McLaren MCL38 speculation.

[_cerber1]

Let's start

McLaren MCL 38

- McLaren's 2024 car has been in development since July, confirmed by Andrea Stella
"We've been working almost full steam ahead on next year's car since July"

- The new wind tunnel facility it’s been up and running since week 1 of the summer break.
Stella also revealed on a interview that the new facility has been only used for the 24 car development. All the
upgrades of the MCL60 were made under the old Toyota WT.

- Stella also hinted that, they will put some efforts into improving the drivability of the car, which is something Mclaren has been struggling for some years now, and you can’t really fix mid-season. Mechanical elements such as the suspension, which is key to unlock more performance its also a big focus for next year. Again, unlike aero elements like the bodywork, this is something that can’t be really improved during the season. Stella described the suspension as “really important” for achieving more downforce more consistently and make the aero platform more stable. The suspension is also considered to be one of Redbull’s key elements on its success this year and also its outstanding tyre management.

- Mclaren struggled a lot this year with the low downforce circuits. This was mainly because the development on this area had to be sacrificed in favour of turning the car from the backmarker it was at the beginning of the season to the car we had from Austria onwards. This decision makes sense and clearly paid off, considering the difference between the amount of medium/high DF circuits on the calendar and the low DF ones. The performance in Spa, Monza or Vegas are clear examples of this issue, which should be addressed for next year

[mwillems]

Thanks for kicking this off

I guess if I had to write a wish list for Santa..

Front Suspension - Aero

A platform to provide consistent aero through the corner and reduce dive. The aero at lower speeds was identified by key as a key reason for low speed issues because of the way the car handled front tyre wake, which you'd assume interfered with the workings of the floor and how air flowed to the rear of the car.

Part Aero part mechanical, some aero work went into this to help low speed airflow in the Singapore update, but was according to Stella, a small part of what they think they can achieve in this area, likely in part due to the need to upgrade the mechanical platform.


Front Suspension - Handling and Feedback

The team reported earlier in the season that there are behaviours of the car and tyre in certain areas of cornering that the team could not simulate in the wind tunnel that prevented them from being able to understand and work with the way the tyres deform through various corner profiles. The car essentially not working with the tyre in harmony and the feedback to the driver not matching what is happening in the road.

The new wind tunnel should help the team understand how to deal with the Pirelli tyres and get the most out of the car.


Rear Wing / Beam Wing / Diffuser Combination

RBs trick of being able to deal better with airflow when DRS is open was trialled at the end of this season and is critical to finding an extra tenth or two in qualifying configuration and to enable better overtaking opportunities for the car as well as improving diffuser efficiency overall.


Refined Aero as a package

With a new platform the car will require aero parts to work within the window that is provided. Obviously we hope everything improves, but I'd love the car to be a bit slippier relative to Aero loading and for the car to be a more balanced proposition at different configurations with less surprising DF loads at different points of the corners.

I use the word package because there were parts of the car that were left behind in the first two thirds of the season like the rear wing and beam wing and I hope we start the season with everything designed specifically for and complementing this car configuration and its aero and not make do with some of the designs from the previous year.

Internal Configuration

We know the team had mentioned that the chassis was a great platform and enabled a lot of the development for this year, but that also the platform still wasn't designed to get the max out of the philosophy of the sidepods, for instance, amongst other areas. This year the cooling configuration and other internals may be optimised to create space for certain Aero designs, as well as optimising the way SIPS is dealt with.

Abu Dhabi Livery

Please, please... just keep it! it looks charismatic and fun

[haza]

They need to make sure they hit their targets for winter. The thing they have going for them is they now understand the aerodynamics of the car an there able to bring upgrades that do what’s written on the box, I hope they understand what they need to do in terms of mechanical performance I think that is what separates them from redbull they did a very good job improving tyre deg and race pace with the upgrades but I believe they need to experiment with the anti dive front suspension Aston and redbull had it and were very good in low speed performance. On a separate note the car should have more kick from the Mercedes PU a few articles popped up a couple months ago about the Mercedes PU having more power for 2024 due to a new cooling system rumours suggested the slim pod concept was not delivering optimal cooling meaning they couldn’t run the PU’s at full capacity

[hollus]

Will it be called MCL61, or can it be something else? Just thinking of adding it to the thread title.

[organic]

Will it be called MCL61, or can it be something else? Just thinking of adding it to the thread title.

I think the name mcl60 was an anniversary special name so they'll probably return to the previous scheme which was the mcl36 so mcl37 seems likely to me

[FittingMechanics]

Will it be called MCL61, or can it be something else? Just thinking of adding it to the thread title.

I think the name mcl60 was an anniversary special name so they'll probably return to the previous scheme which was the mcl36 so mcl37 seems likely to me

MCL61 makes more sense than MCL37. It's 61st year of McLaren in F1. What happens in 23 years time when you get to MCL60 if you continue with MCL37 naming?.

To answer hollus - I don't think the naming has been announced.

[continuum16]

Will it be called MCL61, or can it be something else? Just thinking of adding it to the thread title.

I think the name mcl60 was an anniversary special name so they'll probably return to the previous scheme which was the mcl36 so mcl37 seems likely to me

MCL61 makes more sense than MCL37. It's 61st year of McLaren in F1. What happens in 23 years time when you get to MCL60 if you continue with MCL37 naming?.

To answer hollus - I don't think the naming has been announced.

It’s the “Madden 25” problem.

No official name as far as I know; but based on current marketing trends I think it will be MCL38 and the “MCL60” problem will be an acute case of “we’ll solve that problem later”. Plus I doubt they’ll even follow the same naming scheme for the next 23 years to begin with for better or worse.

[trinidefender]

Let's start

- McLaren's 2024 car has been in development since July, confirmed by Andrea Stella
"We've been working almost full steam ahead on next year's car since July"

- The new wind tunnel facility it’s been up and running since week 1 of the summer break.
Stella also revealed on a interview that the new facility has been only used for the 24 car development. All the
upgrades of the MCL60 were made under the old Toyota WT.

- Stella also hinted that, they will put some efforts into improving the drivability of the car, which is something Mclaren has been struggling for some years now, and you can’t really fix mid-season. Mechanical elements such as the suspension, which is key to unlock more performance its also a big focus for next year. Again, unlike aero elements like the bodywork, this is something that can’t be really improved during the season. Stella described the suspension as “really important” for achieving more downforce more consistently and make the aero platform more stable. The suspension is also considered to be one of Redbull’s key elements on its success this year and also its outstanding tyre management.

- Mclaren struggled a lot this year with the low downforce circuits. This was mainly because the development on this area had to be sacrificed in favour of turning the car from the backmarker it was at the beginning of the season to the car we had from Austria onwards. This decision makes sense and clearly paid off, considering the difference between the amount of medium/high DF circuits on the calendar and the low DF ones. The performance in Spa, Monza or Vegas are clear examples of this issue, which should be addressed for next year

Stella also revealed on a interview that the new facility has been only used for the 24 car development. All the
upgrades of the MCL60 were made under the old Toyota WT.

Are you sure that the first part of that statement is true? I remember reading an article saying that McLaren didn’t use the new tunnel for the old car however I don’t think it was ever stated that the new car wasn’t going to be run in the old tunnel.

[Emag]

Has anyone from the team made comments specifically about the concept?

They have mentioned areas of weakness that are being addressed with the 2024 car, but I don't recall them making any comments about how much of an evolution next year's car will be, and how much will fundamentally change.

Based on their comments about last year's concept carrying inherent mechanical weaknesses, you would expect some rather big base-platform changes.

Suspension is guaranteed to change since Stella all but confirmed it in an interview about limitations, but I am wondering if side impact structures will change (inherently, sidepods) for a different weight-distribution platform.

Mercedes has been out there confirming that their 2024 car will pretty much be all-new, but from McLaren's side we are a little bit in the dark.

[mwillems]

Let's start

- McLaren's 2024 car has been in development since July, confirmed by Andrea Stella
"We've been working almost full steam ahead on next year's car since July"

- The new wind tunnel facility it’s been up and running since week 1 of the summer break.
Stella also revealed on a interview that the new facility has been only used for the 24 car development. All the
upgrades of the MCL60 were made under the old Toyota WT.

- Stella also hinted that, they will put some efforts into improving the drivability of the car, which is something Mclaren has been struggling for some years now, and you can’t really fix mid-season. Mechanical elements such as the suspension, which is key to unlock more performance its also a big focus for next year. Again, unlike aero elements like the bodywork, this is something that can’t be really improved during the season. Stella described the suspension as “really important” for achieving more downforce more consistently and make the aero platform more stable. The suspension is also considered to be one of Redbull’s key elements on its success this year and also its outstanding tyre management.

- Mclaren struggled a lot this year with the low downforce circuits. This was mainly because the development on this area had to be sacrificed in favour of turning the car from the backmarker it was at the beginning of the season to the car we had from Austria onwards. This decision makes sense and clearly paid off, considering the difference between the amount of medium/high DF circuits on the calendar and the low DF ones. The performance in Spa, Monza or Vegas are clear examples of this issue, which should be addressed for next year

Stella also revealed on a interview that the new facility has been only used for the 24 car development. All the
upgrades of the MCL60 were made under the old Toyota WT.

Are you sure that the first part of that statement is true? I remember reading an article saying that McLaren didn’t use the new tunnel for the old car however I don’t think it was ever stated that the new car wasn’t going to be run in the old tunnel.

I don't think they would have any reason not to, it just depends on whether they had produced scale parts by July, but they didn't state that the old tunnel would not be used for the new car.

In fact, IIRC last year they did say that the first car produced entirely in the new tunnel would be the '25 car.

Indeed they did:

https://racingnews365.com/the-secret-we ... ext-season

[mwillems]

Has anyone from the team made comments specifically about the concept?

They have mentioned areas of weakness that are being addressed with the 2024 car, but I don't recall them making any comments about how much of an evolution next year's car will be, and how much will fundamentally change.

Based on their comments about last year's concept carrying inherent mechanical weaknesses, you would expect some rather big base-platform changes.

Suspension is guaranteed to change since Stella all but confirmed it in an interview about limitations, but I am wondering if side impact structures will change (inherently, sidepods) for a different weight-distribution platform.

Mercedes has been out there confirming that their 2024 car will pretty much be all-new, but from McLaren's side we are a little bit in the dark.

No I don't think so. There's some general comments from Stella around how concepts in the paddock are becoming quite clear now and if you wanted to look at that and think it suggests the the current car concepts seem to be the way forward then you could, but there's nothing stating evolution or revolution, at least not that I have seen.

https://www.planetf1.com/news/mclaren-r ... prediction
https://www.gpfans.com/en/f1-news/10058 ... ea-stella/

You'd think though that with how late into the season we developed, even bringing the new beam wing at the second to last race, that this is because the philosophy of the current car will be similar to next years. This does suggest evolution to me, but it all depends on what you definition of revolution is. Starting with a new concept or is revolution also a term for a very big evolution?

Do you think the changes to this years car were evolution or revolution? It's a different beast but it just seems heavily evolved to me. Others may disagree.

[_cerber1]

Andrea Stella when asked if McLaren are capable of winning in the 2024 season?

“Realistically speaking, we know that we need half a second if we want to remain competitive next season.”

[organic]

Andrea Stella when asked if McLaren are capable of winning in the 2024 season?

“Realistically speaking, we know that we need half a second if we want to remain competitive next season.”

Thanks for the quote - whereabouts did you find it?

[_cerber1]

Thanks for the quote - whereabouts did you find it?

[NicholasWhiteside]

The challenge of balancing high and low downforce circuits is a tricky one, but allocating resources intelligently might just be the key. Can't wait to see how these changes play out on the track!