2023 - McLaren Formula 1 Team

[mwillems]

Just looked at the interview. I may have missed it but Lando only seemed to mention future weekends rather than Monza specifically. It also might be a case of them not running it to avoid breaching Parc Ferme with a lack of spares, as Lando said, due to Oscar's crash yesterday.

Highly doubt that is the Monza wing in its current form at least.

Please post a link, I didn't catch thus interview.

[MCLvamos]

Please post a link, I didn't catch thus interview.

Here's where I saw it, the relevant part's around 17:40 in

[FittingMechanics]

Please post a link, I didn't catch thus interview.

Here's where I saw it, the relevant part's around 17:40 in

Yeah he says either future weekend or weekends, hard to tell.

I still think they will use it for Monza, Singapore is 20 days away. Maybe wing flaps can be replaced for smaller ones? They are obviously not one piece.

[f1rules]

Agree, sounds ridicules to use this wing there, and im pretty sure will not happen
They mentioned after spa they would look at their low df confiq as more gps were coming up for low df, if they run this tweaked one they will look worse then they did at spa
Edit:
Just heard Norris in the video, he said future weekends.

Interesting, the team will have reasons for that. Great quali lads, excited for tomorrow!

The old rear wing creates both, more downforce and more drag… Given the conditions (wet) and expecting the race to be also wet, it makes sense to go with the higher DF configuration possible

No need to speculate. Norris explained it during the post qualy press conference. Reason they are running the previous wing is because they lost one of the new ones when Piastri crashed and they want to keep the other one for Monza. So I guess they decided that it is more important to have one for Monza than to gain more efficiency here. From how he said it, I think they would have run new rear wing here if they had enough of them. Probably similar to how only Norris got new updates in Austria - the team is pushing new developments quickly but hasn't been able to manufacture enough in time.

Btw another thing that he said is that he feels he lost 2-3 tenths due to double shift in S2.

Apologises if I’ve got hold of the wrong end of the stick but surely no one is expecting Mclaren to use the new rear wing they have at Zandvoort in Monza?

Well Norris said that was exactly the reason they did not use the new one here - they want to keep it for next weekend.

Thought that was quite interesting tidbit.

I am……. suprised. It’s a barn door!
Regardless the wing being more efficient or not the sheer amount of drag will kill them on the straight worse than it did at Spa!
Monza is all about the tea tray rear wings.
Unless they can heavily modify the wing to have less DF but I thought those days were over as they are now fully bonded pieces

[MrGapes]

Race thoughts:

I overall expect the race pace to be worse than qualifying pace relative to rest, as we already saw last year. The corner characteristics here can be quite different between low and high fuel, of these long medium speed corners you may take it at 120-130kph in qualifying. But that turns to 105-110kph at higher fuels, thus these corners are quite transitional between low and medium, so we may struggle on the first stints. So far, we have seen an offset performance between the MCL60 and other cars, where we lose into the lower speed we compensate for in the higher speed, this weekend the high-speed performance hasn’t been as great as previous weekends relatively speaking. The track surface in the high-speed section of 6-7-8 has a very rough track surface, we run the car quite low and stiff, thus can’t ride through these corners as well as Red Bull can. (Remember running lower and stiffer does help us in the med-low though)

Positives - obviously we have seen the pace translate better from qualifying to race pace, it’s also its very difficult to overtake here, and the Merc has more drag this weekend.

[LionsHeart]

Guys, don't be fooled. We will see the updated rear wing in Singapore, Suzuka and possibly Mexico. For Monza, a rear wing with minimal downforce is being prepared.

[LionsHeart]

Race thoughts:

I overall expect the race pace to be worse than qualifying pace relative to rest, as we already saw last year. The corner characteristics here can be quite different between low and high fuel, of these long medium speed corners you may take it at 120-130kph in qualifying. But that turns to 105-110kph at higher fuels, thus these corners are quite transitional between low and medium, so we may struggle on the first stints. So far, we have seen an offset performance between the MCL60 and other cars, where we lose into the lower speed we compensate for in the higher speed, this weekend the high-speed performance hasn’t been as great as previous weekends relatively speaking. The track surface in the high-speed section of 6-7-8 has a very rough track surface, we run the car quite low and stiff, thus can’t ride through these corners as well as Red Bull can. (Remember running lower and stiffer does help us in the med-low though)

Positives - obviously we have seen the pace translate better from qualifying to race pace, it’s also its very difficult to overtake here, and the Merc has more drag this weekend.

But if the race is rainy, then your entire forecast for the first stint will completely fly by.

[MrGapes]

Race thoughts:

I overall expect the race pace to be worse than qualifying pace relative to rest, as we already saw last year. The corner characteristics here can be quite different between low and high fuel, of these long medium speed corners you may take it at 120-130kph in qualifying. But that turns to 105-110kph at higher fuels, thus these corners are quite transitional between low and medium, so we may struggle on the first stints. So far, we have seen an offset performance between the MCL60 and other cars, where we lose into the lower speed we compensate for in the higher speed, this weekend the high-speed performance hasn’t been as great as previous weekends relatively speaking. The track surface in the high-speed section of 6-7-8 has a very rough track surface, we run the car quite low and stiff, thus can’t ride through these corners as well as Red Bull can. (Remember running lower and stiffer does help us in the med-low though)

Positives - obviously we have seen the pace translate better from qualifying to race pace, it’s also its very difficult to overtake here, and the Merc has more drag this weekend.

But if the race is rainy, then your entire forecast for the first stint will completely fly by.

If its rainy (which the forecast suggest it could be) throw everything out the window, fp3 and quali. suggest someone will bin it every lap.

Yes a lot of my factors won't matter as much on a damper track, two talented drivers in wet conditions + Lando ran inters for 22 laps in fp3 and was able to keep improving on them till the very last lap... so the car is able to keep the inters is a good window.

[CjC]

Please post a link, I didn't catch thus interview.

Here's where I saw it, the relevant part's around 17:40 in

Thanks.
Pleased to hear they are happy with the new wing and that there is extra laptime available to them.

We’ll have to see if they take a tea tray to Monza or not.

[CjC]

How close could Norris have gotten to Verstappen?
https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/gps-a ... /10512146/

[mwillems]

Please post a link, I didn't catch thus interview.

Here's where I saw it, the relevant part's around 17:40 in

Yeah he says either future weekend or weekends, hard to tell.

I still think they will use it for Monza, Singapore is 20 days away. Maybe wing flaps can be replaced for smaller ones? They are obviously not one piece.

Stella did say in a previous interview that this low hanging fruit "parallel development" was specifically to improve the straight line, so my belief is this will be at Monza, but we will see.

[mwillems]

How close could Norris have gotten to Verstappen?
https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/gps-a ... /10512146/

Norris and fans are always saying "I could have been faster". Way more than he ever says he was fast. He needs those fast laps consistently as I've said before, before he can put himself up there with the best. Verstappen, Hamilton and Alonso have the talent to put in perfect lap after perfect lap.

Lando is fantastic and can be very fast, but IMO the next level for him is to be consistently putting in the best laps, especially when it counts in Qualy. He might have found more time, and he didn't, and it was down to nothing but his own talents, great as they are, they aren't consistently high enough to be considered elite.

Before anyone's back gets riled up, remember how long it took Max to find consistency, longer than many (But started younger), and like Lando that was his big step to reach his potential.

[mwillems]

Race thoughts:

I overall expect the race pace to be worse than qualifying pace relative to rest, as we already saw last year. The corner characteristics here can be quite different between low and high fuel, of these long medium speed corners you may take it at 120-130kph in qualifying. But that turns to 105-110kph at higher fuels, thus these corners are quite transitional between low and medium, so we may struggle on the first stints. So far, we have seen an offset performance between the MCL60 and other cars, where we lose into the lower speed we compensate for in the higher speed, this weekend the high-speed performance hasn’t been as great as previous weekends relatively speaking. The track surface in the high-speed section of 6-7-8 has a very rough track surface, we run the car quite low and stiff, thus can’t ride through these corners as well as Red Bull can. (Remember running lower and stiffer does help us in the med-low though)

Positives - obviously we have seen the pace translate better from qualifying to race pace, it’s also its very difficult to overtake here, and the Merc has more drag this weekend.

But if the race is rainy, then your entire forecast for the first stint will completely fly by.

Or even a little damp, anything that cools the tyres a little and works to our strength.

Forecast suggests a good chance of rain during the race. Some suggest heavy, some suggest 50/50, but it looks like there may well be something. A curious afternoon ahead, but I'm hoping we can secure top 5 at worst.

[CjC]

Here's where I saw it, the relevant part's around 17:40 in

Yeah he says either future weekend or weekends, hard to tell.

I still think they will use it for Monza, Singapore is 20 days away. Maybe wing flaps can be replaced for smaller ones? They are obviously not one piece.

Stella did say in a previous interview that this low hanging fruit "parallel development" was specifically to improve the straight line, so my belief is this will be at Monza, but we will see.

Could the low hanging fruit be the new rear wing we saw this weekend? And they saw its potential as they were developing a low DF wing for Monza

[Marc.W]

Potentially it was beneficial to test the new end plates to see what kind of performance they offered for drag and effeciency this weekend but obviously can't test a full Monza spec wing?