At the beginning of the year it was difficult to imagine one McLaren fighting for the podium. Yet, on a technical level, the British team has been the protagonist of an extraordinary comeback. Consider that in the first three qualifying sessions of 2023, the average gap in qualifying from Red Bull was 1.3%. Before the break however, excluding the anomalous qualifying at Spa where Verstappen’s advantage was out of shape, the delay of McLaren on the flying lap decreased below 0.3%. The Woking team’s comeback is the result of great development work, thanks in turn to the ability to look at the long term and to divert efforts towards a new car concept with greater growth potential.
The basics of 2022
It took McLaren some time to find the correct development direction, like many of its competitors on the other hand. Already the latest update package from 2022 is described by the then technical director James Key as a concept change compared to the initial one. The 2023 project was therefore born as an evolution of the end-of-year philosophywith work in the winter focusing in particular on exploiting the new front Pirellis.
Unfortunately, the regulations between the two championships don’t remain stable, but undergo important changes as regards the surface. Not only do the new standards reduce sensitivity to porpoising, but they complicate the job of isolating the fund from the external environment. The new regulation rewards cars designed to work close to the ground, undermining concepts developed during 2022. The 2023 McLaren is therefore not only a car whose design objectives are not met, but whose concept also has little potential in the new regulatory context.
Concept changes
Even today Andrea Stella never misses an opportunity to underline how one of the major difficulties of ground effect regulations is understanding what concepts they have greater long-term potential. Designers are required to be able to look into perspective, as an initially ineffective solution, if developed, could instead be more promising than another that appears more immediate.
It makes you think how already at the beginning of the year the MCL60 shows off different cars solutions in common with Red Bull, such as the slide bellies, the pull-rod front suspension and the push-rod scheme at the rear. However, the MCL60 accuses an important delay from the RB19, emblematic of how the concept does not simply coincide with the external forms. Rather, this lies in the way the car generates downforce, working at certain heights from the ground and with careful control of the suspension.
McLaren soon realizes that the initial development direction of the MCL60 is wrong and less promising than others. Internal analyzes predict that the initial concept, if developed through the end of the year, would not allow the machine to grow beyond the fourth force role. It is therefore decided to bet, or rather to invest, in a new development philosophy. The facts seem to prove McLaren right, given that the new concept implemented during the year brings the MCL60 to compete with Ferrari and Mercedes, fighting on the track for the role of second force already before the summer break.
In Baku the first turning point
The highlight of the McLaren season is the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. In Baku, new base, diffuser, bodywork and beam-wing debuts, defined by Andrea Stella as a conceptual change. The aim is to express similar performances, but making the car work in a different way and ushering in a new development direction. Performance is not the priority of the new package, so much so that the gain remains contained in less than two tenths per lap.
The new McLaren is a car effective in fast cornering, when the load pushes the car close to the ground, a condition in which the new MCL60 performs at its best. The car is also incisive when braking in a straight line, a quality that comes in handy in wet conditions and low temperatures when the heat from the brakes is essential to warm up the front tyres. However, the British car suffers when ambient temperatures begin to rise, also lacking load and balance in medium-low speed corners. In fact, aerodynamics are affected too much by the large steering angles of the front wheels, as well as by the yaw angles, i.e. when the orientation of the car and the direction of travel begin to deviate. Last, but not least, the MCL60 suffers from poor tire management, failing to repeat the qualifying performance in the race.
In summer the second step
Despite the new development direction, in June Andrea Stella underlined the need for the team to redesign every aerodynamic component. This is all done with the update pack of the month of July, based on the new philosophy launched in Baku and defined as a new conceptual step. The first innovations arrive in Austria only Norris single-seater and mainly affect the bottom, diffuser and sides, which are starting to look more and more like the geometries of Aston Martin.
Importantly, McLaren was among the first teams to understand the importance of bellies to improve the effectiveness of the bottom, given the close interaction between the upper and lower aerodynamics of the car. Already in 2022 the then technical director James Key described the new Singapore bellies as changes “complementary to those of the fund”. While it’s not the external shapes that define a concept or its effectiveness, McLaren soon understood how to extract the potential of Red Bull-style pot bellies. Mercedes, on the contrary, waited for 2023 before converting to sloping sides.
The updates of the Austrian Grand Prix are immediately followed by those of Silverstone, where the new front wing and a different fairing for the rear suspension arms make their debut. Further innovations were expected in Hungary, which, however, are postponed until after the summer break due to tight deadlines in the production department. However, Andrea Stella anticipates that the changes in the pipeline will aim to improve the race pace, hinting at some new features useful for correcting the balance and stability of the MCL60.
The next steps
The summer updates ensure a genuine improvement in tire management and race pace, as well as in the whole aerodynamic map. The MCL60 is now a car that not only releases a lot of load in fast corners, but also in those at medium and low speeds. The problems at the moment concern above all driveability, on which drivers’ confidence behind the wheel and their ability to push to the limit depend. McLaren is still a car that prefers rounded lines over angular ones, while Norris says he would welcome a V rather than a U-shaped driving style.
Among the notes on the agenda at Woking is also that of improving aerodynamic efficiency in a low downforce configuration. At Spa the MCL60 was held up by his straight line slowness, due not only to trim choices, but to a structural deficiency in the car. Corrections on this front are expected shortly, given that the race will take place at Monza at the beginning of September and two months later at Las Vegas. However, most of the resources are now diverted to the 2024 project. The greatest curiosity for next year’s McLaren concerns the suspension layout, which currently remains more traditional than the competition. Until now in Woking it wasn’t believed that the suspension could make a huge difference, but the Red Bull engineers continue to talk about the mechanics as one of the many areas capable of making the RB19 fly.
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