McLaren MCL38 speculation.

[De Wet]

“On these cars, aerodynamics and ride, they go pretty much hand-in-hand – because you know that you would like to run these cars as low as possible to the ground,” he said. “This is one of the challenges for every team.

“Looking at where the right compromise is from this point of view for instance, just to give you a concrete, real example of where we’ve been looking at, this is an area that deserves some attention.

“There’s some other areas which I wouldn’t disclose just for a matter of protecting our IP, let’s say, but this was one of the priorities of the winter.”

While Stella says that some improvements in this area will likely make their way onto McLaren’s launch car, other bits will follow in due course.

“Some of the benefits may be embedded onto the launch car, but actually some of the projects belong to a workstream that may land trackside with some other developments,” he said.

“Some things require a few months to be addressed, let’s say.”

New ideas from Sanchez & Marshall ?

[skoop]

...and there it is. The first concessions

I think he's just being vague on purpose to not give anything away

[MTudor]

“On these cars, aerodynamics and ride, they go pretty much hand-in-hand – because you know that you would like to run these cars as low as possible to the ground,” he said. “This is one of the challenges for every team.

“Looking at where the right compromise is from this point of view for instance, just to give you a concrete, real example of where we’ve been looking at, this is an area that deserves some attention.

“There’s some other areas which I wouldn’t disclose just for a matter of protecting our IP, let’s say, but this was one of the priorities of the winter.”

While Stella says that some improvements in this area will likely make their way onto McLaren’s launch car, other bits will follow in due course.

“Some of the benefits may be embedded onto the launch car, but actually some of the projects belong to a workstream that may land trackside with some other developments,” he said.

“Some things require a few months to be addressed, let’s say.”

New ideas from Sanchez & Marshall ?

I think so

[FittingMechanics]

This is not something new. Each team does this every year. They have their initial car but even at the moment of launch of the car, they have new iterations that are in development that will come to the car at a later time.

[-wkst-]

This is not something new. Each team does this every year. They have their initial car but even at the moment of launch of the car, they have new iterations that are in development that will come to the car at a later time.

Yep, as Stella and others said: launch/test/first race car is finished in the tunnel and so on around christmas. At the first race the team is already developing the "Bahrain-car" over 2 months.

[organic]

Of course, but most teams aren't talking about certain things that were a focus over the winter being pushed back to upgrades brought midseason.

[the EDGE]

Of course, but most teams aren't talking about certain things that were a focus over the winter being pushed back to upgrades brought midseason.

Just because they're not talking about it doesn't mean they're not doing it. All teams will will have a continuous development plan, and if they don't, then they're in a bad place not a good one. Even RB usually brings significant upgrades at the start of every season

Every car will have weaknesses, being able to identify these and have solutions in the pipeline is a means your doing a good job

[-wkst-]

Stella's goal with this statement is pretty obvious: "don't be disappointed if we aren't on pole already in Bahrain".

Stella is a clever guy, he feels the high expectations of a lot of people after their 2nd half of 2023, maybe a bit too high (unrealistic) expectations for him.

[bauc]

Stella's goal with this statement is pretty obvious: "don't be disappointed if we aren't on pole already in Bahrain".

Stella is a clever guy, he feels the high expectations of a lot of people after their 2nd half of 2023, maybe a bit too high (unrealistic) expectations for him.

This is more a team thread discussion, but please never forget what Zak said few years back, target for real championship fight is 2025. If we manage to get ourselves a win or two this year, and a dozen of other podiums, eliminate the weak points of the car and manage to keep the rate of development then in 2025 we can expect to be on a pole in Bahrain

[bauc]

That is FABULOUS news
https://www.mclaren.com/racing/formula- ... do-norris/

404 error? Did it get taken down?
edit: fixed link: https://www.mclaren.com/racing/formula- ... do-norris/

I'm trying to do something clever and it backfires

This belongs to the team thread people.

Mod edit: Indeed, which is why it got deleted.

[mwillems]

McLaren’s 2024 car, the MCL38, will be an “innovative evolution” of last year’s MCL60, revealed team boss Andrea Stella.

“But for the bulk, most of the improvement from an aerodynamic efficiency point of view, mechanical grip, interaction with the tyres, it will come from many details that not necessarily will be so clearly visible.”

Nice to hear one of the first thing Stella says is that they will be addressing the Mechanical grip and the way the car interacts with the tyres, although this was pretty much nailed on.

[Emag]

It is interesting that he also mentions that there will be areas of the car which will show clear innovation, meaning visible bodywork changes on the surface. Not sure what criteria Andrea has to classify something as innovative, but by general perception you would be inclined to think that means we'll see design elements that haven't been seen in other cars so far.

Aerodynamically speaking, given how little leeway there is in terms of front and rear wing design, can't help but think that the areas he could be talking about has to be either floor (with the leading edge fences), or the sidepods (in conjunction with the engine cover bodywork). However, I really doubt the overall shape of the sidepods will change much (probably will remain the same wide, down-washing concept), since their last year's car underwent two rather major design evolutions without moving away from the initial "language".

I guess there would have to be changes towards the rear end. If they have a new rear suspension layout, the area where the engine cover meets the floor at the diffuser opening and the end of the sidepods slope will probably have to change. I doubt however that they can come up with such a different design there to call it an "innovation".

Therefore the only thing that makes sense for me for Andrea to call a "visible innovation" is the actual suspension design itself (both front and rear). Could be interesting to see if they have come up with some clever arm links for more aerodynamic exploits while boosting the mechanical platform over last year's car.

[organic]

I think there's plenty of scope for aerodynamic innovation still. McLaren have only recently (two iterations ago) locked onto the correct path with their car. There is still a lot of tweaking and fine improvements you can make with the details.

With the budget cap and aerodynamic restrictions it will take longer to reach the limit of what's possible in the regs, even if it feels like we should be close to that already.

[mwillems]

The visible changes could come about from the ability to do more with the internal packaging of the car, as perhaps the limited ability to repackage last year stopped us from getting the optimal sidepod shape. I am still hanging onto the tenuous clue that Marelli is no longer listed as a partner and this partnership supplying the cooling parts is maybe what stopped us taking the lighter and smaller cooling solution that the other Mercs run.

With a new platform you'd also expect the front wing to be reprofiled to deliver the Aero rearwards. Since Stella spoke after Singapore of how much more they can do at the front to deal better with low speed aero/low downforce configurations and that the Singapore update barely touched the surface of this, and Stella acknowledged that other teams no longer need wider sidepods at the front of the car to help deal with dirty air at low speeds, I'm expecting part of the visible changes are going to be around this area.

I'm also looking forward to seeing what they did to attempt to improve the platform stability, is Stella suggesting no obvious changes to the suspension from the outside and therefore no mythical front leaning anti dive suspension?

[_cerber1]

Hello