Emag wrote: ↑19 Feb 2024, 00:39
With testing almost upon us, I wanted to review one of Andrea's recent comments one last time regarding the work done on the car over the winter. So, recently McLaren posted this article :
https://www.mclaren.com/racing/formula- ... o-round-1/
And Andrea is shown to be quite optimistic on targets hit over the winter, with a particular sentence catching my eye. When asked where the car would have improved when it hits the track on Bahrain, he says that he can't think of a single area which wasn't improved over the winter.
Now that makes sense if the target is Bahrain spec MCL60, but given how the article develops later, it's safe to assume he means improvement on how the car left 2023 in Abu Dhabi.
Now looking back last year after the first real big upgrade which turned the car around to a consistent #2 contender after RedBull, it was interesting to look at this track map :
https://i.ibb.co/J2vbjtk/image.png
The first standout here is that McLaren at Silverstone last year, already had the best car when it comes to fast sections, with a more pronounced advantage on medium-ish speed corners. That hints towards a very "healthy" aerodynamic package when it comes to peak load, and perhaps could be a reason why the aero package did not change significantly this year (what ain't broke, don't fix it).
But the next big standout, which is more relevant for this year's car targets, is how the car keeps a relatively stable gap to RedBull on slower sections on the track, but it plummets on the slowest point in Silverstone at T3-T5.
This is a corner complex which really outline a car's capabilities on braking-induced rotation. A particular big area of weakness for McLaren in the last couple of years. And this, at least in my opinion, is where a very good mechanical platform is needed.
My guess is that McLaren last year, after their major upgrade, had a pretty good aero package, perhaps on par with the best when it comes to peak load. However they were lacking consistency of this aero package under different conditions (bumps, temperature etc ...)
This year, it seems the car has undergone mechanical changes under the hood, with very visible suspension changes externally (with a more pronounced anti-dive front suspension, and anti-squat rear suspension layout). And I think the biggest areas to keep an eye for McLaren at the Bahrain test, would be their performance on corners such as T3-T5 complex in Silverstone.
Basically, low speed car rotation.
I feel like T1 in Bahrain is more of a "stop and go" kind of corner, so I believe a better indicator for performance on this trait would be their rotation on T8 and T10.
Of course, there is only so much you can extrapolate from testing, but I guess when we finally get racing in 2 weeks time, we will have the ultimate test with comparisons to the other teams as well. Let's see if Andreas' words will hold up after R1.
