F1 | McLaren: Rear wing cut to find speed

McLaren smells second place in the Constructors’ Championship: Ferrari now maintains an advantage of just 7 points, even if the Woking team is wasting great opportunities due to errors by its drivers and the pit wall, when it could have achieved other victories after Lando Norris’s when he broke the ice in Miami.

In the paddock, the MCL38 is already considered the “universal” car that better than any other adapts to the characteristics of the different tracks. The papaya single-seater has not been excellent so far on the fastest sections, still paying something to Max Verstappen’s Red Bull RB20, especially with the mobile wing open.

It is precisely to address this problem that McLaren worked on the rear aerodynamics in an attempt to improve efficiency and reduce drag while seeking higher top speeds.

Interestingly, the team insists on developing rear configurations that do not exploit all the volume that the current regulations allow: both the main profile and the mobile flap are smaller and the spoon is decidedly less deep, as is the central V of the mobile element which is less pronounced because the trailing edge is crescent-shaped.

McLaren MCL38 Rear Wing Comparison

Photo by: Uncredited

It did not go unnoticed that the movable wing support had been cut away, leaving only a triangular section (red arrow) in place of the usual rectangle.

McLaren brought three different beam wing solutions to Silverstone, to find the best compromise between the search for vertical thrust and drag reduction. The version with a single element was approved, which was cut at the trailing edge (yellow hatching).

McLaren MCL38: Here’s the Closed Bazooka Chosen for Silverstone

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During free practice, a different engine hood was also tested, which should help dissipate heat from the Mercedes power unit, but it was not used in qualifying and the race, preferring to use the standard model with all the bazooka gills suitably closed.