2024 Mclaren Formula 1 Team

[CjC]

Big interview with the drivers



Both are very very confident. I think they fully expect to have closed the gap to Red Bull, I'd say they expect to fight Red Bull.

The data has to be extremely good.

I wonder if Rob Marshall - who knows the Red bull data very well - saw their data and said, wow you're not far with the 38 (including any RB20 gains) which gives them that confidence

Very valid point

[mwillems]

Big interview with the drivers



Both are very very confident. I think they fully expect to have closed the gap to Red Bull, I'd say they expect to fight Red Bull.

The data has to be extremely good.

I wonder if Rob Marshall - who knows the Red bull data very well - saw their data and said, wow you're not far with the 38 (including any RB20 gains) which gives them that confidence

Very valid point

I was wondering if some of the delays were due to input from Marshall or Sanchez, who might have been able to offer insight that caused the team to consider new development options.

[CjC]

I wonder if Rob Marshall - who knows the Red bull data very well - saw their data and said, wow you're not far with the 38 (including any RB20 gains) which gives them that confidence

Very valid point

I was wondering if some of the delays were due to input from Marshall or Sanchez, who might have been able to offer insight that caused the team to consider new development options.

Wasn’t there an article somewhere stating that the new recruits saw ‘no need to change anything’ ?

[mwillems]

Very valid point

I was wondering if some of the delays were due to input from Marshall or Sanchez, who might have been able to offer insight that caused the team to consider new development options.

Wasn’t there an article somewhere stating that the new recruits saw ‘no need to change anything’ ?

Maybe, I hadn't seen it. I had seen one saying they were already helping the team but quite how I have no idea. If you see that article again then do me a favour and post it please

[CjC]

I was wondering if some of the delays were due to input from Marshall or Sanchez, who might have been able to offer insight that caused the team to consider new development options.

Wasn’t there an article somewhere stating that the new recruits saw ‘no need to change anything’ ?

Maybe, I hadn't seen it. I had seen one saying they were already helping the team but quite how I have no idea. If you see that article again then do me a favour and post it please

After re-reading it, it’s a bit of both of our statements.

There’s no need for a U turn but they have brought a little extra to the table like you suggested which could be what Stella alluded to about not getting absolutely everything on the launch car.

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/why-m ... /10569003/

[mwillems]

Thanks, that was a good read.

It does suggest that they are helping to refine some of our development already. Whether this includes deliverables that were planned for testing is unknown to us, but it's a strong possibility.

[AR3-GP]

Big interview with the drivers



Both are very very confident. I think they fully expect to have closed the gap to Red Bull, I'd say they expect to fight Red Bull.

The data has to be extremely good.

I wonder if Rob Marshall - who knows the Red bull data very well - saw their data and said, wow you're not far with the 38 (including any RB20 gains) which gives them that confidence

Rob Marshall was on gardening leave for a very long time and prior to this he was working in RBPT on the 2026 project. He would not have participated in the development of the RB20.

[mwillems]

We also seem to dismiss the amount of time it takes to produce parts… New parts aren’t build overnight… Most of what we are seeing on the cars at launch was probably started 4-6 weeks ago from a manufacturing perspective, if that is the case, they finished W/T simulations on those parts early this year or even last year, which means that design / CFD was performed last year for some of the parts we are seeing “Today”.

In addition, as has been said before, in this budget cap era you can’t produce iterations of parts as often as before… If they are still finding time by tweaking / iterating designs, they will probably wait until they see some diminishing returns before they sign off on those parts for actual production and track use and if that’s the reason for the parts to be “late”, that’s very encouraging.

All very true. I think the staged rounds of new parts which were so evidently effective for McLaren last year are planned into 2024, how much this (planned rollout) is a facet of other teams' thinking I am interested to hear opinions here.

Obviously as fans we don't want to be hearing any repeat of the 2023 and 2022 late starts this year. We were told that all development of MCL60 components ceased around early August 2023 and work on the new car was in full swing - generally regarded as sufficient lead time. With the introduction of new components (in season) I imagine a certain amount of validation of on track performance is a reliable way of maintaining understanding of how these components interact - understanding your car was a strong feature of McLaren last year and hopefully will be so in 2024 and beyond.

Honestly, I don't mind if we have to wait a couple of races. I trust Stella and I totally appreciate just how much time he spends in interviews, keeping us informed in a straightforward and open way.

If he says that our development trajectory continues then I'm good.

You're right about seeing on track data, it is very valuable and possibly this will help close off some of those late developments.

[mwillems]

A long but fascinating read.

https://www.mclaren.com/racing/formula- ... o-round-1/

There are many highlights in there, but something not spoken about much yet is the weight loss efforts of the car, which will themselves contribute positively to handling and car/tyre interaction.

[Mansell89]

What are initial gut-led first impression/feels then guys, having seen some of the competition reveals?

Obviously we haven’t got much to go on from our initial renders with hidden details, but I thought Merc and Aston looked like nicely matured evolution (or revolution perhaps from Mercs pihilosphy perspective).

Red Bull looks aggressive from their initial details, and Ferrari is intriguing as it seems
to have kept some of its unique elements despite being closer to the converging models we see.

I was slightly concerned when seeing our initial renders but I think it’s fair to say the consensus is we will see modifications up and down the pit lane in testing next week- I just hope we aren’t behind the curve to start with - even if we have a good pipeline of development.


Anyway, not long til we see them in Bahrain. Always an exciting time of year.

[Mansell89]

Stella: “We know there will be some marginal improvements on the power unit as well – we say marginal because power units are fundamentally frozen, but there's some performance that HPP will be able to bring, squeezing out what they can within the limitations on development set by the regulations. Improvements should come from all areas of the car.”

Hope not too stupid a question- but what sorts of upgrades on the PU side are allowed in the engine freeze era? I was pleased to see that Mercedes HPP has room for improvement - every little helps.

[djos]

Stella: “We know there will be some marginal improvements on the power unit as well – we say marginal because power units are fundamentally frozen, but there's some performance that HPP will be able to bring, squeezing out what they can within the limitations on development set by the regulations. Improvements should come from all areas of the car.”

Hope not too stupid a question- but what sorts of upgrades on the PU side are allowed in the engine freeze era? I was pleased to see that Mercedes HPP has room for improvement - every little helps.

ECU optimisations is what he means - although it is possible that Merc got some "reliability" updates past the other teams.

[MrGapes]

Stella: “We know there will be some marginal improvements on the power unit as well – we say marginal because power units are fundamentally frozen, but there's some performance that HPP will be able to bring, squeezing out what they can within the limitations on development set by the regulations. Improvements should come from all areas of the car.”

Hope not too stupid a question- but what sorts of upgrades on the PU side are allowed in the engine freeze era? I was pleased to see that Mercedes HPP has room for improvement - every little helps.

Software side, like changes to the ERS deployment efficiency

[BMMR61]

Wasn’t there an article somewhere stating that the new recruits saw ‘no need to change anything’ ?

Maybe, I hadn't seen it. I had seen one saying they were already helping the team but quite how I have no idea. If you see that article again then do me a favour and post it please

After re-reading it, it’s a bit of both of our statements.

There’s no need for a U turn but they have brought a little extra to the table like you suggested which could be what Stella alluded to about not getting absolutely everything on the launch car.

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/why-m ... /10569003/

Wow, I read this at the time and now with pre-season testing almost here it is particularly exciting. That fans AND pundits have seemingly lowering their excitement levels about the McLaren MCL38 as "revealed" at the launch, perhaps we shouldn't be surprised. They are like junkies looking for the obvious. It seems there is still plenty of evolutionary headroom, and the direction McLaren are on has received the tick of approval by these two "high calibers" we can (nervously?) wait for validation to occur when the grid is set in two weeks.

[Mostlyeels]

Big interview with the drivers



Both are very very confident. I think they fully expect to have closed the gap to Red Bull, I'd say they expect to fight Red Bull.

The data has to be extremely good.

I wonder if Rob Marshall - who knows the Red bull data very well - saw their data and said, wow you're not far with the 38 (including any RB20 gains) which gives them that confidence

I think he's been out of the loop for a little while now. Certainly since the ground effect era it seems like he's been less involved in the F1 side of the business, so he might not have precise ideas on the figures.

https://www.racefans.net/2023/06/12/mcl ... ll-horner/

“Rob has been with us for 17 years and he’s been an instrumental player in the building of Red Bull Racing,” said Horner. “He was able to accommodate things mechanically within the car, like batteries inside the gearbox with the KERS cars back in the 2009, 10, 11, 12, 13 era.”

Although Marshall has continued to attend races this year, and collected the winners’ trophy for the team at the Australian Grand Prix, Horner said he had been moved into a role outside the F1 operation and was keen to return to one.

“He played a significant role within the team but over recent years he’s moved onto other projects and hasn’t been on the mainstream of Formula 1,” Horner explained.

RB really had a surfeit of great engineering talent.