2023 - McLaren Formula 1 Team

[jato]

Nothing is wrong with the car. Fans want something revolutionary and for it to be seen as a 'sign' that they could be heading in the right direction and making a massive jump - as always F1 fans as fickle when it comes to the looks or when testing times don't meet their expectations. Wait until the first race.

The Baku upgrade is no different to past seasons for a long time when teams used to leave their first big development upgrade when races moved back to Europe. This is no different except now you have to be more careful in your development plan with the budget cap in place.

[organic]

My issue with the new car is that they are already downplaying it & talking down the chances of a good beginning of the year. To me that just smells of a poor season incoming, even if they theoretically have big plans for development. Most teams have big developments in mind

[the EDGE]

My issue with the new car is that they are already downplaying it & talking down the chances of a good beginning of the year. To me that just smells of a poor season incoming, even if they theoretically have big plans for development. Most teams have big developments in mind

Sounds like you’re a glass half empty guy, from where I’m standing we’ve got some really good development In the pipeline for the start of the season, which is a big positive

[MrGapes]

You now have latest street view images of the MTC (feb 2023)...



The boarded off section at the back is where the entry to the wind tunnel is... hence boarded off for the work

The frosted glass is where I believe the new sim is going

[bauc]

What a disappointment, I'm a Mclaren fan since 1997, and I never haven been so downbeat before a season. The car, the vibe in the team is simply not there...... I pray to god that I will be disproven but my gut feeling tells me that this will be even more difficult season than last year.

Really? Not getting that at all. Car looks like a decent evolution from last year, picking tropes from both Ferrari and Red Bull and incorporating into their own. I'm more excited by the in-season developments, as McLaren seem to be very encouraged by what they have discovered.

Maybe you are right, maybe is just me ....

[Emag]

Well to be honest, even if the car looked exciting (and imo it doesn't look as dull as some people are saying), the general team attitude is enough to put you off.

There's zero confidence shown and plenty of remarks about being unhappy with the initial design.

Could be a game of underplaying and managing expectations, but the vibe is quite off this year.

Remaining pessimistic until proven otherwise.

[Henk_v]

Its as easy as merc in 3rd place makes 4th as their customer the highest attainable.

No customer ever exceeds their engine supplier in the rankings.

[organic]

Its as easy as merc in 3rd place makes 4th as their customer the highest attainable.

No customer ever exceeds their engine supplier in the rankings.

McLaren in 2020 with Renault engine ?

McLaren 3rd Renault 5th..

Not to mention RB's 4 wcc back to back 2010-2013?

[BMMR61]

Judged by many of the comments here McLaren should put spending on hold and announce they’re up for sale. By the rawest data (championship result), McLaren dropped a place each of the last two seasons. Yet 2021 produced a win (actually a 1-2) and a pole and were outdeveloped by Ferrari then in 2022 they were narrowly beaten by Alpine who had two contributing drivers….

The 2023 car will be a pivotal point in McLaren’s history - like 2022, 2021, 2020....
Waiting to hear “the experts” on how the MCL60 looks on the evolutionary scale, but even race 1 won’t tell us all that much - remember Bahrain last year and fears of battling Williams for the wooden spoon?

[proteus]

Its as easy as merc in 3rd place makes 4th as their customer the highest attainable.

No customer ever exceeds their engine supplier in the rankings.

McLaren in 2020 with Renault engine ?

McLaren 3rd Renault 5th..

Not to mention RB's 4 wcc back to back 2010-2013?

Also Mclaren in 2010 to 2012.

[taperoo2k]

My issue with the new car is that they are already downplaying it & talking down the chances of a good beginning of the year. To me that just smells of a poor season incoming, even if they theoretically have big plans for development. Most teams have big developments in mind

Tbh it sounds like McLaren have learned from over hyping cars in the past and are being quite pragmatic about where they think they'll be early on. It sounds like they just ran out of time to fully develop the solutions they've come up with before the start of the season. It doesn't really matter where McLaren starts a season, it's where they finish that matters. Though I expect they might already be thinking about the 2024 car as the new wind tunnel should be up and running by the time they start development work on that.

[mwillems]

This Mclaren car has a lot of changes on it over last year, including a shift towards employing rake. The chnges may not be extravagant, but even on the show car there are a lot of them and they are often not small changes. Cumulitively, there is a lot different on this car that you might consider it a shift in philosophy over the previous year. This is not to mention that we haven't seen the floor or diffuser yet, there is more to come.

I don't think this car will be top 3 and I think it would be sensible to expect a fight for top 4 again. But given their drive towards an upgrade path that they have already announced will bring strong benefits, around the front wing and the deformation of the tyres, there is reason to believe that during this season we can make some decent gains.

For me at least, what's more important than our position is showing a good upward curve in performance and the distance to the front over the course of the season. If we can start biting on the heals of 3rd more often towards the back of the season then "it's on" lol

[Ground Effect]

My issue with the new car is that they are already downplaying it & talking down the chances of a good beginning of the year. To me that just smells of a poor season incoming, even if they theoretically have big plans for development. Most teams have big developments in mind

Tbh it sounds like McLaren have learned from over hyping cars in the past and are being quite pragmatic about where they think they'll be early on. It sounds like they just ran out of time to fully develop the solutions they've come up with before the start of the season. It doesn't really matter where McLaren starts a season, it's where they finish that matters. Though I expect they might already be thinking about the 2024 car as the new wind tunnel should be up and running by the time they start development work on that.

That's exactly what I thought as well.

[Stig14]

Well to be honest, even if the car looked exciting (and imo it doesn't look as dull as some people are saying), the general team attitude is enough to put you off.

There's zero confidence shown and plenty of remarks about being unhappy with the initial design.

Could be a game of underplaying and managing expectations, but the vibe is quite off this year.

Remaining pessimistic until proven otherwise.

Frankly I'm pleased with the team's strategy of "under promise to over deliver". There's nothing worse than seeing a team shouting from the rooftops about how great you are only for reality to prove otherwise (see McLaren following the Honda split).

Also McLaren shouldn't be happy with where they've been of late. They should be unhappy with their recent cars' performance and this should drive them to improve it until they're fighting at the front (likely not this year). No one wants to be happy fighting in the midfield.

[Szabi1112]

Who cares what they are saying before the tests/first race? What matters is the car performance which we will see in the first race.