2023 - McLaren Formula 1 Team

[haza]

Time to refresh some memories

back at the start of the season I made some questionably bold predictions for McLaren most of which thought I was dreaming and one of you even vowed to build a statue if I was right

Here’s the post for you all to see

viewtopic.php?t=30895&start=2025

I’m really confident we can finish this season strong and with Zak saying more major upgrades are to come it only looks good going into next year to challenge again

[LionsHeart]

Time to refresh some memories

back at the start of the season I made some questionably bold predictions for McLaren most of which thought I was dreaming and one of you even vowed to build a statue if I was right

Here’s the post for you all to see

viewtopic.php?t=30895&start=2025

I’m really confident we can finish this season strong and with Zak saying more major upgrades are to come it only looks good going into next year to challenge again

Not bad, mister Nostradamus!

[mclaren111]

Stella stating that whilst the rear wing can be improved it is the car as a package that is not efficient enough. But the rear wing is on the to do list.

The wing may be addressed this year.

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/230476/m ... -list.html

I think in regards to the good job RB have done, a lot to do with the amount of outwash they have achieved. In the video posted previously you see McLaren’s still hits the rear tyres, so double drag in affect, albeit it clears the dirty air from the important parts, whereas RBs outwash guides the air out around the rear tyres, leaving a lower pressure zone in front

As can be seen here...

[mclaren111]

Time to refresh some memories

back at the start of the season I made some questionably bold predictions for McLaren most of which thought I was dreaming and one of you even vowed to build a statue if I was right

Here’s the post for you all to see

viewtopic.php?t=30895&start=2025

I’m really confident we can finish this season strong and with Zak saying more major upgrades are to come it only looks good going into next year to challenge again.

Good One...

Disagree with:

8: drivers championship to go down to the last race with 5 drivers in contention

[mclaren111]

F1.com:




Amazing Ups & Downs from all the teams except RBR... Belgium excluded though...

[MrGapes]

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/toyo ... /10506135/

[MTudor]

Time to refresh some memories

back at the start of the season I made some questionably bold predictions for McLaren most of which thought I was dreaming and one of you even vowed to build a statue if I was right

Here’s the post for you all to see

viewtopic.php?t=30895&start=2025

I’m really confident we can finish this season strong and with Zak saying more major upgrades are to come it only looks good going into next year to challenge again

Chapeau

[MTudor]

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/toyo ... /10506135/

Maybe Toyota wants to enter F1as an engine suplier with Mclaren?

[mwillems]

Time to refresh some memories

back at the start of the season I made some questionably bold predictions for McLaren most of which thought I was dreaming and one of you even vowed to build a statue if I was right

Here’s the post for you all to see

viewtopic.php?t=30895&start=2025

I’m really confident we can finish this season strong and with Zak saying more major upgrades are to come it only looks good going into next year to challenge again

It was a good post, and I'm very happy for you that you had the restraint to omitted a list of those that outright mocked you, I had to check to see if I had replied but I did not...


I notice that you suggest the fastest cars will be in the order of Merc, Mclaren, Red Bull... by years end. I do personally think it is highly unlikely we will surpass RB by the years end. Despite our huge leap, the gap after the RB update is still the same as the seasons start at Spa. It will be better at other tracks, but the gap is still huge. I may be wrong, but the second fastest car at the end of the season I doubt will happen, as we will not be addressing the overall package again this year. This needs to happen to deal with the aero efficiency.

Regarding the constructors, I'd go so far as to say it highly unlikely we will pass Ferrari but a strong chance we will pass AM, assuming we can match or exceed any updates they bring. But I don't think it is important anyway. But we'd need to be far and away faster than Ferrari to make ground and over the past 4 races I think we made up something like 13 points? But you're not far off here and the trends seem on point ... so far!

It was an accurate prediction of the upturn in form of the Mclaren team! Have you been spending time with Mika...?

[haza]

Time to refresh some memories

back at the start of the season I made some questionably bold predictions for McLaren most of which thought I was dreaming and one of you even vowed to build a statue if I was right

Here’s the post for you all to see

viewtopic.php?t=30895&start=2025

I’m really confident we can finish this season strong and with Zak saying more major upgrades are to come it only looks good going into next year to challenge again

It was a good post, and I'm very happy for you that you had the restraint to omitted a list of those that outright mocked you, I had to check to see if I had replied but I did not...


I notice that you suggest the fastest cars will be in the order of Merc, Mclaren, Red Bull... by years end. I do personally think it is highly unlikely we will surpass RB by the years end. Despite our huge leap, the gap after the RB update is still the same as the seasons start at Spa. It will be better at other tracks, but the gap is still huge. I may be wrong, but the second fastest car at the end of the season I doubt will happen, as we will not be addressing the overall package again this year. This needs to happen to deal with the aero efficiency.

Regarding the constructors, I'd go so far as to say it highly unlikely we will pass Ferrari but a strong chance we will pass AM, assuming we can match or exceed any updates they bring. But I don't think it is important anyway. But we'd need to be far and away faster than Ferrari to make ground and over the past 4 races I think we made up something like 13 points? But you're not far off here and the trends seem on point ... so far!

It was an accurate prediction of the upturn in form of the Mclaren team! Have you been spending time with Mika...?

Yeah at the time I thought red bull would fall back mid season due to cost cap penalty and have a messy second half of the season, I expected Mercedes to fix there issues however I’d go as far to say that McLaren now have a tied second fastest car with Mercedes spa was on outlier but that was more down to poor choice in setup than outright performance an even still the car was still dynamite on the softs

[the EDGE]

Confirmation we can expect another big upgrade soon after the break

We are working on an evolution of these concepts for post shutdown,” he said. “There is another kind of round [of changes to] the bodywork and floor.

We still have to sign this off, and we have a few more days of work, but if we are successful, then we will definitely attempt to bring it in one of the events soon after the shutdown.

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/mcla ... /10502886/

Also.. another article today…

When asked about the plan behind rotating race engineers, which is not that common across the grid, team principal Andrea Stella says the team wants to build enough cover for an exhausting 24-race calendar next year, while also raising the general experience level of Woking's core group of engineers.

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/mcla ... /10505947/

[mwillems]

Confirmation we can expect another big upgrade soon after the break

We are working on an evolution of these concepts for post shutdown,” he said. “There is another kind of round [of changes to] the bodywork and floor.

We still have to sign this off, and we have a few more days of work, but if we are successful, then we will definitely attempt to bring it in one of the events soon after the shutdown.

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/mcla ... /10502886/

Also.. another article today…

When asked about the plan behind rotating race engineers, which is not that common across the grid, team principal Andrea Stella says the team wants to build enough cover for an exhausting 24-race calendar next year, while also raising the general experience level of Woking's core group of engineers.

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/mcla ... /10505947/

Interestingly the article states that they will put the first version of the 24 car into the tunnel either just before or just after the break and that when this happens development of the 23 car will cease.

I would imagine then that they have one more round of updates that the design teams have been working on and that will start to move to manufacture for use later in the season.

And what happened to the last 25% of upgrades that was supposed to arrive at Hungary and never arrived?

[LionsHeart]

Confirmation we can expect another big upgrade soon after the break

We are working on an evolution of these concepts for post shutdown,” he said. “There is another kind of round [of changes to] the bodywork and floor.

We still have to sign this off, and we have a few more days of work, but if we are successful, then we will definitely attempt to bring it in one of the events soon after the shutdown.

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/mcla ... /10502886/

Also.. another article today…

When asked about the plan behind rotating race engineers, which is not that common across the grid, team principal Andrea Stella says the team wants to build enough cover for an exhausting 24-race calendar next year, while also raising the general experience level of Woking's core group of engineers.

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/mcla ... /10505947/

Interestingly the article states that they will put the first version of the 24 car into the tunnel either just before or just after the break and that when this happens development of the 23 car will cease.

I would imagine then that they have one more round of updates that the design teams have been working on and that will start to move to manufacture for use later in the season.

And what happened to the last 25% of upgrades that was supposed to arrive at Hungary and never arrived?

I have already spoken about this before. According to my estimates, the remaining 25% of the updates will arrive in Zandvoort and it concerns the suspension. Next comes the upgrade to low downforce for high top speed circuits. Around Suzuka, the latest package will be available, which will include an updated body and floor.

The team is obliged to bring these updates to the track in order to test them in practice, learn a lot of new things and understand how to set up and optimize everything.

[the EDGE]

I have already spoken about this before. According to my estimates, the remaining 25% of the updates will arrive in Zandvoort and it concerns the suspension. Next comes the upgrade to low downforce for high top speed circuits. Around Suzuka, the latest package will be available, which will include an updated body and floor.

The team is obliged to bring these updates to the track in order to test them in practice, learn a lot of new things and understand how to set up and optimize everything.

I can’t see any visual changes to the suspension being introduced this year. I’m sure updates under the skin would have been introduced several time this year already, and maybe will again, but if they do move to anti-dive it won’t be until ‘24, when they’ve properly integrated it into the chassis. Trying to retrofit would be prohibitively costly in terms of development time, cost & risk. It may bring a gain, but right now there are better routes to follow that will bring bigger rewards quicker & easier

Low downforce wings which are track specific are not really counted as upgrades in the same sense as more permanent changes, so yes I do suspect to see the RW change at Monza/Vegas, but I don’t believe that is part of what’s coming

We’ve had the Revolution, introduced around Silverstone, at some point in its conception, when acceptable gains were realised, the package would have been signed-off and put into production. At that point development of that concept would have continued, so now we have the Evolution. Not vastly different, but more refined. This is the package we can expect to see soon

[LionsHeart]

I have already spoken about this before. According to my estimates, the remaining 25% of the updates will arrive in Zandvoort and it concerns the suspension. Next comes the upgrade to low downforce for high top speed circuits. Around Suzuka, the latest package will be available, which will include an updated body and floor.

The team is obliged to bring these updates to the track in order to test them in practice, learn a lot of new things and understand how to set up and optimize everything.

I can’t see any visual changes to the suspension being introduced this year. I’m sure updates under the skin would have been introduced several time this year already, and maybe will again, but if they do move to anti-dive it won’t be until ‘24, when they’ve properly integrated it into the chassis. Trying to retrofit would be prohibitively costly in terms of development time, cost & risk. It may bring a gain, but right now there are better routes to follow that will bring bigger rewards quicker & easier

Low downforce wings which are track specific are not really counted as upgrades in the same sense as more permanent changes, so yes I do suspect to see the RW change at Monza/Vegas, but I don’t believe that is part of what’s coming

We’ve had the Revolution, introduced around Silverstone, at some point in its conception, when acceptable gains were realised, the package would have been signed-off and put into production. At that point development of that concept would have continued, so now we have the Evolution. Not vastly different, but more refined. This is the package we can expect to see soon

I disagree on the first two points. As for the suspension, Stella talked about mechanical upgrades. I personally don't know if this is a suspension or just a change in the DRS system. But if there is an operating time, they did not bring it to Hungary, it only says that they will bring it a little later to the track, where there is an opportunity to carefully study it on the track.

The Spa didn't fit because it's a sprint weekend plus a rainy weekend forecast. It is convenient in Zandvoort, because there are an abundance of slow turns on the track, moreover, these turns are long and longer than in Hungary. So there is logic.

As for the low downforce package: I understand that this is a specific package that is used several times a year, but it's still a package, and not just a small adjustment. Here are the front wing and the rear wing and the unloaded beam wing. For this package to be effective, it must be properly worked out in the wind tunnel. The team has had a low downforce package since last year, but the team didn't use it at Spa because Stella said it wasn't effective. That is why I cannot agree with you on this matter.

With regards to evolution-revolution: there is nothing to discuss. The team found out last winter that previous developments were not effective, so they went to look for another direction, found it right and focused on a new high-quality direction that would bear fruit in the future. And if in Baku the developments were significant at the bottom in terms of the concept, this did not give a big win, but subsequent updates in Austria and the UK gave a significant breakthrough.

I would call such a breakthrough a hyperjump in space. The most important thing for the team is that they were able to extract the performance, figured out the technical directive when the bottom edge had to be raised by 15mm. Side pontoons play an important role, I'm still sure that the waterslides that the team now uses will be further implemented into a complete system as the Coanda effect. But this requires reworking the geometry of the water slides in the middle and rear parts, as well as using gills in front of the slides to remove hot air.

The specifics are the same as before. Accelerate the flows above the diffuser in order to also accelerate the air flow under the diffuser, then the bottom will work more efficiently. If this works stably and efficiently, then you can bring a rear wing with a lower load to the track, or use a smaller beam wing with a smaller angle of attack, and this is a gain in speed on the straights.

To sum up, if the team has developments and they are approved earlier, they will bring them to the track after the summer break. There can be no buts here, because they also calculated in order to meet the spending limit. The car will not change much next year, because the technical regulations remain stable, which means that the novelties tested this year will have a positive effect and will be in demand in 2024.