Vanja #66 wrote: ↑24 Mar 2022, 11:57
If Norris comments about 100 pts of downforce are correct, that's a lot. And surely comes mostly from the floor, since wings can only do so much on their own. Their floor sealing looked to be decent, but that doesn't tell us anything about the actual geometry underneath...
Sidepods can only do so much, once everything else is as it should be, so they can't be the reason, not even close. Also, having that big of a deficit is surely related to actual downforce requirements set for the launch spec. You can't go high enough if you don't aim high enough...
Thank you for saying this. I keep seeing people here blaming the sidepod shape for not being anything like RB/Ferrari.
But the thing is, they are so far behind, the sidepod shape is clearly not the problem.
The lack of that level of detail could maybe justify that last half a second or so, but not 2 seconds. McLaren has deeper problems.
Their concept is not utilizing the tunnels to the same extent as the other teams. And it seems you share my view as well in regard to the lower reference point that McLaren had for what it considered enough downforce to start the season.
If their reference point was higher, warning bells would have been rang the moment they hit the track in Barcelona and verified the numbers.