F1 | McLaren, the weak points remain: how much effort in the slow speed

The MCL38 was immediately presented as an evolution of last season's single-seater, not only from a technical point of view, but also in terms of characteristics. However, the team never hid that the engineers had not been able to hit all the objectives in terms of development, so much so that the first real package of updates should only arrive between Miami and Imola.

The car is more competitive than 12 months ago, when it was the protagonist of an extremely negative start to the season, but not enough to consistently face Ferrari. For the moment, in fact, the Italian team has proven to be the second force both in qualifying and in terms of race pace in both of the first three rounds of the world championship, among other things with the beautiful victory in Australia, albeit facilitated by the retirement of Max Verstappen.

For now, Mercedes and McLaren have alternated behind the Prancing Horse car, with the Woking team not finishing even that far behind the Red team in two out of three events, showing some convincing signs. The initial sensation is that the SF-24 is a more balanced and complete car than the MCL38: although both have certain strengths and clear weaknesses, the Italian car is perhaps the one that manages to find the best compromise between the various types of curves , but also in the comparison between qualifying performance and race performance.

From this point of view, the performance delta between qualifying and race at McLaren was also noticed in Jeddah: if on the flying lap the car paid for the lack of effectiveness with open DRS and the difficulties in long-distance corners, so much so that it slipped behind Aston Martin, other qualities emerged during the race, such as efficiency in very fast corners. These aspects also recurred in Melbourne, among other things the track where in 2023 the MCL60 defended itself reasonably despite the terrible start to the championship, so much so that, despite taking advantage of several retirements and penalties, Lando Norris was able to reach the points zone.

The most problematic areas of the MCL38 recall the difficulties already observed on its progenitor: in addition to the low top speeds on the stretches, especially on tracks tending to have low loads, both last season's car and this year's single-seater also present an annoying understeer in very slow corners where you have to rely on the front. This could also be clearly appreciated in Australia and emerges clearly when looking at the data of the fastest laps.

Comparing the times recorded on Saturday, we can see that on the straights, despite a not very different load level in terms of wings, the McLaren suffered a certain difficulty, which was only partially compensated by the performance in the faster sections.

Clearly Carlos Sainz made a mistake in his last attempt in Q3 in the rapid change of direction 9-10, but even taking the previous runs, it emerges that the MCL38 has maintained its excellent qualities in the very high speed sections. This was also seen in the sequence of the first sector in Saudi Arabia, where McLaren placed behind only Red Bull, still a point of reference in that type of corner where the first input from the steering wheel matters a lot.

Telemetry comparison between Sainz and Norris in Australia with a focus on the slow sections

Photo by: Gianluca D'Alessandro

However, what weighs even more clearly are the performances in the low mileage sections, not only in qualifying, but also in the race, so much so that it was one of the reasons why Norris was unable to snatch second place from Leclerc even with cooler tires. Looking at the telemetry references from Saturday, it clearly emerges that the points where the MCL38 encountered the greatest difficulties are turn 3-4 in the first sector and turn 13, the one before entering the starting straight. In this type of corner, the front is unable to allow good rotation of the car, forcing the drivers to make compromises.

In the first split time the difference is not so much in terms of minimum speed, which is very similar, but in what the car allows in terms of precision and trajectories. Taking turn three as an example, the minimum speed deficit can in fact be “hidden” with a wider trajectory which, however, requires traveling a greater distance, so much so that in turn four you notice lower references in travel, as this approach is no longer possible. In that stretch, since Friday, Ferrari has been able to be particularly incisive, making it one of its strong points, thanks to a much more precise SF-24 and less prone to understeer.

Even if this aspect disappeared a little as the track progressed, so much so that Leclerc underlined how that perfect feeling with the front end on Friday then diminished slightly in the following two days, on the other hand it is clear how this allowed to build a little treasure that made the difference.

The same goes for Turn 13, where McLaren is forced to sacrifice the entry and running phase to focus on better acceleration at the exit. On the contrary, the Red manages to be much more incisive on entry, bringing greater speed to the center of the corner, and then suffers a little on exit, but without excessively compromising the performance recorded throughout the entire stretch.

Oscar Piastri, McLaren MCL38

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images

These problems on the MCL38 then recurred on Sunday over the long distance and it is partly for this reason that Norris was unable to beat Leclerc, despite a significant advantage in terms of tire life.

“We're very strong in the high-speed corners, which is why we've done well here in Australia, but we lose a lot of time in the slower corners. If we can improve that a little bit, on most weekends I'd be confident of be able to compete for the podium and good points. We are missing some small things, but we are working and as soon as we do, things will be much better”, explained Norris at the end of the race, highlighting how this remains an issue to be addressed with a certain priority.

This is also why McLaren is looking with greater confidence to Suzuka, where there will be fewer low-speed corners: “The positive news is the Ferrari is not much faster. We were very close, which I think is encouraging for Japan, as there will be more high-speed corners than low-speed ones,” added Andrea Stella.