2024 Mclaren Formula 1 Team

[LionsHeart]

One mate wrote that McLaren still has vertical sway and that he heard it on the onboard camera. Well, it was the same last year, nothing new. For me, the real vertical sway (bouncing) is the 2022 Ferrari at the Australian Grand Prix. That's impressive vertical sway there. And you look from the side on the main straight at the McLaren, it drives smoothly and there are no sparks from under the floor, unlike the Mercedes today.

[LionsHeart]

I wasnt always that pessimistic but I became pessimistic after not seeing a Mclaren car that is innovative and leads the field for over a decade.

Well, I agree. But last year the team tightened up the aerodynamics a lot and the weak point was the chassis and suspension area. There are changes in this area this season, and aerodynamics remains a strong point. So what is the problem? Mercedes have failed in two years at an innovation called zero pontoons. Although it's championship team hasn't sort of learnt how to build F1 cars. But even they couldn't do it, as it turns out. Now I remember how Honda scolded the McLaren designers for wanting a tight waist in the area of the side pontoons. And later, a few years later, all the teams switched to similar pontoons. McLaren was ahead in this respect, but Honda's engine engineers couldn't beat powertrain cooling.

[mwillems]

One mate wrote that McLaren still has vertical sway and that he heard it on the onboard camera. Well, it was the same last year, nothing new. For me, the real vertical sway (bouncing) is the 2022 Ferrari at the Australian Grand Prix. That's impressive vertical sway there. And you look from the side on the main straight at the McLaren, it drives smoothly and there are no sparks from under the floor, unlike the Mercedes today.

Yeah it looks really planted, as you say unlike the Merc, or the RB in Perez' hands.

The track surface at Bahrain hasn't been updated in over a decade, it hasn't been touched since the track was built in fact. So if you run low and you run stiff on that surface, then your buttocks are going to get sore and there's nothing you can do to stop it

I'll add that the Mclaren is running very low, as many cars are, but it really does run close to the ground in a balanced manner. As stella has talked around but not said explicitly, the time is found in the details like the millimetres difference to the floor, not so much in the Aero (But there is still time there, obviously).

[Darth-Piekus]

Well, I agree. But last year the team tightened up the aerodynamics a lot and the weak point was the chassis and suspension area. There are changes in this area this season, and aerodynamics remains a strong point. So what is the problem? Mercedes have failed in two years at an innovation called zero pontoons. Although it's championship team hasn't sort of learnt how to build F1 cars. But even they couldn't do it, as it turns out. Now I remember how Honda scolded the McLaren designers for wanting a tight waist in the area of the side pontoons. And later, a few years later, all the teams switched to similar pontoons. McLaren was ahead in this respect, but Honda's engine engineers couldn't beat powertrain cooling.

I believe it should be time the team has to learn to create their own innovations that will set the bar. Theres nothing wrong in evolving last years Red Bull concept into a new level but it can only go so far. Look at the current Red Bull concept. It might be a class of the field and we might need to use it at some point.

[LionsHeart]

One mate wrote that McLaren still has vertical sway and that he heard it on the onboard camera. Well, it was the same last year, nothing new. For me, the real vertical sway (bouncing) is the 2022 Ferrari at the Australian Grand Prix. That's impressive vertical sway there. And you look from the side on the main straight at the McLaren, it drives smoothly and there are no sparks from under the floor, unlike the Mercedes today.

Yeah it looks really planted, as you say unlike the Merc, or the RB in Perez' hands.

The track surface at Bahrain hasn't been updated in over a decade, it hasn't been touched since the track was built in fact. So if you run low and you run stiff on that surface, then your buttocks are going to get sore and there's nothing you can do to stop it

I'll add that the Mclaren is running very low, as many cars are, but it really does run close to the ground in a balanced manner. As stella has talked around but not said explicitly, the time is found in the details like the millimetres difference to the floor, not so much in the Aero (But there is still time there, obviously).

And here I was surprised that the McLaren chassis doesn't throw up a lot of sparks unlike the Mercedes. I think it's got a bit of ground clearance to spare.

[mwillems]

One mate wrote that McLaren still has vertical sway and that he heard it on the onboard camera. Well, it was the same last year, nothing new. For me, the real vertical sway (bouncing) is the 2022 Ferrari at the Australian Grand Prix. That's impressive vertical sway there. And you look from the side on the main straight at the McLaren, it drives smoothly and there are no sparks from under the floor, unlike the Mercedes today.

Yeah it looks really planted, as you say unlike the Merc, or the RB in Perez' hands.

The track surface at Bahrain hasn't been updated in over a decade, it hasn't been touched since the track was built in fact. So if you run low and you run stiff on that surface, then your buttocks are going to get sore and there's nothing you can do to stop it

I'll add that the Mclaren is running very low, as many cars are, but it really does run close to the ground in a balanced manner. As stella has talked around but not said explicitly, the time is found in the details like the millimetres difference to the floor, not so much in the Aero (But there is still time there, obviously).

And here I was surprised that the McLaren chassis doesn't throw up a lot of sparks unlike the Mercedes. I think it's got a bit of ground clearance to spare.

I thought I could still see it hitting the ground to be honest, just not with too much anger. I'll need to pay attention to this tomorrow as I'm not trusting my own recollection from today.

[LionsHeart]

Well, I agree. But last year the team tightened up the aerodynamics a lot and the weak point was the chassis and suspension area. There are changes in this area this season, and aerodynamics remains a strong point. So what is the problem? Mercedes have failed in two years at an innovation called zero pontoons. Although it's championship team hasn't sort of learnt how to build F1 cars. But even they couldn't do it, as it turns out. Now I remember how Honda scolded the McLaren designers for wanting a tight waist in the area of the side pontoons. And later, a few years later, all the teams switched to similar pontoons. McLaren was ahead in this respect, but Honda's engine engineers couldn't beat powertrain cooling.

I believe it should be time the team has to learn to create their own innovations that will set the bar. Theres nothing wrong in evolving last years Red Bull concept into a new level but it can only go so far. Look at the current Red Bull concept. It might be a class of the field and we might need to use it at some point.

Or maybe their concept won't work and then what? Lose money, time and resources to develop something that won't work? The team goes its own way, choosing the best options for the development of chassis and aerodynamics. This was evident in 2022 as well as in 2023. The car has changed a lot in the last two years. It seems to me that the rumours about Red Bull preparing zero pontoons for Japan will turn out to be just rumours. Especially if these rumours are started by Red Bull themselves, so that some teams will throw some of their resources into this area, thus giving Red Bull more time. We know they have the least amount of time in the aerotube and computational fluid dynamics system.

[LionsHeart]

Yeah it looks really planted, as you say unlike the Merc, or the RB in Perez' hands.

The track surface at Bahrain hasn't been updated in over a decade, it hasn't been touched since the track was built in fact. So if you run low and you run stiff on that surface, then your buttocks are going to get sore and there's nothing you can do to stop it

I'll add that the Mclaren is running very low, as many cars are, but it really does run close to the ground in a balanced manner. As stella has talked around but not said explicitly, the time is found in the details like the millimetres difference to the floor, not so much in the Aero (But there is still time there, obviously).

And here I was surprised that the McLaren chassis doesn't throw up a lot of sparks unlike the Mercedes. I think it's got a bit of ground clearance to spare.

I thought I could still see it hitting the ground to be honest, just not with too much anger. I'll need to pay attention to this tomorrow as I'm not trusting my own recollection from today.

The team has a lot of work to do tomorrow. It would be nice to make up for some of the lost time. But, given that I am used to how the team has been doing pre-season tests in recent years, I don't even care a little bit. The main thing is to have time to conduct basic simulations, to check different options for settings, to optimise certain areas, to check the data with the base in Woking.

Mwillems, would you be so kind as to post telemetry of Sergio's fastest lap, Carlos on C3 tyres, Max yesterday and Lando's if it's not too much trouble. So we can compare the speeds and roughly estimate the differences.

[FittingMechanics]

It looked like Perez got a lot of power, he was 320kph on the straight.

Overall I think it was a good day today. Team is not really pushing hard for laptime and yet they are doing well. Norris was P2 for the most of the day and only fell down late in the day when the conditions were better. I'm confident the car is good.

[mwillems]

And here I was surprised that the McLaren chassis doesn't throw up a lot of sparks unlike the Mercedes. I think it's got a bit of ground clearance to spare.

I thought I could still see it hitting the ground to be honest, just not with too much anger. I'll need to pay attention to this tomorrow as I'm not trusting my own recollection from today.

The team has a lot of work to do tomorrow. It would be nice to make up for some of the lost time. But, given that I am used to how the team has been doing pre-season tests in recent years, I don't even care a little bit. The main thing is to have time to conduct basic simulations, to check different options for settings, to optimise certain areas, to check the data with the base in Woking.

Mwillems, would you be so kind as to post telemetry of Sergio's fastest lap, Carlos on C3 tyres, Max yesterday and Lando's if it's not too much trouble. So we can compare the speeds and roughly estimate the differences.

Yes of course, it might be a bit later though as I'm cooking dinner at the moment and then I will need to put the little one to bed so will be a few hours.

[LionsHeart]

I thought I could still see it hitting the ground to be honest, just not with too much anger. I'll need to pay attention to this tomorrow as I'm not trusting my own recollection from today.

The team has a lot of work to do tomorrow. It would be nice to make up for some of the lost time. But, given that I am used to how the team has been doing pre-season tests in recent years, I don't even care a little bit. The main thing is to have time to conduct basic simulations, to check different options for settings, to optimise certain areas, to check the data with the base in Woking.

Mwillems, would you be so kind as to post telemetry of Sergio's fastest lap, Carlos on C3 tyres, Max yesterday and Lando's if it's not too much trouble. So we can compare the speeds and roughly estimate the differences.

Yes of course, it might be a bit later though as I'm cooking dinner at the moment and then I will need to put the little one to bed so will be a few hours.

No problem, no rush. Thank you very much in advance!

[mwillems]

It looked like Perez got a lot of power, he was 320kph on the straight.

Overall I think it was a good day today. Team is not really pushing hard for laptime and yet they are doing well. Norris was P2 for the most of the day and only fell down late in the day when the conditions were better. I'm confident the car is good.

Yeah I saw his laps, he did a couple of fast laps with a setup change in between. His fastest lap the car looked like it really didn't want to comply, whereas the next slower lap the car was more compliant, but slower. I particularly noticed that the car was topping out at 321kph, without a tow it won't go much faster. It made me think that it was limited by the gearing.

[mwillems]

The team has a lot of work to do tomorrow. It would be nice to make up for some of the lost time. But, given that I am used to how the team has been doing pre-season tests in recent years, I don't even care a little bit. The main thing is to have time to conduct basic simulations, to check different options for settings, to optimise certain areas, to check the data with the base in Woking.

Mwillems, would you be so kind as to post telemetry of Sergio's fastest lap, Carlos on C3 tyres, Max yesterday and Lando's if it's not too much trouble. So we can compare the speeds and roughly estimate the differences.

Yes of course, it might be a bit later though as I'm cooking dinner at the moment and then I will need to put the little one to bed so will be a few hours.

No problem, no rush. Thank you very much in advance!

Did you want telemetry from the API in detail, or were you after the stuff I get from F1-Tempo.com? Let me know if this isn't what you are after.

[mwillems]

And Max v Lando from yesterday

Telemetry with live delta

[elldizzle]

Does anyone else think, with these low top speeds and low engine mode, that we may be sandbagging?. Car looks very compliant and driveable from the onboards.