McLaren MCL32 Honda

[Lucky]

Active suspension?

yes

[Jef Patat]

Very nice comparisson of the 31 and 32

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2017/02/24/c ... ars-model/

[bauc]

Very nice comparisson of the 31 and 32

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2017/02/24/c ... ars-model/

WoW, you can clearly see how bigger this new cars are but also you can see that in the many aspects the same philosophy has been kept such as front and rear suspension.

[Motörhead]

This is my take on it.....
People are saying it looks pretty simple. That's fair enough. As various contributors have said, simple can be very effective...... it depends what's underneath. We all remember the J-damper that Renault used to run or the double diffuser that Brawn came up with.
The thing is, if you start putting lots of turning veins, strakes etc on to a car, all these things add more drag.

It has been said that Mclaren in the past two years have had to have a pretty skinny car because of the lack of grunt the engine unit has been providing. So it couldn't afford to be adding extra drag, whereas Mercedes for example, with the best performing engine on the grid, especially with their clever taylored fuel, and great cooling that gave them that bit of extra hp, could afford to add drag, as this in turn adds downforce.

So what do we know?

Honda's Yusuke Hasegawa has said about the 2017 engine:
"the concept is completely different. It’s very high risk, we don’t know a lot of things about that new concept. We still have to do some tests and there will be some trial and error. I hope we have understood the direction and the elements to focus on"

We can make a fairly good guess that they will base their new design on the Merc engine. And Tim Goss, Mclarens technical director has eluded to this, but not in so many words! And we can also make a fairly good guess that Honda' starting point will be greater than their engine at the end of last year, and closer to the Merc horsepower wise.
But it's largely untried.

With the token system on engine development having been scrapped, we can guess that Honda will have several iterations during the course of the year, as their development curve will be steeper as they are still playing catch up with a new layout. Four engines per car with two cars, means a potential 8 engine updates.
All the other teams will be using this opportunity also.
Don't forget that any Engine manufacturer in F1 has needed three years to get to the top.

My guess is Mclaren are keeping it skinny to start with. No point in giving the competition a heads up in winter testing, if the engine has a few gremlins and they can't get enough mileage in the clock, then there's no point in having all your trick components on the car.

Yes, the car looks clean and it looks to be a pretty good baseline to start their correlation duties next week. And if the engine behaves and gives them the horsepower, then they can build on that, add more drag (downforce) and bring their major updates to Australia. Including a new floor!

I'm sure we will all watch on with interest. I will, because I think F1 needs them back in the mix.
This year should be a corker!

[Avocado]

The Floor is completely Basic. Diffusor covered up. Much to come i guess.

This. They're hiding many things. But the FW and RW look amazingly detailed.

[NathanOlder]

Anyone see any pictures from Japan ??

[ESPImperium]

This car is full of wow for me, the nose is wonderful as its got those slots, the front wing is nicely developed. The rear wing is a masterpiece, and although the car looks underdeveloped, I'm sure (and hope) that the Prodromu and Red Bull/Newey style and philosophy of keeping it simple and making it look under developed will make it a strong contender, if Honda can deliver a good power unit.

Again, i like the more traditional air scoop as those fat Mercedes/Renault/Force India/Wiliams air scoops jar with the car for me.

[adrianjordan]

Anyone see any pictures from Japan ??

The Japan car wasn't an MCL32, it was clear with the cover on that it had a 2009-16 spec rear wing.

[daren_p]

This car is full of wow for me, the nose is wonderful as its got those slots, the front wing is nicely developed. The rear wing is a masterpiece, and although the car looks underdeveloped, I'm sure (and hope) that the Prodromu and Red Bull/Newey style and philosophy of keeping it simple and making it look under developed will make it a strong contender, if Honda can deliver a good power unit.

Again, i like the more traditional air scoop as those fat Mercedes/Renault/Force India/Wiliams air scoops jar with the car for me.

I would agree, with out being an expert, some of the areas you do see look fairly well developed. It does appear they are working with an evolution of last years car & not going for a revolution, which to me is a good idea & seems to be what has been working for them (vs the revolution in previous years) & other teams. Front wing basically looks like a version of last years, made to this years regulations (which seems to be about the same for every team) & I'm sure will change many times again. The front wing support pylons just look to be a more extreme version of last years based on the new regulations. The floor appears completely blank so would assume its just for the launch & may not even have an actual diffuser installed, looking forward to see the actual floor come testing. As has been mentioned, clean do not necessarily mean bad, look at Redbull, probably one of the cleanest cars & typically one of the best.

[NathanOlder]

Anyone see any pictures from Japan ??

The Japan car wasn't an MCL32, it was clear with the cover on that it had a 2009-16 spec rear wing.

Yeah I know that, I was just interested to see it.

[GoranF1]

Is there a tunnel?
https://twitter.com/alo_pumpa/status/835247359386923008

[ncassi22]

I agree that this is very much a 'base' chassis. Partly due to it being launch spec with most of the detailed work not on the car. They also need to verify that they fixed last years issues come next week before they start adding stuff.

One thing that is interesting is that the whole car seems to be less draggy. There is a less aggressively angled out-wash vane on the top of the pods, with a horizontal style wing replacing the vertical inner two from last year (next to the cockpit ala red-bull). The attachment of these also run more parallel to the headrest 'bulbs' with little to no out-wash. Coupled to this are mirror stalks angling air slightly inwards to help air flow parallel to the head restraint 'bulbs' instead of massively outwards like last year. The 'bulbs' are also less squared off at the back and better flows into its surroundings.Then there's obviously also the smaller air intake above the drivers head. The leading arc of the cock bottle is also less aggressive than last year, although the 31 was one of the tightest in this area anyway. It's all very subtle and I could just be thrown by all the freakin orange, but who knows - this is just what I see.

On the back-end. It's great - It gives them the opportunity to trim down the top of the heat outlets to get a better angle of attack to the rear wing if they need more DF, or trim it another way if they decide to go low drag - Very much what they did throughout the season last year. Also great for cooling during testing the new PU. IMO it will definitely be smaller come Melbourne though.

[ncassi22]

Just to add. The outwash shape on the top of the sidepods also start further forward- more like the 30 than the 31. So it's very much an evolution of what they've learned over the last two year.

[ltitus8900]

I am excited for Mclaren this year. They are back at least when aero is concerned. The detail that they are willing to show is impressive to say the least. Their higher than average technical approach to things is back and I can wait to see what else they have up their sleeves. =D>

[Shrieker]

That engine doesn't seem to need air / cooling compared to other cars.

GP2 engine doesn't need much air

Ouch !