You correlate your CFD with wind tunnel data, until you can get on track data.Emag wrote: ↑20 May 2024, 22:58McLaren developed the 2023 car (including the major upgrades later in the season) in the old Toyota wind tunnel. Even their 2024 car was conceived using the old tunnel, even though upgrades for this car will likely come from parts tested in their new wind tunnel.Hoffman900 wrote: ↑20 May 2024, 22:04Doesn’t AM share Mercedes wind tunnel?
It seems Mclaren has taken a leap forward with correlation with their own wind tunnel.
Not saying a correlation = causation, but the two teams sharing the same WT do seem to be struggling with correlation.
However, it is their 2025 car that will be fully developed (from the get-go) with their in-house wind tunnel.
Anyway, if the correlation is good, the wind tunnel is not a major limitation. RedBull is currently using an archaic tunnel compared to the competition, but clearly that's not holding them back.
For McLaren, the biggest benefit to having the wind tunnel at their factory comes in form of logistics. It's way less efficient to ship parts back and forth from Woking to Cologne, but of course, you can't mitigate the benefits of newer technology. For sure they are getting some benefit from the modern facilities.
If your wind tunnel is wrong, your code will be wrong as well.