F1 | McLaren: so many new features to make a difference in Holland

McLaren plays the wild card at Zandvoort: the team led by Andrea Stella has not brought any important technical innovations since the Miami GP, except for adaptations to the different tracks. While Red Bull has limited itself to some refinements to the RB20, and Mercedes and Ferrari have not touched their cars, the Woking team wants to make a… break in the group.

The MCL38, in fact, was the most consistent challenger of Red Bull, proving to be a “universal” car, capable of being competitive on every track. Driver and strategy errors did not allow the real potential of the Papya car to be collected.

With ten races left until the end of the world championship, McLaren has completed the development of the Miami package and is bringing a major update to the Netherlands with the clear intention of reasserting its technical supremacy in its bid to take the Constructors’ title with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.

The MCL38 has been revised in every part of the car: the carbon covers of the front suspension have been redesigned to orient the flows differently, also in function of the new brake duct which has been completely redesigned starting from the intake with the aim of improving the load on the front axle and improving the lamination of the flows towards the rear.

McLaren MCL38: the floor of the bottom has been redesigned in the trailing edge

Photo by: George Piola

The bottom also features changes, especially in the trailing edge: the three flow diverters called to push the air away from the car body are redesigned and with visible metal reinforcements. As a result, the longitudinal wing has also been partially revised: the aim is to increase the downforce.

McLaren has also worked on the rear suspension: nothing that concerns the kinematics and the push rod layout, but as at the front, the covers have been remodelled to ensure airflow that is more synergic with the fins of the rear brake duct and with the rear axle, given that a different high-downforce wing makes its debut, combined with a beam wing that features a lower delta element with a very long chord and a second gull-wing element that almost acts as a lid for the first.

McLaren MCL38: new diffuser in Holland with a more charged double beam wing

Photo by: George Piola

Also fundamental is the modification to the diffuser, designed to improve the extraction of air from the bottom and ensure the MCL38 has good balance in the delicate transitions from low-speed to high-mileage sections in which the papaya car has so far shown its best.

The home event of Max Verstappen, therefore, risks becoming important in defining a watershed between the performance levels of the top cars: McLaren risks a significant change. Red Bull, Mercedes and Ferrari paid the price when they introduced the latest evolutionary packages, also having to take steps back on certain solutions to find a lost balance.

McLaren MCL38: Rear end detail with new rear suspension covers

Photo by: George Piola

It will be the same for the Woking team. Stella and his technicians obviously hope not, also because they are convinced that they will only bring into the car solutions that have been extensively evaluated in the wind tunnel and on the simulator. Holland will have to give important answers in measuring the values ​​on the field…