McLaren MCL38

[Apexseal157]

Speculation about whether or not one team can copy another easily seems pointless.

very true, I think everyone is getting a bit too swept up in overbite/underbite. everything at the moment is subject to change and overbites/underbites are not the true differentiators in pace. the floor edges and venturi tunnels will be where the gains really are and thats what im dying to see.

[haza]

[Macklaren]

Interesting video...
1) looks like they did more than 5 laps, so unlike Merc, they didnt do just the 15km shakedown run, they cut into their 200 km filming time as well
2) the engine sounds more "normal" than the RBR so either the camera on which the RB video was recorded was broken or there are indeed some engine shenanigans there...

[Venturiation]

Interesting video...
1) looks like they did more than 5 laps, so unlike Merc, they didnt do just the 15km shakedown run, they cut into their 200 km filming time as well
2) the engine sounds more "normal" than the RBR so either the camera on which the RB video was recorded was broken or there are indeed some engine shenanigans there...

The sound on redbull is because of a drone

[Henk_v]

yeah its somethng discussed also in the aston martin thread, where it also look like a interchangeable panel their solution. Would make sense, that you could adjust, just like you adjust for cooling needs, wing confiq etc. Mclaren did it in the past, changed the inlet size of the sidepod, making it smaller for high speed tracks
Found here, for comparison, this almost look like a changeable panel also,
https://i.imgur.com/y2sTvht.jpeg

This line is on all RB's since launch. Nothing suspicious here.

Do engines have different cooling requirements?

They are all within a few % of performance and are all restricted to the same amount of fuel flow. So I doubt that they have very different heat rejection. Some engines may be able to run a few degrees hotter which makes cooling more effective, but inder the current regs, do they really need significant different cooling air flow?

[dren]

yeah its somethng discussed also in the aston martin thread, where it also look like a interchangeable panel their solution. Would make sense, that you could adjust, just like you adjust for cooling needs, wing confiq etc. Mclaren did it in the past, changed the inlet size of the sidepod, making it smaller for high speed tracks
Found here, for comparison, this almost look like a changeable panel also,
https://i.imgur.com/y2sTvht.jpeg

This line is on all RB's since launch. Nothing suspicious here.

Do engines have different cooling requirements?

They are all within a few % of performance and are all restricted to the same amount of fuel flow. So I doubt that they have very different heat rejection. Some engines may be able to run a few degrees hotter which makes cooling more effective, but inder the current regs, do they really need significant different cooling air flow?

Intercooling requirements may be different along with other ancillaries. I'd still guess they are all fairly close across the board.

[haza]

Can we expect the sidepod inlet to narrow over the season, last year mclaren had one of the larger inlets compared to Aston Ferrari and rbr

[Venturiation]

It's all pointing out to zeropods for redbull and McLaren
McLaren could bring it sooner having the mid-wing already visible

[frosty125]

I think there is a good chance we will see the intake get smaller.

[Tomsky]

[Cs98]

It's all pointing out to zeropods for redbull and McLaren
McLaren could bring it sooner having the mid-wing already visible
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GGUhiqJXYAA ... name=small
[url]https://i.imgur.com/dxQ5dV6.jpeg [/url]

[url]https://i.imgur.com/fxskF1V.jpeg [/url]

That wing looks too thin to contain an SIS. Thus not indicative of a zeropod.

[AR3-GP]

The Mclaren really doesn't have canon shoulders in the sense of the RB20. It's more along the lines of the AMR23/RB19 as it's a "Standard" height shoulder. RB20/W14 are the "high" shoulder exits.

[MrGapes]

This is Patryk Sokołowski, former recent mclaren aero engineer...

interestingly he also brings up how there is only 5 suspension elements vs 6... he also suspects two elements have been combined under 1 fairing

[Emag]

With testing almost upon us, I wanted to review one of Andrea's recent comments one last time regarding the work done on the car over the winter. So, recently McLaren posted this article : https://www.mclaren.com/racing/formula- ... o-round-1/

And Andrea is shown to be quite optimistic on targets hit over the winter, with a particular sentence catching my eye. When asked where the car would have improved when it hits the track on Bahrain, he says that he can't think of a single area which wasn't improved over the winter.

Now that makes sense if the target is Bahrain spec MCL60, but given how the article develops later, it's safe to assume he means improvement on how the car left 2023 in Abu Dhabi.

Now looking back last year after the first real big upgrade which turned the car around to a consistent #2 contender after RedBull, it was interesting to look at this track map :



The first standout here is that McLaren at Silverstone last year, already had the best car when it comes to fast sections, with a more pronounced advantage on medium-ish speed corners. That hints towards a very "healthy" aerodynamic package when it comes to peak load, and perhaps could be a reason why the aero package did not change significantly this year (what ain't broke, don't fix it).

But the next big standout, which is more relevant for this year's car targets, is how the car keeps a relatively stable gap to RedBull on slower sections on the track, but it plummets on the slowest point in Silverstone at T3-T5.

This is a corner complex which really outline a car's capabilities on braking-induced rotation. A particular big area of weakness for McLaren in the last couple of years. And this, at least in my opinion, is where a very good mechanical platform is needed.

My guess is that McLaren last year, after their major upgrade, had a pretty good aero package, perhaps on par with the best when it comes to peak load. However they were lacking consistency of this aero package under different conditions (bumps, temperature etc ...)

This year, it seems the car has undergone mechanical changes under the hood, with very visible suspension changes externally (with a more pronounced anti-dive front suspension, and anti-squat rear suspension layout). And I think the biggest areas to keep an eye for McLaren at the Bahrain test, would be their performance on corners such as T3-T5 complex in Silverstone.

Basically, low speed car rotation.

I feel like T1 in Bahrain is more of a "stop and go" kind of corner, so I believe a better indicator for performance on this trait would be their rotation on T8 and T10.

Of course, there is only so much you can extrapolate from testing, but I guess when we finally get racing in 2 weeks time, we will have the ultimate test with comparisons to the other teams as well. Let's see if Andreas' words will hold up after R1.

[Tomsky]

With testing almost upon us, I wanted to review one of Andrea's recent comments one last time regarding the work done on the car over the winter. So, recently McLaren posted this article : https://www.mclaren.com/racing/formula- ... o-round-1/

And Andrea is shown to be quite optimistic on targets hit over the winter, with a particular sentence catching my eye. When asked where the car would have improved when it hits the track on Bahrain, he says that he can't think of a single area which wasn't improved over the winter.

Now that makes sense if the target is Bahrain spec MCL60, but given how the article develops later, it's safe to assume he means improvement on how the car left 2023 in Abu Dhabi.

Now looking back last year after the first real big upgrade which turned the car around to a consistent #2 contender after RedBull, it was interesting to look at this track map :

https://i.ibb.co/J2vbjtk/image.png

The first standout here is that McLaren at Silverstone last year, already had the best car when it comes to fast sections, with a more pronounced advantage on medium-ish speed corners. That hints towards a very "healthy" aerodynamic package when it comes to peak load, and perhaps could be a reason why the aero package did not change significantly this year (what ain't broke, don't fix it).

But the next big standout, which is more relevant for this year's car targets, is how the car keeps a relatively stable gap to RedBull on slower sections on the track, but it plummets on the slowest point in Silverstone at T3-T5.

This is a corner complex which really outline a car's capabilities on braking-induced rotation. A particular big area of weakness for McLaren in the last couple of years. And this, at least in my opinion, is where a very good mechanical platform is needed.

My guess is that McLaren last year, after their major upgrade, had a pretty good aero package, perhaps on par with the best when it comes to peak load. However they were lacking consistency of this aero package under different conditions (bumps, temperature etc ...)

This year, it seems the car has undergone mechanical changes under the hood, with very visible suspension changes externally (with a more pronounced anti-dive front suspension, and anti-squat rear suspension layout). And I think the biggest areas to keep an eye for McLaren at the Bahrain test, would be their performance on corners such as T3-T5 complex in Silverstone.

Basically, low speed car rotation.

I feel like T1 in Bahrain is more of a "stop and go" kind of corner, so I believe a better indicator for performance on this trait would be their rotation on T8 and T10.

Of course, there is only so much you can extrapolate from testing, but I guess when we finally get racing in 2 weeks time, we will have the ultimate test with comparisons to the other teams as well. Let's see if Andreas' words will hold up after R1.

The main weakness of the Mсl 60 at the end of the season was the speed on the straights.