McLaren never manages to express the true potential contained in the MCL38. In the Sprint Race Lando Norris called himself a fool for leaving the door open to Max Verstappen after the nice overtaking he made for the Dutchman in turn 3 on lap 4: not only did Max regain the lead of the race, but also the teammate, Oscar Piastri, took the opportunity to slip it, then revealing a pace in the race of the two papaya cars that was unable to challenge the RB20 which seemed to be the reference single-seater again, at least on the “home” track.
If in the SQ the challenge in the flying lap with Norris was resolved in Verstappen’s favor by 93 thousandths of a second, in qualifying for yesterday afternoon’s GP the tune definitely changed because the Dutchman opened up a heavy gap of over four tenths.
Red Bull has improved a lot, just as Ferrari and Mercedes have improved a lot in the flying lap, while McLaren has only lowered its time by a few hundredths, not significantly compared to the best competition.
Lando Norris, McLaren MCL38, Oscar Piastri, McLaren MCL38
Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images
It’s true that temperatures rose yesterday afternoon and it wasn’t breathable in the Spielberg basin, but it’s equally true that the others found a way to improve their flying lap, while the team directed by Andrea Stella seems to have taken another path.
Aware that Max was not reachable (the RB20 demonstrated that in the sequence of fast corners from 7 to 10 it has an aerodynamic load that no other has), the Woking technicians must have chosen to work for the race, aware of having a good margin to stay ahead of Mercedes and Ferrari. Without the track limit that cost Oscar Piastri third place, McLaren would have fully achieved their objective, having prepared the MCL38 more for today’s challenge over the 71 laps scheduled.
McLaren MCL38: new front suspension upper arm cover
Photo by: Filip Cleeren
On paper the Austrian GP has only one contender (Verstappen), but on the papaya cars they tried to work to allow Lando to stay in Max’s DRS window, after they had noticed in the race that with the mobile wing open there was a significant performance difference in favor of Red Bull.
In short, if McLaren gave the impression of having made a retreat between Friday and Saturday (four tenths is definitely too much…), it wants to sell its life dearly. That he feels he is in a fight is demonstrated by the fact that he brought technical updates to Spielberg, in an event that offers a format with only one free practice session.
The MCL38 features a new front wing designed for fast tracks: in addition to having distributed the chord of the last two flaps differently (more loads on the outside and less on the inside) to laminate the flows differently (the profile of the cover of the upper arm of the front suspension has been changed as a result), the area around the side bulkhead has been completely redesigned.
McLaren MCL38, detail of the new front wing
Picture of: George Piola
The aerodynamicists at Woking, led by Peter Prodromou, have taken the outwash concept to the next level, increasing the flow of air outside the front wheel, in order to clean up the wake and improve the car’s behaviour at high speed.
A single free practice session, evidently, was not enough to understand how to act according to the race and the reopening of the parc fermé after the race allowed interventions on the setup useful for making better use of the material available.
Detail of the McLaren front wing at the Austrian GP
Picture of: Giorgio Piola
Detail of the front wing of the McLaren at the Austrian GP
Picture of: Giorgio Piola
Detail of the front wing of the McLaren at the Austrian GP
Picture of: Giorgio Piola
The vertical fin is more rounded, as is the curved external flap, but the most important change is the way the three flaps attach to the bulkhead at a single point, giving the sensation of having opened the flap on a soda can.
McLaren has increased the flow rate: in addition to the channel that everyone has tried to open (note the metal fixings that act as a dam in the innermost part of the wing), this more extreme blowing between the flaps is added, which pushes research in this crucial area of the car to a threshold that goes beyond what we were used to.
We await the outcome of the race to see if McLaren have already capitalised on the potential shown in Austria or if we will have to wait for a flat track like Silverstone to find out how far the MCL38 can go…
#McLaren #curl #exaggerates #flow #MCL38