - 7 years old. We carry over it from the previous regulations and mostly has to do with suspension and chassis .The main reason for pull rod suspension choice that we done with this regulations and design choices was to cure it. Because pull rod is really difficult because it create a lot of dirty air and needs a lot of fine tunning. But if you get it right you have better weight distribution and you can have a balance between heating up the tires and maintaining them at the same time. That's why you hear Verstappen especially in FP and between each q1 to q2 and especially q3 complaining. Because they to try to find the balance just right. If you hit this sweet spot your golden

It's partly aero as a stalling diffuser even at low speed makes marked difference, it's not all mechanical. And aside from that the team themselves say they have improved low speed corners, just not as much as other areas of the track. Bear in mid also we did update the rear suspension, something we know much less about because it isn't described in the show and tell.

So I say the same, lets wait and see.

Didn’t upgrade the rear suspension… There were changes to the rear suspension fairings (the carbon fiber covers) for aerodynamic purposes

I think they did the fairings at Silverstone, but at Austria the rear suspension had changed to a RB configuration, but since it is not part of the aero or bodywork it also isn't part of the show and tell and the mandated FIA documents. In here it got only a brief mention, but was mentioned. It largely went under the radar. Though I suspect it is a part of the reason for our performance as it works to create a large gap for airflow tot he diffuser and beam wing in the specific area that the waterslide pushes its airflow. Essentially the configuration was changed to ensure nothing interferes with the airflow to the rear, but I do not know if this means there are changes to the handling of the rear of the car. Perfect opportunity if they want to make changes in that regard.

https://www.planetf1.com/news/mclaren-u ... rand-prix/

Edit: I just noticed it was being discussed today in the car thread. It looks different to me, and there's a few articles about it on the web, but we'll get a better picture at Hungary.

[mwillems]

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/222633/m ... ivers.html

[Mostlyeels]

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/222633/m ... ivers.html

Targeting more race pace. Excellent.

[LionsHeart]

Very good news! Future updates will address some of the weaknesses.

[djos]

You have to understand the problem that we have with slow turns is not aero.Is mechanical and it is really old .Something like 5 - 7 years old. We carry over it from the previous regulations and mostly has to do with suspension and chassis .The main reason for pull rod suspension choice that we done with this regulations and design choices was to cure it. Because pull rod is really difficult because it create a lot of dirty air and needs a lot of fine tunning. But if you get it right you have better weight distribution and you can have a balance between heating up the tires and maintaining them at the same time. That's why you hear Verstappen especially in FP and between each q1 to q2 and especially q3 complaining. Because they to try to find the balance just right. If you hit this sweet spot your golden

I'm not sure if that's correct, reading Daniel's comments at the end of last year suggested to me that it was an Aero instability / inconsistency issue through corners, rather than mechanical grip.

[haza]

At first when I seen the pictures the chrome livery wasn’t my cup of tea but once seeing it on track under the sun it looked amazing soooo much better than that horrible blue they have Norris has stated many times that he wants chrome on his car and if anything it shows there heritage more than the orange and blue McLarens never really had blue on there cars other than the indycar in the 70s and 60s with F1 and even then it was just a thin stripe along the nose they should keep the livery for the rest of season or further

[mclaren111]

Things are well on the up. This new updated car was expected to put us in amongst the merc/aston/ferrari battle but the numbers are better that originally expected and with a little more of the package to come.
I'm going out on a bit of a limb here as I do not have a full or in depth understanding of how much exactly the car is over performing by but I would say as of now that in terms of overall package we are going to be the car closest to catching the redbull. This is merely speculation at this point (until proven true) but as I said the car has performed much better than expected and that original expectation was in and around merc/aston/ferrari.

I actually believe the nature of the track will suit the car, sector 2 and 3 we will be a match for redbull. I think I would fancy both cars in the top 8 with lando on the front row.
I'm glad that this special team has finally landed on the right path, at last.

You, Me & a Million other Fans...

[CjC]

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/222633/m ... ivers.html

What types of upgrade can target race pace

[MrGapes]

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/222633/m ... ivers.html

What types of upgrade can target race pace

Obviously more downforce = better race pace. But to single out 'race pace' suggest some sort of mechanical alteration that may improve the aero platform at higher fuels, or better manage the energy through the tyre over a stint.

[mwillems]

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/222633/m ... ivers.html

What types of upgrade can target race pace

Obviously more downforce = better race pace. But to single out 'race pace' suggest some sort of mechanical alteration that may improve the aero platform at higher fuels, or better manage the energy through the tyre over a stint.

I think that what he meant to say was "out of any upgrade that is left that can be brought, what will upgrade the race pace?"

[MrGapes]

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/mclar ... /10494948/

McLaren says its Formula 1 car revamp is already unlocking more development potential in its wind tunnel, as further improvements are being readied for introduction.

As part of its original plan, McLaren is introducing an update to the MCL60 at the Hungarian Grand Prix, and the squad says that further changes will almost certainly follow at future races too.

Speaking about the plans, Stella said: “For Hungary, we have some further updates that will help more from the point of view of trying to improve the race pace. These will be available to both drivers.

“But, like any other team, we will carry on delivering some upgrades to the following races. And this is also thanks to the fact that, once we started redesigning the car, we kind of unlocked performance. And, through iterations, we keep seeing the aerodynamic development being quite effective.

“As soon as you see that a project is mature enough to deliver, you press the go button and you go, so there will be some more stuff coming even after Hungary.”