McLaren MCL33 Speculation thread

[Blackout]

Iif you face reliability problems and change many parts early in the season, that triggers a snowball effect and you end up with poor reliability or big reliability risks late in the season, even if you improve at the factory... unless you produce 100 PU and change PU every weekend (similar to what Honda did).
Merc who did everything right did not have that problem and their PU, even old, were in optimal conditions.
That was one of Renault's problems last year... The causes and the consequences were:
-The ERS development and testing was rushed a bit
-dyno/track correlation wasn't good enough
-some supplier problems, some parts of the MGUH/turbo were not good enough
-early reliability problems in the season
-cooling problems for Renault and STR at-least
-integration was perfectible regarding some parts (hydraulic/water pumps for the RB teams)
-lack of spare parts at the end
-ending up with Frankenstein engines
...

[f1316]

I think it’s fair to say that Max was very very fast in Mexico, just look at Q2 (and NB: Daniel wasn’t - neither was Kimi - so I think we were also seeing drivers making a difference in conditions where tyre temps were tricky and power boosts were counting for less). I personally think Seb’s laps in Q3 in Mex and Singapore were the best things he did all season - shame he threw them both away! - and combined with the conditions just pushing the RB out of the window a tiny bit in Q3, was all that stopped Max being on pole ‘on merit’.

Malaysia, i’d argue the Ferrari was faster but if you look at the delta between Seb on softer tyres and Max, it wasn’t by much.

All of which is to say that *last year’s Renault* (emphasis because we simply don’t know what progress any manufacturers will make this year) could be competitive on occasion, if the chassis was good enough. I don’t think we live in an age where RB have a chassis that is 1 sec better then Mercedes, so again, in the right circumstances - and totally correct to highlight that Mercedes/Ferrari might have PUs at different stages in lifecycle - a car using a Renault can be relatively close on pure power in a race.

That said, the target for McLaren isn’t Ferrari or Mercedes - it’s Red Bull. That is the benchmark car running the Renault and, whilst they’ll hope that being on terms with/ahead of RB means they’re competitive, if they’re ahead of them and *not* competitive with top two, they’ll still view that as success.

For the record, I don’t think they’ll be closer than about 4 tenths to RB at the start - way too much in RB’s favour in terms of disruption/timelines/designing around known parameters - but if they can get there in the back end of the season, I think that represents massive success for McLaren.

[adrianjordan]

I think it's fair to say that 2017 counts for 2017, let's see what Renault and Mclaren have each produced for 2018.

It's not quite as bad as the people bashing Mclaren now because in 2013-5 they built a sub-par chassis despite there being a massive shake-up of the design ans management since then....but it's not far off.

Renault know how to build a competitive PU, they just need to catch up with Merc and Ferrari. They will get there (as I hope will Honda), but when you're pushing to catch up you have to take a few more risks and so get reliability problems as a result. What's the old mantra? It's easier to make a fast car reliable than a reliable car fast? I think the same can be said for PU's. Once the power is there then the reliability will follow in time. How long each of those will take? We'll all just have to wait and see...

[Vladimir]

Mercedes wary of ‘serious' McLaren, Renault threat

https://www.gptoday.com/full_story/view ... lt_threat/

[ollandos]

about renault PU ..they start for 2018 PU many months sooner than others....with upgrade on BAKU i remember renault saying thats the last upgrade all ready we work for next year ...no other it was on same mode ... i dont know the results of this progres from there but the logic saying renault it will be closer this year ...for me ..if we take the numbers from last races on public with mercedes on top and -2-3% ferrari ,-5-6% renault and -10-11% honda ..renault catch ferrari level..and cut the gap from mercedes by the half....if renault can have this level from the start ..he give the change to top customers teams the fight for the titles..why not ?..the gap is small top drivers onboard very very good aero departments....ferrari last year lose from his reliability..not from power..

[Vladimir]

Renault: promoted the reliability and packaging of the 2018 power unit

https://translate.googleusercontent.co ... GqKfhYKqXw

[baybars]

How much are you looking to 2018?
RT: Back at Viry, of course, we are well into our 2018 programme as so much work is done ahead of the Power Unit getting to the track. On track too, we have brought certain elements which are relevant to our 2018 PU as we look to take another step forward. We have a busy four months before we see the 2018 cars unveiled, as we do every year.

[Mansell89]

I would love nothing more than Renault to be right up close to performance levels of Merc and Ferrari but despite Renault improving, they were a good bit behind the two teams fighting out the Championship. Hopefully they reap the rewards of their directional change in PU development towards the end of 2016 and we see a significant step forward this year.

McLaren and RBR fighting with Merc and Ferrari would be great for the sporting perspective.

[Manoah2u]

can you guys fight it out on the schoolground?

jeesh. really fits with the mcl33 speculation. how renault did or not bring parts to mexico 2017.

[Thunder]

Great MCL 33 Speculation Guys....
Could we Focus on the Topic now Please and leave out the Provocative Posts about how badly this all will end before the Car even is uncovered? Oh and 2017 Race Discussion really isn't necessary anymore.

[Mansell89]

With Petrobras sponsoring McLaren, can I just confirm if they actually supply fuel/oils for the PU or is it simply a sponsor capacity only?

Obviously works Renault team are with BP/Castrol so assuming they will optimise engine performance and hence my intrigue as to McLaren link up with Petrobras.

Sorry if this appears a silly question!

[Manoah2u]

With Petrobras sponsoring McLaren, can I just confirm if they actually supply fuel/oils for the PU or is it simply a sponsor capacity only?

Obviously works Renault team are with BP/Castrol so assuming they will optimise engine performance and hence my intrigue as to McLaren link up with Petrobras.

Sorry if this appears a silly question!

check the team thread.

Mclaren keeps bp/castrol for 2018. as of 2019 they intend to do a actual tech supply. they'll be on the cars though and team wear. so essentially, for 2018, it's name-only, whilst they'll have a lab on the track to figure out stuff if i understand correctly.

[Mansell89]

With Petrobras sponsoring McLaren, can I just confirm if they actually supply fuel/oils for the PU or is it simply a sponsor capacity only?

Obviously works Renault team are with BP/Castrol so assuming they will optimise engine performance and hence my intrigue as to McLaren link up with Petrobras.

Sorry if this appears a silly question!

check the team thread.

Mclaren keeps bp/castrol for 2018. as of 2019 they intend to do a actual tech supply. they'll be on the cars though and team wear. so essentially, for 2018, it's name-only, whilst they'll have a lab on the track to figure out stuff if i understand correctly.

Thanks for the confirmation! sensible decision for 2018 then IMO

[bauc]

McLaren plans 'substantial' F1 update package for Australian GP

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/13446 ... rne-update

"You can expect to see something quite similar conceptually for launch, and then in truth we have spent the last two to three months focusing on a race one upgrade.

So we should expect a ''basic'' car at the launch and then a huge update for the first race.

[cramr]

McLaren plans 'substantial' F1 update package for Australian GP

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/13446 ... rne-update

"You can expect to see something quite similar conceptually for launch, and then in truth we have spent the last two to three months focusing on a race one upgrade.

So we should expect a ''basic'' car at the launch and then a huge update for the first race.

That's expected, specially after the late engine change from Honda to Renault