Once upon a time the first European round would be highly anticipated as where the first really significant upgrades would show up. I think the Netflix generation has generated more unnecessary hype surrounding the launch, the shakedown and official testing. And now the preseason testing has been pared down to just three days the potential for the first real upgrades becomes crucially important, especially if your team missed the trends etc.taperoo2k wrote: ↑15 Feb 2024, 13:01There were a few reflections of the car caught on video, but not that you can make out much from the reflections.FittingMechanics wrote: ↑15 Feb 2024, 11:50Strangely seems there are no spy shots. Only stuff McLaren released which is hand picked to not reveal anything.
McLaren are in full expectation management mode, not overhyping the car. Just quietly confident. If the car is fast enough to challenge Red Bull, the headlines for McLaren will be quite pleasing from a marketing perspective.
Sounds like we probably won't see the race spec car until FP1 (see car thread).
I'm betting, with the potential for egg on my face, that McLaren will have a pretty smooth move into the new car at round 1 and be Red Bull's closest challenger. Reason being the 38 is an evolution of the 60 with a new platform they identified long before work actually began on the car. When you are getting gains which match, or even exceed the simulations the chances of hitting a developmental brick wall are much lower. My jibe about Mercedes was I saw exactly the scenario of a team that is flailing around because there is no longer an evolutionary path that is working. McLaren are odds on to not be in that camp. The crowd - even some experienced pundits - are disappointed in the lack of obvious, even radical changes to the car.