2024 Mclaren Formula 1 Team

[Lucky]

Lando Norris says he didn't quite feel comfortable with the car today.

[mwillems]

I raised it on autosport forum. I honestly prefer not to see Newey added. His salary will be hard to cover without losing elsewhere due to costcap. The influence on internal team dynamics etc etc. Honestly right now, everything look so well balanced, with a pure aero guy and a pure chassis guy, cooperating and bringing the best out of the car

Top 3 salaries are excluded from budget cap.

To an extent, I agree about the team balance, they're on a role, why change the recipe now? Thing is, the recipe is about to changed for them... 2026 brings a whole heap of new tech regs. For that, I'd rather having Newey batting for my team, than the opposition. His experience is priceless

Agreed, Newey as consultant on the 2026 car. His ideas on where to start development of the car and what kinds of flows and shapes to use will be priceless.

[LionsHeart]

Which will be the right choice. I was surprised with the FP1 Beam wing, the floor still has a big job to do here.

It's important to get what we can from the beam wing without offending the flow of the rear wing.

I agree with you. But as I joked earlier, they were preparing for Monza... oh, and Baku and Las Vegas. Here at Spa, a little more balance is required between downforce and straight-line speed.

I think they were being a little optimistic with the floor efficiency.

I've noticed thar they do experiment more with the beam wing. Partly because they aren't adjustable and partly because of the complex balance and interactions at the rear of the car are probably hard to model and predict

Considering that the rear wing can't be adjusted much, the beam wing is a good balance regulator in this regard. I think the team is trying to find the limit when the rear end no longer has enough stability. And the rest can be adjusted with the front wing, fortunately there is a high adjustment range there.

[the EDGE]

I raised it on autosport forum. I honestly prefer not to see Newey added. His salary will be hard to cover without losing elsewhere due to costcap. The influence on internal team dynamics etc etc. Honestly right now, everything look so well balanced, with a pure aero guy and a pure chassis guy, cooperating and bringing the best out of the car

Top 3 salaries are excluded from budget cap.

To an extent, I agree about the team balance, they're on a role, why change the recipe now? Thing is, the recipe is about to changed for them... 2026 brings a whole heap of new tech regs. For that, I'd rather having Newey batting for my team, than the opposition. His experience is priceless

Agreed, Newey as consultant on the 2026 car. His ideas on where to start development of the car and what kinds of flows and shapes to use will be priceless.

And let's not forget who built Redbull from the ground up...

Adrian Newey, Peter Prodromou & Rob Marshall

[LionsHeart]

Incredible how well balanced and fast the car is. Its like the “base/core” of the car is just so good, so no matter which df package they apply it just works and its “easy” to extract maximum performance, what an insane job from mclaren simply i credible

And that's great. I wasn't surprised by the pace and speed in Hungary, but here in Spa so far I'm more than happy with what we showed in FP2. So far we can say that the updated rear wing for low downforce is effective.

The car has always been fast in a straight line and Spa has only 2 high speed corners and a fair number of mid speed corners, which the MCL38 likes. It is only when DRS is open that we lose a little time compared to others. So I think that this is a very good track for us.

In my head, before I looked at the track layout again, I imagined more high speed corners and I thought Red Bull would be good. but actually, I think this track suits us as much as them.

That said, if we take pole by less than a tenth of a second again, we might say thankyou to those who reduced the DRS zone...!

And this is why I was labouring the point to those suggesting how mighty RB look here after FP1. We weren't anywhere near even a basic level, for some reason.

By "always fast on a straight line," do you mean 2024? And do you mean the time it takes to drive a straight line in full throttle mode without the help of the DRS? In that case, yes. And as we discussed earlier in the spring, perhaps McLaren uses the hybrid part differently. Trying to transfer as much energy (power, torque) as possible during the initial acceleration, when the acceleration is most intense.

[mwillems]

I agree with you. But as I joked earlier, they were preparing for Monza... oh, and Baku and Las Vegas. Here at Spa, a little more balance is required between downforce and straight-line speed.

I think they were being a little optimistic with the floor efficiency.

I've noticed thar they do experiment more with the beam wing. Partly because they aren't adjustable and partly because of the complex balance and interactions at the rear of the car are probably hard to model and predict

Considering that the rear wing can't be adjusted much, the beam wing is a good balance regulator in this regard. I think the team is trying to find the limit when the rear end no longer has enough stability. And the rest can be adjusted with the front wing, fortunately there is a high adjustment range there.

The AoA and the strips on the wing, as well as the "winglets" offer reasonable amounts of adjustability, no?

I think the goal here is to use the Rear Wing as little as possible for drag reasons, and manage the balance in the rest of the setup and the Beam Wing, if they can. But I agree in that being front limited they will aim only to use the Beam Wing to get the floor working as well as possible. Drag at the front isn't an issue due to flexing, so I think they'd be able to add more front and not need to worry to much about it as long as it doesn't go way over what the rear is happy with, unless that is what you meant by taking the rear to the place of just being stable..

[mwillems]

And that's great. I wasn't surprised by the pace and speed in Hungary, but here in Spa so far I'm more than happy with what we showed in FP2. So far we can say that the updated rear wing for low downforce is effective.

The car has always been fast in a straight line and Spa has only 2 high speed corners and a fair number of mid speed corners, which the MCL38 likes. It is only when DRS is open that we lose a little time compared to others. So I think that this is a very good track for us.

In my head, before I looked at the track layout again, I imagined more high speed corners and I thought Red Bull would be good. but actually, I think this track suits us as much as them.

That said, if we take pole by less than a tenth of a second again, we might say thankyou to those who reduced the DRS zone...!

And this is why I was labouring the point to those suggesting how mighty RB look here after FP1. We weren't anywhere near even a basic level, for some reason.

By "always fast on a straight line," do you mean 2024? And do you mean the time it takes to drive a straight line in full throttle mode without the help of the DRS? In that case, yes. And as we discussed earlier in the spring, perhaps McLaren uses the hybrid part differently. Trying to transfer as much energy (power, torque) as possible during the initial acceleration, when the acceleration is most intense.

This year, many top speed numbers are reported and used to make commentary on the speed of the Mclaren. Usually negative. For most of the year, even at the start of the year, the car is around parity with other cars with DRS closed.

The car is now actually better than average with DRS closed, so in most Qualy laps, the cars efficiency with DRS closed has not been an issue. There isn't much DRS at this track anyway, so the car wasn't going to have a speed issue in terms of one lap pace.

Interestingly, that trait that we were talking about in spring, where the car dropped speed before high energy braking zones, I think that was down more to the fact that before Miami, we needed to scrub more speed before the corner due to the Aero deficiencies or to how much energy we were getting into the tyres.

We still aren't as fast as others with DRS open, but you are right, that scubbing of speed at the end of the straight has also been an improvement to the car, as we can carry more speed on the straight for longer as we can attack the corner as we'd prefer to. It didn't impact the top speed number by much though.

[mwillems]

Top 3 salaries are excluded from budget cap.

To an extent, I agree about the team balance, they're on a role, why change the recipe now? Thing is, the recipe is about to changed for them... 2026 brings a whole heap of new tech regs. For that, I'd rather having Newey batting for my team, than the opposition. His experience is priceless

Agreed, Newey as consultant on the 2026 car. His ideas on where to start development of the car and what kinds of flows and shapes to use will be priceless.

And let's not forget who built Redbull from the ground up...

Adrian Newey, Peter Prodromou & Rob Marshall

Ahahaha, it almost like you can taste it

Sadly I think he will go to AMR. I do wonder though if that is Newey's great benefit. Getting you to a good place to begin your development path quicker than anyone else. One day we will find out. I should buy his book. But really I'm looking for the book written about him and his stints at the different teams.

[f1rules]

I raised it on autosport forum. I honestly prefer not to see Newey added. His salary will be hard to cover without losing elsewhere due to costcap. The influence on internal team dynamics etc etc. Honestly right now, everything look so well balanced, with a pure aero guy and a pure chassis guy, cooperating and bringing the best out of the car

Charge it to MasterCard..

[f1rules]

Yeah thats correct

Top 3 salaries are excluded from budget cap.

To an extent, I agree about the team balance, they're on a role, why change the recipe now? Thing is, the recipe is about to changed for them... 2026 brings a whole heap of new tech regs. For that, I'd rather having Newey batting for my team, than the opposition. His experience is priceless

Agreed, Newey as consultant on the 2026 car. His ideas on where to start development of the car and what kinds of flows and shapes to use will be priceless.

And let's not forget who built Redbull from the ground up...

Adrian Newey, Peter Prodromou & Rob Marshall

[f1rules]

I know about the salary, but still. Then the current #3 salary will be 4th and if thats 10mill € that will go into the costcap, so there will be an increase that you need take from somewhere unless youre not at the limit. So its just not. But then let him do his own supercar and once in while he can pass the F1 offices

[LionsHeart]

I think they were being a little optimistic with the floor efficiency.

I've noticed thar they do experiment more with the beam wing. Partly because they aren't adjustable and partly because of the complex balance and interactions at the rear of the car are probably hard to model and predict

Considering that the rear wing can't be adjusted much, the beam wing is a good balance regulator in this regard. I think the team is trying to find the limit when the rear end no longer has enough stability. And the rest can be adjusted with the front wing, fortunately there is a high adjustment range there.

The AoA and the strips on the wing, as well as the "winglets" offer reasonable amounts of adjustability, no?

I think the goal here is to use the Rear Wing as little as possible for drag reasons, and manage the balance in the rest of the setup and the Beam Wing, if they can. But I agree in that being front limited they will aim only to use the Beam Wing to get the floor working as well as possible. Drag at the front isn't an issue due to flexing, so I think they'd be able to add more front and not need to worry to much about it as long as it doesn't go way over what the rear is happy with, unless that is what you meant by taking the rear to the place of just being stable..

I think I understood your message correctly. Yes, initially the goal is to install the smallest rear wing on the car. If there is not enough downforce at the rear due to the lack of air extraction from under the diffuser, then it is worth installing a larger beam wing, which is also installed at a higher angle of attack. This should provide stable downforce and normal grip for the rear tires. If this is not enough, then you can reduce the angle of attack of the front wing. Usually on Friday there is not enough grip at the rear. And in qualifying there is a lot of grip at the rear and the drivers demand to add AoA at the front to stabilize the balance.

[LionsHeart]

The car has always been fast in a straight line and Spa has only 2 high speed corners and a fair number of mid speed corners, which the MCL38 likes. It is only when DRS is open that we lose a little time compared to others. So I think that this is a very good track for us.

In my head, before I looked at the track layout again, I imagined more high speed corners and I thought Red Bull would be good. but actually, I think this track suits us as much as them.

That said, if we take pole by less than a tenth of a second again, we might say thankyou to those who reduced the DRS zone...!

And this is why I was labouring the point to those suggesting how mighty RB look here after FP1. We weren't anywhere near even a basic level, for some reason.

By "always fast on a straight line," do you mean 2024? And do you mean the time it takes to drive a straight line in full throttle mode without the help of the DRS? In that case, yes. And as we discussed earlier in the spring, perhaps McLaren uses the hybrid part differently. Trying to transfer as much energy (power, torque) as possible during the initial acceleration, when the acceleration is most intense.

This year, many top speed numbers are reported and used to make commentary on the speed of the Mclaren. Usually negative. For most of the year, even at the start of the year, the car is around parity with other cars with DRS closed.

The car is now actually better than average with DRS closed, so in most Qualy laps, the cars efficiency with DRS closed has not been an issue. There isn't much DRS at this track anyway, so the car wasn't going to have a speed issue in terms of one lap pace.

Interestingly, that trait that we were talking about in spring, where the car dropped speed before high energy braking zones, I think that was down more to the fact that before Miami, we needed to scrub more speed before the corner due to the Aero deficiencies or to how much energy we were getting into the tyres.

We still aren't as fast as others with DRS open, but you are right, that scubbing of speed at the end of the straight has also been an improvement to the car, as we can carry more speed on the straight for longer as we can attack the corner as we'd prefer to. It didn't impact the top speed number by much though.

How exactly do you implement the passage of a straight section in the shortest time? If the maximum speed is limited, and it is always limited in one way or another, then you need to reach maximum speed as quickly as possible and then maintain it until the braking point. I think McLaren deliberately decided to sacrifice a little peak maximum speed in exchange for the most effective acceleration.

The work is very complex, because we have to take into account the exit from a slow corner, when the intense acceleration begins, then the straight itself. The work of aerodynamics, suspension, engine and gear ratios in a gearbox, how tenaciously the rear tires bite into the road surface. All this is important. I agree, the peak maximum speed at the end of the straight alone does not mean anything.

[mwillems]

By "always fast on a straight line," do you mean 2024? And do you mean the time it takes to drive a straight line in full throttle mode without the help of the DRS? In that case, yes. And as we discussed earlier in the spring, perhaps McLaren uses the hybrid part differently. Trying to transfer as much energy (power, torque) as possible during the initial acceleration, when the acceleration is most intense.

This year, many top speed numbers are reported and used to make commentary on the speed of the Mclaren. Usually negative. For most of the year, even at the start of the year, the car is around parity with other cars with DRS closed.

The car is now actually better than average with DRS closed, so in most Qualy laps, the cars efficiency with DRS closed has not been an issue. There isn't much DRS at this track anyway, so the car wasn't going to have a speed issue in terms of one lap pace.

Interestingly, that trait that we were talking about in spring, where the car dropped speed before high energy braking zones, I think that was down more to the fact that before Miami, we needed to scrub more speed before the corner due to the Aero deficiencies or to how much energy we were getting into the tyres.

We still aren't as fast as others with DRS open, but you are right, that scubbing of speed at the end of the straight has also been an improvement to the car, as we can carry more speed on the straight for longer as we can attack the corner as we'd prefer to. It didn't impact the top speed number by much though.

How exactly do you implement the passage of a straight section in the shortest time? If the maximum speed is limited, and it is always limited in one way or another, then you need to reach maximum speed as quickly as possible and then maintain it until the braking point. I think McLaren deliberately decided to sacrifice a little peak maximum speed in exchange for the most effective acceleration.

The work is very complex, because we have to take into account the exit from a slow corner, when the intense acceleration begins, then the straight itself. The work of aerodynamics, suspension, engine and gear ratios in a gearbox, how tenaciously the rear tires bite into the road surface. All this is important. I agree, the peak maximum speed at the end of the straight alone does not mean anything.

Because there are two states with different rules and outcomes. The first state, DRS closed, which is for the majority of the straights, is performing well. It is only the second state, DRS open, that is less effective, but even then it isn't universally "bad". The cars are still comparable for a small period after DRS is open as the DRS effect needs to kick in and the cars push on. By the time the speed difference is of consequence, this period lasts for less than 5% of the straight and because of the speeds involved, a 1-2% gain in that 5% of the time the car is on the straight (4kph say at 220kph) is miniscule. Look at any of the deltas when we "lose time" on the straight. We don't lose time on the straight overall.

Because the Mclaren is actually quicker than most cars when DRS is closed, the overall time spent on the straight, for the Mclaren, is about the same as most of the front runners, from start to finish. Any difference is negligible. Although, qualifying differences have also been negligible too. But it should be looked at in terms of overall time lost and gained on the car. DRS efficiency is absolutely minor in terms of where the car can improve, I think.

I totally understand why the team don't make it a focus, there are far more important areas. If you take the idea that we should be fastest from the start, then the main benefit of DRS, overtaking, becomes even less important. So I think it is right to focus on downforce and DRS closed efficiency.

But in terms of measuring the performance of the cars and corners, I would introduce mini sectors than span corners from specified entry and exits, and the straights in between, measuring min speed, max speed and average speed in each, which I think is a for more effective indicator of what the cars are doing. You could go even further.

Maybe I will do something tonight, if I get the chance, to show what I mean.

[CjC]

Russell thinks McLaren ran max power in FP2. Why would they do that though?

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/merce ... /10639177/