SmallSoldier wrote: ↑22 Jul 2022, 16:17
mwillems wrote: ↑22 Jul 2022, 11:01
SmallSoldier wrote: ↑22 Jul 2022, 00:57
We can’t forget that the teams were working on the new regulations since 2019, before the cost cap came into play… At that point in time the once that are leading today were spending twice as much as McLaren… The other team fighting for 4th (Alpine) practically threw away last season and focus almost entirely in 2022.
Luckily, with expected stability in the regulations, CFD / WT allowances, the Budget cap and the fact that there’s a lot to learn / discover still with this cars … Convergence will happen faster than usual and the field will get closer and closer.
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I'm sure they were certainly looking at the regulations but I'm sure we analysing them too, so I'm not sure how much the other teams did, or didn't, get an advantage. Even Mercedes are pulling to the front and at one point they were right besides us. We had plenty of time to analyse the philosophy and make a choice with enough information that our designers needed. It just seems we made the wrong choice, but I don't think that is luck or even time, that was a decision based on our designers ability, experience and knowledge as much as anything and they fell a little short.
The way has been shown for them a little bit now, so hopefully they can use this years design lessons as a platform to push on strongly.
You are right… At the end, the team didn’t come up with the fastest model for these cars… I’m just saying that it isn’t surprising that those that had larger budgets, which in terms means more resources, are leading in terms of performance.
Been said that… I still believe that there is a lot more to these cars than what the fans “CFD” eyes perceive… It isn’t as simple as sometimes we make it out to be with simply interpreting that a particular shape of sidepod or tunnel entrance is responsible for performance… The best example of this has to be Aston Martin, who practically copied the RB18 and it’s not leading the midfield or close to the guys in the front using the same concept in terms of sidepod, tunnels, geometries, etc… On the same token, with a very different concept, the MCL36 has been competitive against the likes of Alpine that has a concept that follows a similar philosophy to the RBR and with a now a lot of influence from Ferrari.
I completely agree that some teams had an advantage but I'm not sure they were ploughing ahead and designing 3 cars at once at the end of 2019 and into 20, when Covid hit, aero development was locked down until Jan 21 and the factories shut for a few months for an early summer break. So I suspect that everyone had a look at the philosophy but didn't get the chance to get too far into it or at least not too much further than Mclaren.
Mclaren then shot themselves in the foot by continuing with the MCL35M when they should have focussed on this year and it is another example of poor effort from the team. What we have seen is a series of mistakes that have prevented us from being further ahead than I'd like.
It's a bad patch, compared to a few years of great work from the team, and I fully appreciate that the team have done a lot of good, but even though we are fighting for 4th, it is still a level or two down on where we were and I don't think it can be blamed on the budget, I do think the team have made poor decisions. But I'm not trying to bury them and I'm sure that they will come out of this strong.
