2024 Mclaren Formula 1 Team

[Dafnalina]

I haven’t listen to the podcast myself but to all of the Piastri nay sayers this might be something you’d like to bang your drum with:
https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/the- ... n-russell/

I listened to it. It's interesting what Mark says about Oscar having his car setup with a lot more front-end than Nortis. Like Max or Schumacher. Has anyone noticed that and can confirm? Maybe that choice doesn't pay off with the car's balance.

[CjC]

Does anyone want to find that picture of Zak, Newey and a few others sat having dinner together?

[Darth-Piekus]

Im praying for Mclaren to get Newey back. Its a game changer

[ripleysend]

I really doubt Newey is heading to McLaren. He is either going to Ferrari or Aston Martin.

My bet says Ferrari because he mentioned a career regret has been not working with Lewis/Fernando as drivers and Ferrari as team.

If he goes to Ferrari, it scratches 2 of his regrets in one go. And come on, it's Ferrari. Surely for the prestige alone he would want to design a Ferrari WCC.

He already had a go at McLaren. Came really close in 2005 but a race winner nonetheless. Internal politics back then drew him away.

Either way, he has already had a touch of McLaren.

Ferrari seems to be the only missing "tick" of an outstanding career.

I also doubt he would go back to McLaren. For all the reasons you mention. But also McLaren divested Applied Technologies which may have offered Newey an outlet for working in other areas outside of motorsport. Against that, the attractors for Newey to McLaren may be a) the potential to work across other motorsport series outside of F1 - perhaps Le Mans etc and b) the next generation of McLaren Automotive road cars.

[mwillems]

Never say never on Newey, who knows what might transpire. But you'd think that Ferrari are the bigger lure. Not sure AM can offer anything that we can't.

Whatever happens RB might lose a little of their edge. You'd imagine Newey will take some staff with him.

Seems like an opportunity for Mclaren whatever happens.

[mwillems]

Having several smaller sponsors instead of one big sponsor to reduce the impact of losing them is only relevant when you are struggling financially. All teams are now profitable, McLaren Group is fully controlled by Bahrain fund and finance is stable for years now. Title sponsorship is a huge deal for any team and no one will refuse it if it's available and terms are right. It gives stability, predictability and most importantly - success breads success. Ie it will also attract new smaller sponsors/partners.

The Bahrain fund still fills the gap towards Mclaren, its is not yet in the ''green'' but it is in much better shape than what it was lets say in the COVID years

I think that racing have just become fully self sustainable and in the green, according to Zak in what I'd assume relates to the yet to be posted 23/24 accounts.

Interestingly, Mclaren Automotive also posted their first profit for a while in the first quarter of this year.

[mwillems]

Considering the size of the update package, I think it will be three tenths. The car went about 5-6 tenths faster towards Austria, then another 1-2 tenths towards Silverstone, then a few more tenths towards Singapore. Only here the car went a second faster.

Stella has repeatedly reported that even a few millimeters of ground clearance give a big increase in speed. True, then a vertical swing occurs. If you can overcome this trouble, the car may become faster. And this requires redesigning the Venturi channels so that the floor is not so sensitive. It seems like the package includes a complete update of all aerodynamic surfaces, who knows, maybe even the nose cone will change.

He's saying it's not a huge update and you've extrapolated to a complete update of all aerodynamic surfaces?

We can reliably guess that the upgrade will be a new floor and perhaps SP inlet and undercut region, the areas that seem to be most sensitive in this era

Previously, they wrote repeatedly that all surfaces will be updated. These are not my words. I read this on Twitter, the source is unknown to me.

Moreover, I will add on my own. Assuming that the mcl38 was developed in the Toyota wind tunnel, and the updated McLaren wind tunnel went into operation in the summer, the team could not prepare, as you say, small updates in 8-9 months? Your words seem very impudent.

They did say this. I doubt the scope of work being done since the autumn of last year has changed, just the schedule of the release of updates.

I suspect they will bring the parts that are ready when they can. They did initially say Imola was getting the updates, but perhaps they were happy to release a part of the update at the Sprint weekend.


Stella has clearly spoken about the area at the front of the and talked about a focus there. I just hope that they are still finding more time in development and it isn't that they are struggling to find time.

All we can do is wait. Miami upgrade sounds more like a generic floor based update to increase general downforce and not an update to improve the flow of air in all configurations. The operating window of the car through all its setups for different tracks.

[Macklaren]

I guess McLaren gets Mastercard a new sponsor and just gives a limitless card to Adrian and tells him to send them the bill

[CjC]

He's saying it's not a huge update and you've extrapolated to a complete update of all aerodynamic surfaces?

We can reliably guess that the upgrade will be a new floor and perhaps SP inlet and undercut region, the areas that seem to be most sensitive in this era

Previously, they wrote repeatedly that all surfaces will be updated. These are not my words. I read this on Twitter, the source is unknown to me.

Moreover, I will add on my own. Assuming that the mcl38 was developed in the Toyota wind tunnel, and the updated McLaren wind tunnel went into operation in the summer, the team could not prepare, as you say, small updates in 8-9 months? Your words seem very impudent.

They did say this. I doubt the scope of work being done since the autumn of last year has changed, just the schedule of the release of updates.

I suspect they will bring the parts that are ready when they can. They did initially say Imola was getting the updates, but perhaps they were happy to release a part of the update at the Sprint weekend.


Stella has clearly spoken about the area at the front of the and talked about a focus there. I just hope that they are still finding more time in development and it isn't that they are struggling to find time.

All we can do is wait. Miami upgrade sounds more like a generic floor based update to increase general downforce and not an update to improve the flow of air in all configurations. The operating window of the car through all its setups for different tracks.

But I thought Stella previously said all aero surfaces will change and will be visible?

https://www.planetf1.com/news/mclaren-n ... de-package
I guess he doesn’t specifically say the first round of upgrades would be visible.

However as previously mentioned he said the step should be pretty noticeable- like you say, we’ll have to wait and see

[Darth-Piekus]

Mclaren usually doesn't talk much and deliver surprises when noone expects them. Do you think we might have a chance to get Andrian Newey?

[Emag]

The person who reported the news at sky said the following :

"One or two other significant figures have explained to me that they do believe that Newey's wish would be, if he is to work for another F1 team, that would be with Ferrari."

So yeah, there is almost no chance he comes to McLaren.
But even if there were no rumors about hopping to Ferrari, for the reasons I mentioned I would not expect him to go for McLaren anyway.

[mwillems]

Previously, they wrote repeatedly that all surfaces will be updated. These are not my words. I read this on Twitter, the source is unknown to me.

Moreover, I will add on my own. Assuming that the mcl38 was developed in the Toyota wind tunnel, and the updated McLaren wind tunnel went into operation in the summer, the team could not prepare, as you say, small updates in 8-9 months? Your words seem very impudent.

They did say this. I doubt the scope of work being done since the autumn of last year has changed, just the schedule of the release of updates.

I suspect they will bring the parts that are ready when they can. They did initially say Imola was getting the updates, but perhaps they were happy to release a part of the update at the Sprint weekend.


Stella has clearly spoken about the area at the front of the and talked about a focus there. I just hope that they are still finding more time in development and it isn't that they are struggling to find time.

All we can do is wait. Miami upgrade sounds more like a generic floor based update to increase general downforce and not an update to improve the flow of air in all configurations. The operating window of the car through all its setups for different tracks.

But I thought Stella previously said all aero surfaces will change and will be visible?

https://www.planetf1.com/news/mclaren-n ... de-package
I guess he doesn’t specifically say the first round of upgrades would be visible.

However as previously mentioned he said the step should be pretty noticeable- like you say, we’ll have to wait and see

The first round may not arrive at just one race, like the Austria update. Or I guess some parts of the initial release plan may be held back longer.

Reading the article he doesn't to be specifically talking about the first update, but the season if I'm not mistaken?

For whatever reason, some of the parts are not ready to be signed off. Fingers crossed its not because of a struggle to make some areas work.

Stella still seems positive we will get on the top step this year though.

[BMMR61]

They did say this. I doubt the scope of work being done since the autumn of last year has changed, just the schedule of the release of updates.

I suspect they will bring the parts that are ready when they can. They did initially say Imola was getting the updates, but perhaps they were happy to release a part of the update at the Sprint weekend.


Stella has clearly spoken about the area at the front of the and talked about a focus there. I just hope that they are still finding more time in development and it isn't that they are struggling to find time.

All we can do is wait. Miami upgrade sounds more like a generic floor based update to increase general downforce and not an update to improve the flow of air in all configurations. The operating window of the car through all its setups for different tracks.

But I thought Stella previously said all aero surfaces will change and will be visible?

https://www.planetf1.com/news/mclaren-n ... de-package
I guess he doesn’t specifically say the first round of upgrades would be visible.

However as previously mentioned he said the step should be pretty noticeable- like you say, we’ll have to wait and see

The first round may not arrive at just one race, like the Austria update. Or I guess some parts of the initial release plan may be held back longer.

Reading the article he doesn't to be specifically talking about the first update, but the season if I'm not mistaken?

For whatever reason, some of the parts are not ready to be signed off. Fingers crossed its not because of a struggle to make some areas work.

Stella still seems positive we will get on the top step this year though.

Remember the announcement of last year's upgrades, what did Stella say about them? Three stages over three (consecutive?) weekends. Stages one and two were completed over Austria and Silverstone weekends then we waited. Nothing at Hungary, no further discussion. Singapore produced a significant upgrade, in between, Spa revealed a lack of lower downforce options in the rear wing configuration. Maybe Stella decided after the 2023 upgrade experience that it's better not to be too specific about timing and rollout. He would have had reasons for not continuing the rollout at Hungary plus it probably became tiresome fielding questions about when the third step was going to be introduced.

I wouldn't be surprised to see highly significant changes introduced over the next two races as the circuit demands at Miami and Imola are so very different. One set will be designed to lay the path for the next. I'm fairly confident this will take McLaren past Ferrari in the chase of Max. If pressure can be put on RedBull and Max, that in itself can be a game changer and things can change very quickly. The mood in the specialised media has shifted a lot since Bahrain and McLaren are now (again) seen as RedBull's future threat by many.

[BMMR61]

Does anyone want to find that picture of Zak, Newey and a few others sat having dinner together?

Immediately came to my mind that photo. Adrian's quite a free spirit kind of guy, not afraid to go to a Zak Brown hosted get together, and way too free to operate under "Uncle Ron"! Things at McLaren are a much more open forum place, maybe that appeals. I don't know how close he is with Rob Marshall but there's a good chance the question "How's life at McLaren?" would have been casually asked. Outside projects would be one of the strongest lures for Adrian as he moves into the late stages of his F1 career, plenty of those to be found at McLaren. Far more than any other F1 team.

There's a risk/reward factor with a major signing to the top tech job. Would you want to risk all the incremental gains and understanding of mainly internal promotions? Sanchez wasn't a fit and an early reversal was decided. I like the overall harmony that seems to exist. I know suggesting not pursuing Newey sounds a bit like heresy to some but I put it out there. The Newey factor would be a culture shift and take two years minimum from actual engagement to really bear fruit - that's 2028 or 2029.

[Mansell89]

The person who reported the news at sky said the following :

"One or two other significant figures have explained to me that they do believe that Newey's wish would be, if he is to work for another F1 team, that would be with Ferrari."

So yeah, there is almost no chance he comes to McLaren.
But even if there were no rumors about hopping to Ferrari, for the reasons I mentioned I would not expect him to go for McLaren anyway.

If it’s Sky it’s Craig Slater.

He’s about as useful as a chocolate tea pot. One of the few imbeciles on the planet to be as uninformative as David Croft.

Another Sky comedy act who thinks they’re funny.

In F1 the official news usually runs a few months behind the first rumours - it looks 99% certain Aston Martin or Ferrari would be the only destinations other than retirement/holiiday.