2022 - McLaren Formula 1 Team

[_cerber1]

A busy winter ahead for the designers then

Usually by December, the basic look of the chassis has already been determined, and work is underway on details and updates for the season.

[MrGapes]

Hello, i am a registered new member to the site but a long long time lurker. I just love the technical information and insights from this site and im glad its here for us as fans because otherwise there is very little that f1 as a whole provides to armchair fans in a technical capacity other than hyperbole and the basic info.

Anyway. I happen to have a friend that i work with who is a friend of an employee of mclaren. My work friend likes f1 but is overall very clueless with all techincalities so his information to me often very lazy and generalised. Anyway this guy that my workfriend is friends with is part of the team that travels over to germany to use toyotas wind tunnel. I believe he is some kind of test driver although i am yet to verify this.
Fingers crosses i can provide some insight over time and bits of info here and there.I must admit that the early information i am hearing is not particularly good.

If what i have said is not deemed appropriate for whatever reason then i apologise and was all intended in good faith. Thanks

What isn’t particularly good? The 2023 car?

I am currently waiting on more information on specifics, hopefully get some more detail on monday. What i have been told so far is that "the car is slow" and "the designers/engineers are not happy." Those were his words to my friend.

damn I hope not... considering Aston and Alpine believe their next car is a big step up.

[Ben1980]

Probably not worth worrying to much over tge old friend of a friend told me story.

[Ground Effect]

Read Oscar stopped on track

[CjC]

Probably not worth worrying to much over tge old friend of a friend told me story.

Quite possibly.
But Seidl has already said that the brake issues from this seasons testing is still having a lingering effect on next season development so it might just stack up….

Also like @Mr Grapes says- Alpine (who I have read too) and Aston believe they have made good ground with their car. It’s not what you want to be hearing going into winter if you are a Mclaren fan….

[CjC]

A busy winter ahead for the designers then

Usually by December, the basic look of the chassis has already been determined, and work is underway on details and updates for the season.

Exactly. No chance of turning a bad car into a good one.

I’m hoping the ‘slow’ description is just a lack of progress in the slow speed corners maybe and other areas have been improved

[CjC]

Read Oscar stopped on track

‘McLaren’s new signing Piastri was the cause of the first red flag, following a minor technical anomaly that prompted a precautionary stoppage on-track.’
From The Race

[Stig14]

Read Oscar stopped on track

Sounds like it was precautionary and he has since been out to complete 50 laps in the first 4 hours which isn't bad going.

[Big Tea]

Can anyone shed light on what the 'Brake Issues' actually are? Seems strange that a known issue is carried over to a new car.
Makes me wonder why? at the extreme, surely a new supplier or design would be different enough to change it?
What can not be replaced?


Edit

Sorry for all the question marks, but I am confused??? (as Normal for me)

[Ground Effect]

Can anyone shed light on what the 'Brake Issues' actually are? Seems strange that a known issue is carried over to a new car.
Makes me wonder why? at the extreme, surely a new supplier or design would be different enough to change it?
What can not be replaced?


Edit

Sorry for all the question marks, but I am confused??? (as Normal for me)

From what’s been explained, it’s not that brake issues are being carried over to the 2023 car, just the legacy of the disruption it caused into car development. So it appears that the time, resources spent rectifying it had serious enough implications that the 2023 car development is on the back foot. So I guess they’re playing catch up a bit.

[MrGapes]

I was looking at the Abu Dhabi livery launch spec and realized their were some disparities in its components, I added some stuff in the technical thread if anyone's interested

[SmallSoldier]

Can anyone shed light on what the 'Brake Issues' actually are? Seems strange that a known issue is carried over to a new car.
Makes me wonder why? at the extreme, surely a new supplier or design would be different enough to change it?
What can not be replaced?


Edit

Sorry for all the question marks, but I am confused??? (as Normal for me)

There aren’t any “known” break issues in the 2023 car… What is been taken out of context is Seidl saying that the fact that they had to allocate resources (time / people) into fixing and dealing with the situation meant that it pushed out development further into the season… Therefore they didn’t start working on the 2023 car as soon as they planned to, so they are behind it’s development from their original plan point of view… If they were planning to allocate 6 months of development to the 2023 car, they ended with 4 or 5 instead (numbers made by me to illustrate the point).

[SilviuAgo]

I was looking at the Abu Dhabi livery launch spec and realized their were some disparities in its components, I added some stuff in the technical thread if anyone's interested

Yes..very good analysis. Also I have spoted some differences between MCL36 and the show car with new Vuse colours. Even rear wing shape is different. I hope all changes to cut the gap to Top3.

[Big Tea]

I was looking at the Abu Dhabi livery launch spec and realized their were some disparities in its components, I added some stuff in the technical thread if anyone's interested

(and SmallSoldier)

Thanks guys.

[PhillipM]

I don't think I'd hang too much on the word of a, eh, friend of a friends test driver for the wind tunnel.

They don't generally have test drivers for the wind tunnel, it's either a dummy with the helmet in the exact spot as the actual driver, or one of many control engineers wearing a lid...

Next years car started development on time, it wasn't pushed back, this years car had developments pushed back that were to find the direction for next year - that's obviously going to have a bit of an effect, but then, Mclaren deliberately made their car modular this year so they could hunt down where they needed to go.
Next year's car is going to have more monolithic parts rather than bolt on changable things so it should be a few kilos lighter, it was worth doing I think, look how much they changed concepts.

And away from the risky one that didn't work at the start of the year - as much as people say Mclaren aren't trying anything new they had a unique floor setup compared to almost anyone. Same for the brakes and that bit them in the ass too