By Carlo Platella
The McLaren MCL38 continues the path traced by the MCL60, with a similarity of shapes that reflects the same underlying concept. No revolution therefore in Woking, this having actually taken place during the development of the 2023 car. Aware of the limitations of the previous car, McLaren had already revolutionized the MCL60, introducing an important conceptual update in Baku, which was followed by the Austria and Singapore. The new MCL38 is the natural continuation of the work set in 2023, with the clear objective of filling the remaining gaps.
The areas of attention
One of the least competitive areas of the MCL60 was straight-line aerodynamic efficiency, especially in low-load configuration. During the year McLaren had tried to remedy the problem, but Andrea Stella had repeatedly reiterated the need for structural interventions on the 2024 car. The MCL38 was thus created around a new chassis, with particular attention paid to efficiency in the various configurations of the aerodynamic map.
Another critical area of the 2023 project was the lack of competitiveness in the low-traffic curves. “The real area we need to focus on is low speed performance. If we improved there, we could compete for top positions everywhere”, commented Lando Norris. In this field the work is twofold. With the 2024 project, McLaren aims to have a car that is aerodynamically less sensitive to large steering angles and yaw (crossing), conditions experienced in tighter corners. In parallel, the new suspensions of the MCL38 aim at a better compromise between the stabilization of the posture of the surface and the mechanical grip, which emerges as the speed drops.
Overall, in Woking we worked to offer Piastri and Norris a car that was more stable in the center of corners and more in line with their preferences. In detail, the Briton has long hoped for a single-seater that supports his driving style, with U-shaped trajectories instead of V-shaped: “The biggest improvement we could make to our car is not in terms of pounds of downforce, but of ease of driving”. Also in this case, to achieve the goal McLaren has renewed both the aerodynamics and the suspension mechanics.
Suspensions
The MCL38 is presented to the world through a mix of digital renderings and photographs, with the latter confirming a fair representativeness of the former. The changes to the chassis are not easily noticeable from the outside, but it is reasonable to assume that McLaren has worked to narrow the lower part, which influences the geometry of the bottom more. They are then reported the changes made to the frontnecessary to be able to redesign the suspension group.
The front suspension confirms the pull-rod scheme. Along with Red Bull, McLaren is the only team to continue the pushrod setup from the first year of the ground effects regulations, believing it to be aerodynamically advantageous. The steering arm is still aligned with the lower triangle, but the big change affects the upper elements. The Woking team indeed embraces the anti-pitching kinematicsstaggering the height of the front and rear arms to stabilize the position of the bottom during braking, generating load with greater consistency.
The front view of the render obscures the exact point where the lower arm fits into the frame, but from the rear photograph it is appreciable the huge level of anti-divas implemented on the new McLaren (1). The staggered height is not only functional to stabilizing the pitch, but also to managing the flows coming from the front. A similar path was also followed in the development of the rear suspension, again with a push-rod layout, but with more marked anti-pitch compared to 2023 (2).
Reversed air intakes
At the level of the side radiator outlets, McLaren moves against the current. Most teams are now inclined to widen and squash the air intakes, favoring the channeling of flows under the side and pressurization on the sides of the cockpit, useful for shielding against turbulence. The MCL38 for its part has side openings of similar height compared to the 2023, but narrower in width (3).
The narrowing of the air intakes widens the surfaces of the external bodywork, usable as a shield to push the turbulence outwards, away from the bottom (4). McLaren had shown its desire to develop in this direction already with the updates introduced in 2023. The Singapore package, in fact, had slightly narrowed the side vents, expanding the external surfaces (5).
With the new concept of the air intakes, the management of the external edge also changes. On the 2023 McLaren the lower lip extended forward, like what many other teams have done to channel the flows under the side. The MCL38 reverses the previous schemelengthening the upper lip (7), which effectively becomes an extension of the slide along the upper part of the bellies.
Aerodynamics
No surprises in terms of the bodywork, which continues the flat-bellied approach, now dominant on the starting grid. The refinement of the surfaces is concentrated above all at the bottom, where the depth of the channel that runs along the lower part has increased, effectively suspending the side above the bottom (7). All this to the advantage of the energy channeled through the flows in the direction of the gearbox and the diffuser.
Evolution is in the name of continuity also in the upper part of the bodywork. The rear three-quarter photograph confirms the permanence of the channels dug along the slides (8), protected from turbulence by the external rise. Finally, the upper bonnet maintains the “tray” layout, housing the cooling grills to separate the hot air from the flows conveyed to the lower part
Considerations postponed however with regards to the main aerodynamic surfaces. Predictably, the outer edge of the bottom and the Venturi channels appear retouched in the renderings and obscured in the photographs. The front wing, on the other hand, strongly follows the late 2023 specification, leading one to wonder whether the team has kept an evolved version hidden.
Development continues
The most important comment on the sidelines of the McLaren presentation comes from the words of Team Principal Andrea Stella: “There are several innovations in the car, but not all the areas we wanted to address were completed in time for the launch release. These aspects now become the object of our attention for seasonal development, which is already underway.” It is possible that the Italian engineer simply wanted to underline a well-known principle, namely that the car from the beginning of the season will evolve naturally during the championship. However, the memory of 2023 is still vivid, when McLaren failed to achieve its design objectives, dragging out the initial delay for the first third of the championship. All this increases curiosity about the potential of the MCL38, a car accompanied by the prospect of closing the gap with Red Bull, but also by the fear of falling back in the hierarchy again.
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