2023 - McLaren Formula 1 Team

[dren]

Guys, on the bright side, Williams needs a team to race.

[Ground Effect]

Like I mentioned earlier, my strong suspicions are we'll effectively see a B car in Baku, of course, that's open to interpretation, but I do feel that's what's in the pipeline. As forthcoming as McLaren has been, it would be a very bad look to say you'll have a B car before the season starts, most teams take that route when the season starts and realise early they got it wrong. But for McLaren to talk about B car before the season starts, imagine what these journos would say, they'd have a field day. I'm not saying the got it wrong, but it seems they found a much better way, which may be in a very different development direction.

Stella said the Baku update is not a B-car. However, it was said during testing that Mercedes might be preparing to introduce a B-car mid-season if the current concept does not proof to be competitive. So at least we’re not the only ones that seem to be fooling around.

Realistically, if the Baku update gives us the fire power to come at Alpine and Stroll, nobody would care how you’d call it. It would proof to be the best possible move, IF the team manages to quickly extract the performance out of it. That could take until some time after Baku. Let’s just wait and see how it turns out.

Stella actually said not "necessarily" a B car, that's why I said it's open to interpretation. Whatever the case, I think it'll definitely be significant.

[Macklaren]

a B car is something like what Aston Martin introduced intra season last year -- a car with a completely or largely different philosophy than the car it was replacing. the MCL60B (that's what we are calling it though, right?) could well keep the current upstream or downstream aero philosophies which changing the sidepod design or packaging and still up being a very big change-- hence Stella's "not necessarily"

[AR3-GP]

Everybody calls any change of a handful of parts a b-car. Is it being hyperbolic? Perhaps, but fairly harmless.

[SmallSoldier]

Everybody calls any change of a handful of parts a b-car

Hard to define what a B-Car actually is… A new front wing concept that implies changes downstream (floor entrance, floor edges) and maybe some sidepod refinement wouldn’t be a B-Car… Last year McLaren went from a very unique Sidepod and Tunnel entrance concept (blunt but narrow width sidepods with no undercut) to a wider sidepod with an undercut and it was just considered an evolution.

I wouldn’t consider it a B-Car unless there are Chassis Changes or if there is a dramatic change in concepts (going the Ferrari Bathtub or the Mercedes Small Sidepod route… But if they bring a new front wing, changes to the floor edge and maybe tunnel entrance / fences, it would just be an evolution of the current car.

At the end of the day, does it matter? As long as is faster… We could call it a Z-Car… I actually have one of those and it’s plenty fast

[AR3-GP]

Everybody calls any change of a handful of parts a b-car

Hard to define what a B-Car actually is… A new front wing concept that implies changes downstream (floor entrance, floor edges) and maybe some sidepod refinement wouldn’t be a B-Car… Last year McLaren went from a very unique Sidepod and Tunnel entrance concept (blunt but narrow width sidepods with no undercut) to a wider sidepod with an undercut and it was just considered an evolution.

I wouldn’t consider it a B-Car unless there are Chassis Changes or if there is a dramatic change in concepts (going the Ferrari Bathtub or the Mercedes Small Sidepod route… But if they bring a new front wing, changes to the floor edge and maybe tunnel entrance / fences, it would just be an evolution of the current car.

At the end of the day, does it matter? As long as is faster… We could call it a Z-Car… I actually have one of those and it’s plenty fast

I agree. "xyz" car is relatively harmless.

[Motörhead]

Nobody is blaming anyone, we want accountability!

Ask yourself what will happen at your job post if you keep missing your goals/targets over and over again while keep saying that you will get it done and you end up never doing so?

Accountability for what?

You dont know the targets, you dont know what goes on within the factory. You don't know any justifications.

Accountability...jeez

Accountability for lack of progress, in this case backwards trajectory since the rules reset, targets not meet, not even those publicly set by the team statements, car build quality - not being able to complete the test 2nd pre-season in a row, ect....

You can't keep promising and not delivering indefinitely. We now have the cost cap, we now have level playing ground and with all of the new facilities in place or about to be I expect to see Mclaren back on top, not fighting for P5/P6 in the constructors championship.

I'm afraid that if we don't change this around quickly we will be the next Williams on the long term.

Unfortunately, we all have to realize why we talk like this at the start of every season.
As McLaren fans we are all frustrated. We want the team to challenge and win.
But let’s look at why for a moment.
McLaren are renowned for starting slow and finishing strong.
Why is this?
If you think about it logically, it’s quite simple.
They develop late into the season. And they start late on the next car.
Think about it. How long has this been going on?
Until this changes. They will always be a midfield team I’m afraid.

[mzivtins]

McLaren are a a bit like Ferrari really, all they do is race and sell utterly amazing road cars.

Ferrari can do what they do because they have so much money from people buying their road cars, McLaren need this, it can only help, we all know they are investing and building business partnerships, but just like Ferrari fans, we need to support McLaren directly.

Their brand is growing, McLaren road cars are recognised as the coolest car brand on the market today in North America (no data on the UK, but surely that would be a given!?)

All that McLaren needs is more car owners and a factory engine package to get back to the top

[akshat21]

I saw this Autosport video on simulators a little while ago. They state that teams using older simulators build understeer into their models.

Don’t know if it’s relevant to Mclaren’s weak front end but am sure the experts can tell us if this could be a reason for performance loss.

[media] [/media]

[FittingMechanics]

I've been hearing about upgrades that will push the team forward for decades now. Usually it does not really change the pecking order because other teams are pushing hard as well. I would temper my expectations in regards to Baku upgrade but I'll be happy to be proven wrong.

I think Norris clearly said today that we are not 8-10th team like most pundits predicted. My guess is they expect to be in the mix for the midfield - around 5th best car. We'll see how it works out soon.

[f1rules]

well they will either look like complete "insert bad language" or i hope for once they deliver a big step, very cusious what it is

[Emag]

My realistic side doesn't allow me to expect a big change/jump.

The biggest upgrade packages usually only bring half a second of relative improvement, and even then, that's not usually the norm.

That's why if they are not very competitive in Bahrain (and the next couple of races before Baku), I am not expecting miracles.

[EddyBaggio]

My realistic side doesn't allow me to expect a big change/jump.

The biggest upgrade packages usually only bring half a second of relative improvement, and even then, that's not usually the norm.

That's why if they are not very competitive in Bahrain (and the next couple of races before Baku), I am not expecting miracles.

I expect that by Baku we are at least not behind Alfa, AT and HAAS. Maybe on par with Alpine.

[bauc]

McLaren will "need a lot more" than Baku F1 upgrade to fight for P4 - Norris

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/mcla ... /10438715/

[organic]

I guess the point he's making is that the Baku upgrade is where they should be at now so by the time it comes at Baku, teams like AMR/Alpine will have had 2 months to progress further. So they need to develop quickly before summer to catch up in the 2nd half of the season