2023 - McLaren Formula 1 Team

[Marc.W]

Points - 302;
Win - 0;
Win to sprint - 1;
Pole position - 0;
Pole position to sprint - 2;
Podium - 9;
Podium to sprint - 4;
Best lap - 3;
Pit-stop - 1.80 (WR);
Driver of the day - 5 (Lando), 2 (Oscar);
3(!!!) engine for Lando.

When will the 2024 winter tests start?

21-23 February according to Google I know it's going to come around really quickly but feels like forever away, no excuse for McLaren to not hit the ground running this time!

[Darth-Piekus]

Well technically dont we want to count sprint races also since they are official races and Red Bull lost some of them. Red Bull had 22/23 races and 6/7 Sprint Races so they had two losses compared to one loss of Mclaren. I mean they are official races that give points right?

Technically? Technically it is a sprint session and not a race. All official races have a 305 km distance, monaco excluded.

Ok but they do give points though. They are counted on official FIA stats right?

[Xero]

21-23 February according to Google I know it's going to come around really quickly but feels like forever away, no excuse for McLaren to not hit the ground running this time!

I think that's the main target for next year. Have a clean winter, clean testing and build from a strong starting position. If Rob Marshall can bring solid knowledge of Red Bull's rear suspension setup then it's looking promising.

Great turnaround by the team this season, been brilliant to watch!

[mwillems]

21-23 February according to Google I know it's going to come around really quickly but feels like forever away, no excuse for McLaren to not hit the ground running this time!

I think that's the main target for next year. Have a clean winter, clean testing and build from a strong starting position. If Rob Marshall can bring solid knowledge of Red Bull's rear suspension setup then it's looking promising.

Great turnaround by the team this season, been brilliant to watch!

I'm sure Sanchez will have some of the Ferrari aero tricks to pass on also. Now it is time for silly season and all the conjecture that comes with it, hopefully we will hear about Landos contract over the winter.

I'm personally not bothered in discussing whether the Mclaren record of dominance in a season has been beaten, I think it's good enough to say that Red Bull had a driver and car combination that is one of the very best in F1, and since Perez couldn't do what Max did with the RB, you have to think that the driver was a very big part of that.

There have been 2 exceedingly dominant cars in the history of the sport now and of course, we did it first and everyone else stands behind us

[mwillems]

Well technically dont we want to count sprint races also since they are official races and Red Bull lost some of them. Red Bull had 22/23 races and 6/7 Sprint Races so they had two losses compared to one loss of Mclaren. I mean they are official races that give points right?

Technically? Technically it is a sprint session and not a race. All official races have a 305 km distance, monaco excluded.

Ok but they do give points though. They are counted on official FIA stats right?

A quick look at Oscar's wiki page correctly says he has 0 wins. Sprints are not a race, they are a sprint and they will count towards his official stats of sprint wins. But by and large they are not something people seem to care about as many still regard them as a passing novelty.

[Mansell89]

Would be over the moon if Macca start the season in the fight for a victory next season, however I still can’t help but think that with Marshall and Sanchez only starting in the new year, the basis of the car being designed without the new wind tunnel, it might be that we show great in season development and then perhaps really get in the mix in 2025?

I wouldn’t be surprised to see us a bit behind RBR/Mercedes and possibly Aston (depending on whether Fallows pulls something out of the fire again)

For those of you with a greater technical understanding, just how difficult is it for us to get on top of the low speed mechanical grip? Does it require a redesign of the whole foundation that all the aero sits on? Just how big a change is it?

[Darth-Piekus]

Are you sure the new tunnel and simulator arent up and running?

[elldizzle]

Would it be right to say that this years car, the MCL-60 was a bit of a hybrid?. Made up of last years outwash style aero concept, in regards to the chassis and suspension. With the newer redbull esque aero concept (inwash is it?) bolted onto it. The reason ive summised this, is becuase the team realised late on in this years car development that there was a higher performace ceiling to the Redbull aero than what they were persuing. So the car that rolled out for pre-season testing was the evolution of that car. Then what we saw from the update packages, was new floor and aero parts to match the new conxept. But iirc, we saw nothing in regards to suspension updates and certainly not the chassis.
So to have acheived what we have this season with this aero concept bolted onto a chassis and suspension package designed around a different aero concept bodes well for next season. Where I think all parts will be designed around this concept in entirity. And hopefully this will really cement this aero package as a whole and address some of the fundamental car traits that have been a weakness.

[trinidefender]

Are you sure the new tunnel and simulator arent up and running?

It is up and running but the early design work in the wind tunnel would have been done in the old tunnel then swapped over to the new one once that came online.

There were articles that the old car wouldn’t be run in the new tunnel but nobody said the new car wasn’t run in the old tunnel.

[eurwynf1]

Not the final race I was hoping for but hey ho. Probably the most enjoyable season since 2012 and The best GP I've been to (Silverstone) since 2008 Silverstone. What a turnaround. I get a load of stick at my local because they know I'm a huge McLaren fan, but this year few lads have started watching because of our results.
2024 is going to be exciting year for us, forget Marshall+Sanchez, the stuff the team has learnt this year and the fact the chassis has probably held us back will bring us a bit of performance. New tunnel online and sim is only another positive. I guess see ya'll testing 2024

[mwillems]

Would be over the moon if Macca start the season in the fight for a victory next season, however I still can’t help but think that with Marshall and Sanchez only starting in the new year, the basis of the car being designed without the new wind tunnel, it might be that we show great in season development and then perhaps really get in the mix in 2025?

I wouldn’t be surprised to see us a bit behind RBR/Mercedes and possibly Aston (depending on whether Fallows pulls something out of the fire again)

For those of you with a greater technical understanding, just how difficult is it for us to get on top of the low speed mechanical grip? Does it require a redesign of the whole foundation that all the aero sits on? Just how big a change is it?

It's not necessarily mechanical grip or traction. It's the platform that the mechanical aspects provide to the aero to be able to do a job.

As Stella explained, tyre wake is not handled well in low DF situations. The more loaded the front wing is, the better the car is. Even in slow speed corners the floor is essential and produces downforce. Even the wings do, by the time a drivers foot is down fully the car has accelerated to around 150 to 160 kph, so it is only the very apex where wings do less and even then they are critical for cleaning the air for the floor, managing airflow around the tyres..

The mechanical aspect can improve the way the car provides a window for the Aero to work in, a suitable setup range for track conditions and the interaction between road, tyre and driver.

The current cars Aero could still have been much better in low speed situations, as Stella explained at Singapore. But it can also be helped by the suspension and other parts.

So both need to be improved to be able to help the car become faster.

[BMMR61]

Not the final race I was hoping for but hey ho. Probably the most enjoyable season since 2012 and The best GP I've been to (Silverstone) since 2008 Silverstone. What a turnaround. I get a load of stick at my local because they know I'm a huge McLaren fan, but this year few lads have started watching because of our results.
2024 is going to be exciting year for us, forget Marshall+Sanchez, the stuff the team has learnt this year and the fact the chassis has probably held us back will bring us a bit of performance. New tunnel online and sim is only another positive. I guess see ya'll testing 2024

We're agreed! My viewing buddy was laughing about McLaren after Bahrain but true fans stuck with the team, helped by the fact that;
Stella said before the first test that the car was not where they wanted it and a major evolution would come around Baku,
Mika told us that McLaren would become RedBull's closest competitor before the season was through, of course everyone laughed,
James Key was removed and a new structure announced very early.

These formed the basis for us trusting that McLaren would rise again. I had been concerned since after Lando's narrowly losing the Sochi race that the team had drifted and gone backwards. The 2022 "ground effect" concept was most unconvincing. The way that McLaren have methodically gone about their work, especially since Austria, has been across almost every department.

Stella is a no-BS team leader who doesn't hide behind non-answers.
Oscar has met the high expectations we had of him. He is pushing Lando to up his game.
Generally there seems to have been pretty decent correlation of simulation to the real world.
Pitstops are getting to be one of the team's strengths.
The car's traditional low speed corner vulnerability has been greatly improved.

On the other hand, there's much to be done to produce a car which MORE THAN keeps up with the competition, let alone allows the team to close in on RedBull.
The handling "peculiarity" that all the drivers have talked about is still present and arguably could be causing some of the qualifying volatility.
There's a feeling that strategies are often like they were when McLaren operated in "no man's land". When your stated objectives are less about P4 or P5 and more about closing the gap, risks and split strategies are often necessary.

So my wishes are for us to go into the off season with a positive but realistic outlook and effectively use all the extra time we used to expend on our favourite sport!

[FittingMechanics]

I really did not expect the turnaround that the team did. Most teams usually talk that they will bring updates that will help the car but usually you can't really make big jumps in relative performance as other teams bring upgrades as well. An amazing season overall.

What I wish is that the car is quickish out of the box next year. I think this is critical if they are to challenge for wins and podiums. I hope that the team doesn't regress over the season, but knowing F1 this will be hard. Ferrari and Mercedes will probably bounce back and Red Bull obviously had plenty of time to work on their 2024 car.

If we start the season as we ended it (having 2nd or 3rd fastest car) - that would be a good offseason.

EDIT: Oh and I hope next car is called MCL61.

[Seerix]

EDIT: Oh and I hope next car is called MCL61.

I'd expect MCL37, they used MCL60 as a 60th anniversary. Otherwise we might end up like Ferrari with pretty random car names.

[Ground Effect]

So, what’s everyone’s opinion on this? Equalized or beaten?
D-P had his mind made up for equalized at the time of asking, so I guess we are 1-1?

Anyway something that I wonder and wanted your opinion. Come tomorrow unless nothing changes Max will get the win and Red Bull with 22/23 will equalise the old MP4-4 record from 1988 of 15/16. So does that make RB19 a more successful car just because 22/23 make a 94,5% compared to the 93,8% from the 15/16 or records are not counted like that?

Isn’t it black and white? All races but one is better the more chances there were to miss it, and 95.x% is better than 93.x%.
IF it happens.

Can't recall, but didn't McLaren also have 15 of 16 pole positions in '88 as well? So that's all but 1 in races and qualifying.... McLaren still on top.