McLaren MCL37 speculation thread

[onewingedangel]

"thinner at the midpoint with a little more bulk in the midline"

Sorry I'm a bit confused by this statement as it's coming across as slightly contradictory. Any chance you can explain what you mean?

I take midpoint to be the middle front-to-back, and midline middle bottom-to-top.

So a tighter waist but with broader shoulders if you will.

[101FlyingDutchman]

I think more is packaged slightly higher up nearer the centre line of the car (at the cost of a slightly higher cg).
Front sidepod still wide-ish to aid out wash but then either aggressively under cut or very quickly tapering in near the floor

[PhillipM]

"thinner at the midpoint with a little more bulk in the midline"

Sorry I'm a bit confused by this statement as it's coming across as slightly contradictory. Any chance you can explain what you mean?

I mean the sidepods are less bulky around the midpoint of them, but there's more bulk in the midline/centreline of the car itself instead, rather than the sidepods.
They've moved some stuff up out of the sidepods basically, and the smaller coolers probably help a lot, shouldn't need the really long radiator/intercooler packages of last year.

[mwillems]

Okay slight insider update #2 now the cat is out of the bag on the intercoolers a little I got him to talk a bit more - sidepods are said to be thinner at the midpoint with a little more bulk in the midline (guess they're shifting the coolers up close to the engine to reduce the charge pipe lengths) - no major change to the sidepod philosophy rather just tightening/slimming and refinement of the previous incarnation.
Front wing reworked to slightly more outwash (guess similar to merc but that's just my own speculation) - which they're hoping mitigates a little of the understeer with steering lock on.
Floor is basically last years final design but now the expansion starts further forwards due to revised packaging - I don't know if that means they've shifted things around the lower front crash structure or just that they've gone more aggressive now the floor is designed for more mass flow than the original concept. Who I was speaking to didn't know the reasoning just had seen the changes in the moulds.

It pretty much sounds like they've just done some heavy refinement from last year after they finally got a concept they were happy with, rather than revolution.

Interestingly, it was mentioned that with the floor changes this year, they're all expecting less oscillation, so you can go more aggressive with ride heights - he specifically mentioned more that they were expecting RB to benefit rather than lose out as was speculated at the end of last year, because they often ran the outer edges of the floor on the ground, which is what Mcl are going to try this year with skates.

edit: I will say, this is all from a single source. So take it with a pinch of salt 'till I can confirm it from another.

Thanks very much PhillipM- interesting stuff!

Looks as if it’s more about maturing and maximising the direction from mid season last year.

Is there any acknowledgment or confirmation of a drag problem last year causing straight line speed issues? (And any indication it is remedied?)

Amongst other changes yet to be seen, the skid blocks will help them get as low as they can on the straight and keep more downforce in the corners.

[Blackout]

But why would Mclaren move more cooling to the center of the car ?
If the new MCL is an evolution of the 2022 France-Singapore car with big/wide/long sidepods and a smaller 2023 sidepod cooling system (thanks to the air-to-water intercooler), then the next most logical step would be to put more cooling in the sidepods and to reduce the centerline cooling system... in order to lower the CoG, or to keep a similar layout in order to focus on having a much bigger sidepod undercut...

[PhillipM]

Probably to move to the shorter intercooler routing that Merc has with a similar unit?

[AR3-GP]

The Merc PU was developed for the Merc cooler duct work and layout. The Merc PU in the Mclaren cannot run optimally without that layout.

[Motörhead]

Then what's that cylindrical device spotted by Scarbs
It looks like those next gen intercoolers of 'Reaction engines'
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FnV696AWIAU ... =4096x4096

Oh, sure, that’s it is an intercooler. I don’t think anyone is doubting that…..
Seems like it wasn’t the easiest prediction ever, according to PhilipM
If you’ve ever worked in an engineering environment, you’d know that the various desks have all sorts of paraphernalia.
People see what they want to see. Could be that it was put there on purpose, who knows!
I still stick to my prediction that McLaren will do things their way. As they’ve proved in the past.

[PhillipM]

I mean it's not that easy a prediction, teams already use and have access to fancy microbore/microtube coolers, and since not everyone is on that cooler, I doubt there's a huge amount of difference in performance, but if your engine is designed to package one and you've changed concepts already...

[MrGapes]

Ok this was from the new McLaren video... this entire frame was like a quick second so it took a lot of pausing.

They've blurred some of the car in this render... and the upper lip corresponds to that of what we have seen already...

if you look closely there is a noticeably dug in under the inlet, the white surface below the pod inlet is the outer fence, which seems to have little verticality like last year (I wonder if the lower sis is still in the sidepod... packaged similarly to the Ferrari)

(Obviously I don't know if this is the legit car, but they have attempted to blur it in the clip...)

[AR3-GP]

Ok this was from the new McLaren video... this entire frame was like a quick second so it took a lot of pausing.

They've blurred some of the car in this render... and the upper lip corresponds to that of what we have seen already...

if you look closely there is a noticeably dug in under the inlet, the white surface below the pod inlet is the outer fence, which seems to have little verticality like last year.

(Obviously I don't know if this is the legit car, but they have attempted to blur it in the clip...)

https://imgvb.com/images/2023/02/01/ba6 ... 2f3b68.jpg

https://imgvb.com/images/2023/02/01/11a ... 39a41f.jpg

https://imgvb.com/images/2023/02/01/134 ... 69ff62.jpg

https://imgvb.com/images/2023/02/01/db0 ... 7e79ce.jpg

This is why engineers hate when the marketing team wants to film

[organic]

Ok this was from the new McLaren video... this entire frame was like a quick second so it took a lot of pausing.

They've blurred some of the car in this render... and the upper lip corresponds to that of what we have seen already...

if you look closely there is a noticeably dug in under the inlet, the white surface below the pod inlet is the outer fence, which seems to have little verticality like last year.

(Obviously I don't know if this is the legit car, but they have attempted to blur it in the clip...)

https://imgvb.com/images/2023/02/01/ba6 ... 2f3b68.jpg

https://imgvb.com/images/2023/02/01/11a ... 39a41f.jpg

https://imgvb.com/images/2023/02/01/134 ... 69ff62.jpg

https://imgvb.com/images/2023/02/01/db0 ... 7e79ce.jpg

Wow.. good spot and yeah looks similar in height to their outboard fence from last year.

[Blackout]

Then what's that cylindrical device spotted by Scarbs
It looks like those next gen intercoolers of 'Reaction engines'
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FnV696AWIAU ... =4096x4096

Oh, sure, that’s it is an intercooler. I don’t think anyone is doubting that…..
Seems like it wasn’t the easiest prediction ever, according to PhilipM
If you’ve ever worked in an engineering environment, you’d know that the various desks have all sorts of paraphernalia.
People see what they want to see. Could be that it was put there on purpose, who knows!
I still stick to my prediction that McLaren will do things their way. As they’ve proved in the past.

I dont see which PhilipM info rules out the air-to-water intercooler for Mclaren...
And you say Red Bull is doing fine with their air-air. Of course and that's because their compressor has been designed for air-air and has twin entries that point to the sidepods, while their charge air cooling has been designed to be put right at the compressor and engine inlet mouthes. It's the complete opposite of Mercedes/Mclaren...
.

McLaren seem quite determined to do things their way.

I know, but this topic is a particular and a different case IMO.

[f1rules]

very nice find, now if the undercut is like in the video, is this maybe the new sidepod cover lying down, showing the undercut?
ala redbull

Ok this was from the new McLaren video... this entire frame was like a quick second so it took a lot of pausing.

They've blurred some of the car in this render... and the upper lip corresponds to that of what we have seen already...

if you look closely there is a noticeably dug in under the inlet, the white surface below the pod inlet is the outer fence, which seems to have little verticality like last year (I wonder if the lower sis is still in the sidepod... packaged similarly to the Ferrari)

(Obviously I don't know if this is the legit car, but they have attempted to blur it in the clip...)

https://imgvb.com/images/2023/02/01/ba6 ... 2f3b68.jpg

https://imgvb.com/images/2023/02/01/11a ... 39a41f.jpg

https://imgvb.com/images/2023/02/01/134 ... 69ff62.jpg

https://imgvb.com/images/2023/02/01/db0 ... 7e79ce.jpg

[michl420]

With this realtiv big sidepod I would also put more coolers in it. But Mclaren prefer the hot air exit at the rear and this big air inlets on the mercedes engine are a bit of a problem to guide the air from the sidepod to the rear. (Could be an argument for more centerline cooling?)