wuzak wrote:I wonder if the 2016 PU could fit the new McLaren, and whether it would be a better bet for the first few races. Hold off the 2017 PU until it is reliable, an introduce it in Spain.
I think that level of repackaging would be practically impossible, given the layout change and time available.
Even if the layout was broadly similar as last year's engine (and we know it isn't), this would still be practically impossible.
There are 16 days left before Friday practise for the first race.
I don't think something as simple as a new airbox could be done in that amount of time, never mind
everything inside the sidepods and above the PU; that's folly.
To do this sort of repackage as a real rush job would take about 3 months at a minimum, even if you had started with a chassis design where the criteria was to enable this sort of thing to happen.
Look at Lotus (Renault) moving back from the Mercedes to the Renault PU from 2015->2016 for an example of the compromised result (even if you can move mountains and make the new PU fit, it will still be so poorly packaged, it'd always be a chassis compromise anyway, leading to performance deficits).
In 2015, while designing their next car, Lotus knew they were
potentially going to be using Renault PUs in 2016, although the car design had been started and largely developed with the Mercedes PU in mind. Remember the Renault letter of intent was only signed at the end of September 2015 - by which point most teams have done a large portion of the car design, issued build subcontracts to suppliers and so on already.
I think in 2017 there's no way McLaren will have left any space available to suit the 2016 Honda PU "just in case they need to fit it"; it's just not how they work at all.