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The first upgrade was Baku and that was a "sighter" upgrade to understand the floor. Baku was delivered one month after Key left and likely would have been under his eye through most of the development. The meaty stuff came as key was leaving and we don't know whether he was sent home whilst a package was discussed, or how that happened, or how much was known about the direction and the detail at that point.
I think you are correct. My slightly muddy recollection (it's been a long year!) is that they discovered they'd missed the floor trick in November. September apparently, and Key knew and was involved.
Having tried the new spec in the wind tunnel, McLaren decided that it would be difficult to recover performance with the 2023 car with the package it was running.
Thus, in September, the team decided to take a different route, one that offered much more potential.
The call was made too late to ready the full new package for Bahrain, which is why the team is instead aiming to make a big leap when it is introduced in Baku.
"Where this happened actually is when we took the 15mm floor step," said Key.
Key will have a good idea of what is it the made McLaren jump in performance so much this season… Even when he wasn’t there for the later upgrades, the new concept was most definitely part of the discussion and probably already in development before he left.
I get the feeling he had been frozen out pretty early in the development cycle. He was conspicuously absent for the launch of the MCL60. Stella also pointed out that the last bit signed off by the "previous" structure was the Baku floor upgrade. Stella also stated that the subsequent upgrades were being led by Peter Prodromou. I don't see Key being part of discussions led by Prod....
The new floor was part of the concept, the parts aren’t made individually… The changes to the floor, the changes to the sidepods were all conceptually signed off probably even before testing started, the lag in time between testing and their introduction matches what one would expect for concept optimization (CFD), manufacturing of parts for testing, Wind Tunnel testing and manufacturing of the parts to be brought to the track (Austria)… If Key was in anyway involved in conversations regarding the new floor, then he knows what the new concept was trying to achieve and how.
Whether he was part of those discussions or not, I have no idea… But it would be very surprising that he was not included… Key was remaining at McLaren until Sanchez became available and a deal was struck, therefore I don’t think he was out of the loop.
Furthermore, the new concept apparently was one that was already identified by the team previously and simply a direction they decided not to go towards… He will bring that knowledge to Alfa Romeo, how much can they do with that information? They should get a good jump in performance out of it, with the new regs the key (pun intended) was to understand which concept works and why… Then it is a matter of the team iterating and finding additional performance
Those designs and discussions would have been largely for the Baku upgrade which was the foundation for what came later, but not the detail of what came later. It is less likely that key had a good amount of knowledge of what came after Baku (but not impossible) because Baku was said to be proving he idea of where they want to go with the floor, data which he would not have seen nor would he have seen the lessons learnt from it either. Though I am sure he would have some knowledge.
In any case, I'm not sure Alfa will be a threat for a little while since the cost caps prevent teams throwing money at people and facilities.
Last edited by mwillems on 13 Nov 2023, 21:22, edited 3 times in total.
not to get into this again, but i think Keys main problem was his inability to lead. He was micromanaging and suffocating departments, making it into a one man show, his, and he failed in most areas, now the departments are "set free" with responsabilities and we see the result, offcourse he will know some of what they did, but the last big update i dont think he had any influence on, and with next years car he will be completely in the dark, Sauber, Audi and Seidl has an insane big task on their hands
Agreed, it certainly seems that we had the staff by and large, but he couldn't pull it together. That said, we did have a talent drive over the winter and I'm sure there was a strategic target for certain knowledge that would have been a big part of what we could achieve after that point.
For next year articles say that Red Bull will being something revolutionary to help Verstappen get his 4th title. I hope Mclaren matches and outdevelops them at winter.
For next year articles say that Red Bull will being something revolutionary to help Verstappen get his 4th title. I hope Mclaren matches and outdevelops them at winter.
No they don’t, they says the exact opposite. Try reading the article, not the click-bait headline
For next year articles say that Red Bull will being something revolutionary to help Verstappen get his 4th title. I hope Mclaren matches and outdevelops them at winter.
No they don’t, they says the exact opposite. Try reading the article, not the click-bait headline
Just a few weeks ago the forum was deluged in speculation about the high likelihood of Lando requiring a new PU. The reasoning seemed sound - first unit destroyed in round 1 at Bahrain. Yet here we are, 2 to go and we're on a track with 80% full throttle (simulations) and a 1.9 kilometre straight. Is the power of recycling of the Mercedes ICE across FP/Qualifying/Race being underestimated? It would seem that the Vegas circuit will present a heavy burden on engine reliability, albeit, without some of the heat issues of the last few races.
Just a few weeks ago the forum was deluged in speculation about the high likelihood of Lando requiring a new PU. The reasoning seemed sound - first unit destroyed in round 1 at Bahrain. Yet here we are, 2 to go and we're on a track with 80% full throttle (simulations) and a 1.9 kilometre straight. Is the power of recycling of the Mercedes ICE across FP/Qualifying/Race being underestimated? It would seem that the Vegas circuit will present a heavy burden on engine reliability, albeit, without some of the heat issues of the last few races.
In one of the last races - team stream answered a question about why Lando did not replace his engine. Their answer was that the teams now have a lot of data about engine reliability and power and that it was not needed. The engine parts he has are good enough.
I wonder if cost cap may be another reason for it but they didn't mention it.
