Macklaren wrote: ↑27 Aug 2024, 22:27
i fully acknowledge that this is premature BUT....Lando said in the post race press conf that he thinks he would have won in Zandvoort even without the latest upgrade. We have seen that a car that was last updated in Miami was still very competitive until the summer break. If McL win in Monza and Azerbaijan by a large margin, the team should think about holding back remaining upgrades until 2025 so as to not tip our hand for next year's car. and also use 2025 wind tunnel time (which will be lower because we finish P1/P2 in WCC this year) for the '26 regs? Save some budgt cap money too?
There is no point in holding back upgrades for the '24 car if they improve performance, which will help them win the constructors. I expect McLaren will be able to carry over a lot of components from the '24 car into the '25 car. Given McLaren's wind tunnel looks like it's performing very well, the restricted time might not be a hinderance for McLaren. The regulations are stable, so evolution rather than revolution is the way McLaren is probably going.
As for the '26 car? Development doesn't start until January 2025 for all teams. Same old thing in F1, you have to make decisions about how you split resources between the current car and a car that has a different set of regulations.
McLaren should produce a car capable of winning in '26. However, the unknown for all teams will be the quality of the Power Units from respective manufacturers. Either it'll be very competitive, or Mercedes might repeat what they did in 2014.