F1 | McLaren dominates when downforce is needed: “The MCL38 is the most efficient”

The twenty-second advantage over Max Verstappen at the checkered flag only tells part of McLaren’s superiority in Singapore, partly because, before meeting the backmarkers, that margin was almost half a minute, partly because the Dutchman was not the most fearsome rival on the track. With a Charles Leclerc starting in the front rows, the race could potentially have had a different story but, overall, still with a Lando Norris winner.

Looking back over the season, it is clear that McLaren’s widest margins of victory came above all on high-downforce tracks, such as Hungary and Holland, with Ferrari very close on street tracks and low-downforce circuits, such as Azerbaijan and Monza, where it achieved a splendid victory, also thanks to a perfect strategy.

Since this development path was undertaken last season, McLaren has undoubtedly invested significantly precisely on the high-downforce package front, where it showed the most significant shortcomings not only in terms of pure downforce, but also in resistance on the straights. The work has borne fruit, because the MCL38 in the meantime has become the reference single-seater, both on this front and in terms of versatility, because in 2023 the MCL60 had actually shown its limits on low-downforce tracks and where graining problems emerged.

It is precisely this versatility that has made the McLaren such an effective car on a wide range of tracks. A combination both from a mechanical point of view, because they have managed to find a good balance between rigidity and softness at the suspension level to have both a stable set-up in the fast sections and good behaviour and traction in the slow corners, and on an aerodynamic level. A lot of work has also been done to make the front work as best as possible, which last year, in the very slow or medium-low speed corners where it was necessary to rely on the front end, showed some difficulty. Furthermore, a step forward has also been made in the travel of the kerbs, a crucial aspect in Singapore, demonstrating the good compromise found on a mechanical level, while Verstappen was often forced to go around them.

“With this high level of downforce, we seem to be very competitive. I always give the examples of Hungary and Zandvoort: Hungary was also a relatively dominant win, as was Zandvoort and Singapore,” said Andrea Stella, McLaren Team Principal.

“So I think at the moment, more than the car in this configuration has the best aerodynamic efficiency of the whole grid. While at low downforce, I think the efficiency of the Ferrari and Red Bull is much more comparable to that of our car. Of course we know that we have invested much more on the high downforce than we have done with a lower downforce even if, as we saw in Spa and Monza, we have made a step forward also on that front,” added the Italian.

Lando Norris, McLaren MCL38

Photo by: Alastair Staley / Motorsport Images

All aspects that emerged clearly in the Singapore weekend where, despite an extremely quick Ferrari on Friday and Sunday, McLaren managed to show its superiority not only in terms of pure pace, but also in adaptability to the various track conditions, denoting more consistent performances throughout the weekend. A theme that was seen above all with Norris, perfect interpreter in Singapore of his MCL38, while Piastri showed a little more difficulty in extracting the potential.

The most interesting aspect is that this superiority shown by the Norris-McLaren duo, beyond the distractions that occurred in the Grand Prix, actually also allowed them to calmly manage the situation, without forcing their hand too much. The moment in which the potential of the MCL38 was actually seen in its maximum effectiveness was only between the tenth and twentieth lap, when McLaren asked the driver to push on the accelerator to create a safety gap on Verstappen that would protect him from any possible problem. Even in the following laps the advantage grew, but also linked to the Dutchman’s difficulties with the tires.

In the second part of the race, however, it is clear that Norris chose to manage the pace much more carefully, going to perform a constant “lift and coast” at the end of the straights, that is, the technique that pushes you to lift the accelerator in the final part of the straights. A behavior that was repeated for much of the second stint, clearly influencing the pace, but it is interesting to note how, for example, the gap on Verstappen did not start in a specific part of the track, but rather grew steadily during the lap, synonymous with how the MCL38 was able to interpret all the various challenges of the circuit well.

Oscar Piastri, McLaren MCL38, Nico Hulkenberg, Haas VF-24

Photo by: Lionel Ng / Motorsport Images

Undoubtedly, with Charles Leclerc behind him, extremely fast on Friday and Sunday, Norris would have had more pressure and would not have been able to manage with this tranquility, but the track scenario allowed the British driver to manage with a certain serenity. As also explained by Andrea Stella, in the second half of the race the objective was more to avoid mistakes and manage the traffic of the backmarkers, where Norris, in fact, lost many seconds.

“To be honest, in the second part of the second stint, our attention was drawn to the fact that, as soon as you got behind the backmarkers, the car started to be difficult,” explained Stella.

“So, it was necessary not to have problems, not to make mistakes, not to get stuck. We had already seen in free practice that as soon as you find yourself behind a slow car, it seems like there is something wrong with the car: it is just the effect of the dirty air. The goal was to bring the car home”.