2023 - McLaren Formula 1 Team

[M840TR]

Today, 14:20
Ride height ruling change scuppered McLaren

It turns out this caused big issues for McLaren. Key said that while a 15-millimeter change "sounds very small," the importance of the floors in generating downforce means it had a “massive" impact. "When we did that in our car, it actually gave us a much bigger loss than anticipated," Key explained. "When we took that step, it was a really big knock for us." It left McLaren moving in a different direction with its floor concept about a month too late to get it resolved for the start of the season. "It is frustrating, because to be honest, the route we're on now seems to be pretty prolific," said Key. "Had the reg been earlier, or had we clocked the fact that you need to do a different thing with it four weeks earlier, we wouldn't be talking about it right now, to be honest. It's a bit of a shame. We are where we are."

By Race 4 in Baku, it should have the fixes in place to make it more competitive again.



Source: Luke Smith Senior Writer, F1

https://theathletic.com/tag/f1/



Read this on another forum.

Caught my eye this did- for James Key to call out the development direction they are on as “prolific” is very bold by his usually measured standards.

Here’s hoping!

By prolific he just means a lot of other teams are on the same development direction.

[billamend]

That is more "going along" than "pushing".

Not sure what is worse.

[SmallSoldier]

Who do you blame then?

Why does there needs to be someone to blame? A blame culture isn’t a positive one… That doesn’t promote a Team environment nor innovation, you don’t want people wasting time trying to cover their @#$ instead of finding ways to improve the situation.

We're not part of the organization. Someone has to take responsibility. You can't blame Merc for this. These issues are a McLaren short coming. 2nd year in a row that they start the year on the back foot. They need to figure out why these issues are falling through the cracks. Last year they said they had a engineering shortage. They hired more engineers.

And how do you know if someone has already taken that responsibility or not? Do we need a public lynching?

The issues are different, if it would have been something on the brake cooling system, I could understand… But it had nothing to do with it.

[SmallSoldier]

Who do you blame then?

Why does there needs to be someone to blame? A blame culture isn’t a positive one… That doesn’t promote a Team environment nor innovation, you don’t want people wasting time trying to cover their @#$ instead of finding ways to improve the situation.

The better question would be "who is responsible then?" And the obvious answer is the team.

At the end of the day, yes… They win and lose as a team… And I would be extremely surprise if internally the issues haven’t been discussed and corrective action set in place to prevent the same situation from happening… But the issues with the cars on Sunday (both DNF’s) are just part of Motorsport, it happens… They just need to understand why it happen and how to avoid for the next races.

[SmallSoldier]

In my opinion, it is unacceptable when a team like McLaren, with their history, experience and capabilities, disrupts pre-season testing for the second year in a row, but even worse, they did not even predict these problems. As a result, they couldn't run the simulation race and identify the reliability issues we had during the Grand Prix. I can understand when there are any problems on the tests, but they should be resolved within an hour, a maximum of half a day, and not disrupt all sessions. Obviously, the technical staff should reconsider their approach to work.

So… Ferrari had the same issues? They run a simulation race and still DNF’ed… You are making a relationship between the issues on Sunday and the challenges on testing that isn’t there.

[ort895]

There is no indication McLaren pushed for the floor rise on behalf of Mercedes.

No, we are happy with the decisions and the leadership from the FIA side regarding that topic,

In the end, when all of this started regarding the technical directive, the FIA made it clear it is based on safety. That’s why I think it’s very important now to follow through and not give way in any direction. So, very happy with that.

Again, we’re supportive of the lead here from the FIA. It’s still an ongoing discussion which is also normal. But in the end, I guess we will have clarity soon and just focus on that and go ahead.

I am confused on why you think this supports your narrative?
Unless you are suggesting the FIA raised the floor edges purely for Merc.

[Ground Effect]

To those who say that NOR only kept up with HAM/ALO/STR/RUS because he was on fresher rubber....do you think McLaren had 6 sets of new tires?? He was used tires most of the time and one of his new sets was a Medium, which was rubbish on this track. Yes, he could push more since he was on 11-lap stints but the problem also caused performance issues.

...

For clarity and objectivity purposes:

He completed 55 laps:
18 of them on used softs (most likely from qualifying, so max. 3 laps, albeit at least one at full push)
37 on new rubber, various compounds

He was actually not on used rubber most of the race. They had 4 sets of new tires. If the last stint was the one where he kept up with the leaders (I think it was), it was on an 8-lap stint on used softs (presumably not more than 3 laps old when they put them on), compared to ~25 lap stint on hards from those in front.

Yeah the optimism drawn from Lando's stints are unfounded unfortunately.

McLaren are struggling. Are any other teams bringing updates between now and Baku?

The team literally said they drew positives from Lando’s race pace. Surely they would take into account all caveats? Things aren’t so bad that they don’t know what they’re talking about.

[MTudor]

I like people who see the cup half full not half empty and reading the comments from launch and race1 I wonder if people with doom and gloom comments are also that hard on them selfs?!
My take from race1 is that the car is not as bad as I thought after tge comments from the launch and the fact that the developing of this car stoped 3 month ago gives me hope for the Baku update.

[mwillems]

Today, 14:20
Ride height ruling change scuppered McLaren

It turns out this caused big issues for McLaren. Key said that while a 15-millimeter change "sounds very small," the importance of the floors in generating downforce means it had a “massive" impact. "When we did that in our car, it actually gave us a much bigger loss than anticipated," Key explained. "When we took that step, it was a really big knock for us." It left McLaren moving in a different direction with its floor concept about a month too late to get it resolved for the start of the season. "It is frustrating, because to be honest, the route we're on now seems to be pretty prolific," said Key. "Had the reg been earlier, or had we clocked the fact that you need to do a different thing with it four weeks earlier, we wouldn't be talking about it right now, to be honest. It's a bit of a shame. We are where we are."

By Race 4 in Baku, it should have the fixes in place to make it more competitive again.



Source: Luke Smith Senior Writer, F1

https://theathletic.com/tag/f1/



Read this on another forum.

Caught my eye this did- for James Key to call out the development direction they are on as “prolific” is very bold by his usually measured standards.

Here’s hoping!

By prolific he just means a lot of other teams are on the same development direction.

Why do you think that, or how did you come to know that?

[AR3-GP]

Given Mclaren's track record, you almost have to take a stance of "I'll believe it when I see it" with regards to potential of their upgrades.

They have done nothing to earn anyone's trust.

[mwillems]

Today, 14:20
Ride height ruling change scuppered McLaren

It turns out this caused big issues for McLaren. Key said that while a 15-millimeter change "sounds very small," the importance of the floors in generating downforce means it had a “massive" impact. "When we did that in our car, it actually gave us a much bigger loss than anticipated," Key explained. "When we took that step, it was a really big knock for us." It left McLaren moving in a different direction with its floor concept about a month too late to get it resolved for the start of the season. "It is frustrating, because to be honest, the route we're on now seems to be pretty prolific," said Key. "Had the reg been earlier, or had we clocked the fact that you need to do a different thing with it four weeks earlier, we wouldn't be talking about it right now, to be honest. It's a bit of a shame. We are where we are."

By Race 4 in Baku, it should have the fixes in place to make it more competitive again.



Source: Luke Smith Senior Writer, F1

https://theathletic.com/tag/f1/



Read this on another forum.

Caught my eye this did- for James Key to call out the development direction they are on as “prolific” is very bold by his usually measured standards.

Here’s hoping!

By prolific he just means a lot of other teams are on the same development direction.

He is talking about the development rate for this route. This is the complete quote, not edited for consumption here.

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/how-a ... /10440939/

Asked by Autosport if it was frustrating to have made the call so late, Key said: "Absolutely, I mean, it is frustrating because, to be honest, the route we're on now seems to be pretty prolific. It's doing what we hoped it would do. There's still some work to do.

"The development rate on that is so much higher than what we had. Had the reg been earlier or had we clocked the fact that actually you need to do a different thing with this four weeks earlier, we wouldn't be talking about it right now.

"So it's a bit of a shame, but we are where we are, and we're just going to recover from it."

[SmallSoldier]

Just watched Piastri’s onboard for the Bahrain GP (until his DNF), a shame that the Team Radio wasn’t working in the stream… But, the impression is really good, Piastri is very smooth in his input, no corrections, hitting every apex consistently… Before his DNF when he makes the overtake on (I believe Hulkenberg), you can tell the difference that his input made to that point, the Haas was sliding, several corrections and ultimately he had an easy overtake into Turn 1.

Very impressive from him.

[organic]

Just watched Piastri’s onboard for the Bahrain GP (until his DNF), a shame that the Team Radio wasn’t working in the stream… But, the impression is really good, Piastri is very smooth in his input, no corrections, hitting every apex consistently… Before his DNF when he makes the overtake on (I believe Hulkenberg), you can tell the difference that his input made to that point, the Haas was sliding, several corrections and ultimately he had an easy overtake into Turn 1.

Very impressive from him.

Yep he is extremely good at just cleanly driving at great pace consistently. His biggest weaknesses right now are assertive wheel-to-wheel driving based on watching him in f2 and also probably tyre management (due to lack of experience with Merc PU/F1 pirellis)

Expecting things to only get closer between him and Norris, and it wasn't too bad in race 1. Already closer than Ric on race pace and only 2 tenths shy in quali

[SmallSoldier]

Just watched Piastri’s onboard for the Bahrain GP (until his DNF), a shame that the Team Radio wasn’t working in the stream… But, the impression is really good, Piastri is very smooth in his input, no corrections, hitting every apex consistently… Before his DNF when he makes the overtake on (I believe Hulkenberg), you can tell the difference that his input made to that point, the Haas was sliding, several corrections and ultimately he had an easy overtake into Turn 1.

Very impressive from him.

Yep he is extremely good at just cleanly driving at great pace consistently. His biggest weaknesses right now are assertive wheel-to-wheel driving based on watching him in f2 and also probably tyre management (due to lack of experience with Merc PU/F1 pirellis)

Expecting things to only get closer between him and Norris, and it wasn't too bad in race 1. Already closer than Ric on race pace and only 2 tenths shy in quali

I hope so! A little competition will also help Lando keep developing.

[djos]

Apparently Lando’s issue was not pneumatic. It was hydraulic.

https://apple.news/AzGOSjvNhS5aeyMhyVMyEpg