McLaren MCL36

[PhillipM]

It's a taped wire

[Kalun]

I suspect McLaren has a fundamental problem with cornering downforce. Since 2014, they’ve been struggling with front grip/downforce. And this year, the new regulations make it even worse because there is no barge board to play with. I assume that they got it wrong with the floor inlet. While they solve the porpoising issue on the straight, I think there is some area on the floor or strakes that are stalling causing the car to loose downforce in the corner.

How did McLaren able to be in the upper mid field last year? I think it’s more to do with the capability of the team rather than the tools they have. And I bet McLaren will solve most of the problem by mid season this year. But it’s just a bandaid solution of their fundamental problem.

What I assume is that they have an outdated windtunnel. Some teams has a fancy turn table windtunnel to test cornering downforce. I’m not sure if Toyota Cologne windtunnel has that.

I hope the new windtunnel will help McLaren in the long run.

[M840TR]

They already have a revised front floor/strake section in production.

Do you think the front brakes would change soon? Thing looks tumorous.

[_cerber1]

FP1

[mclaren111]

Nice Angle...

[JordanMugen]

I suspect McLaren has a fundamental problem with cornering downforce. Since 2014, they’ve been struggling with front grip/downforce. And this year, the new regulations make it even worse because there is no barge board to play with.

What I assume is that they have an outdated windtunnel. Some teams has a fancy turn table windtunnel to test cornering downforce. I’m not sure if Toyota Cologne windtunnel has that.

It does not AFAIK, straight line testing only. It would certainly explain why the McLaren car works best only at small yaw angles, assuming they have to solely rely on CFD and track testing for that part of the analysis.

[DragonSGC]

Seems some small updates are flowing out of the factory.

[PhillipM]

They've got more rear ducts than that to test yet!

[adrianjordan]

How much could the understeer be down to the compromised front brake solution?

Have they got updated ducts on the car here?

[DragonSGC]

Some decent pace saturday seems Mclaren made a further step with setup, not expecting for them to stick it on pole in quali but it is promising. I hope Lando's PU is okay he got a very urgent call from his race engineer on his last lap.

[MrGapes]

from team stream I believe the abort was pre planned

[SmallSoldier]

How much could the understeer be down to the compromised front brake solution?

Have they got updated ducts on the car here?

The front brake situation is most probably hindering performance, but it isn’t the reason why the team has been more than 1 second away from the leaders… I still believe that it is more setup related and ensuring that they have the tires in the right window… The brakes may very well be helping (or were intended to help) with tire temperature… But the aerodynamic impact of the ducts itself should be small and for what we’ve seeing, most of the work on the front brakes is internal, therefore not aerodynamically significant.

Brand new car, it is taking them some time to understand how to best set ii up to get the most of our it… Between that and the fact that most upgrade parts will be coming to the car once they hit the European portion of the championship explains why they are behind at this point.

[Marc.W]

Just noticed the little Aston Martin style bit on the t-tray stand

[mclaren111]

The deflectors on top of sidepods looks a lot more outwards... Not sure if it stayed on for the race...

[charliesmithhd]