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If the TD isn’t an aero guy, it’s a bit much to call for his head! He obviously relies on his aero team to recommend the best path forward. If they go down the wrong rabbit hole, it’s on the aero team.
That said, It is up to the TD to identify weakness in the team and address it, which he has now done.
IMO, it was obvious 2 years ago that this was an issue from both drivers feedback. It’s a shame it wasn’t corrected much earlier and it has cost the team dearly in the battle with the other midfield drivers.
I think Sanchez just wanted to leave Ferrari because he was a big ally of Binotto. Heads are rolling at Ferrari currently and all of you "experts" calling for Key's firing will be able to see what will come out. I assume that a big leading role of james isnt on the table.
Anyway i am very glad we got such an amazing engineer in our stable
Thank good that we were able to poach him. He will be stationed probably (and hopefully) in a leading role in the aero department.
It seems pretty obvious that Sanchez is going to replace Prodromou. Key is a mechanical engineer, and in that side of the car things are working really well. There is no reason to replace him.
It seems pretty obvious that Sanchez is going to replace Prodromou. Key is a mechanical engineer, and in that side of the car things are working really well. There is no reason to replace him.
Good, Prodromou was very clearly not the messiah / second coming of Newey!
it is? do they produce a good car mechanicly? i dont think they excelled in slow speed for years? and im unsure if the 4 years of weak frontend is aero of mechanical related, but no matter. Will be interesting if indeed key pushed for this move to get a new aero guy, or he will be replaced as TD. My bet is the sec. He was head of car concept at ferrari, why change for an Aero only role.
It seems pretty obvious that Sanchez is going to replace Prodromou. Key is a mechanical engineer, and in that side of the car things are working really well. There is no reason to replace him.
Last edited by f1rules on 10 Mar 2023, 13:37, edited 1 time in total.
The car has certainly retained some of its predecessors weakness in terms of balance:
Upon reviewing a few laps in qualifying and race conditions to competitor some big-med losses came at turn 8, 9-10, 13, 14 and straights.
McLaren has struggled with turn 8 for a few years now, car struggles with initial entry, either too neutral, or goes to deep, not able to keep min. speed up and struggles massively with traction out (think back too Belgium turn 1 last year)
Turn 9-10, the Aston was very good here, if the MCL60 carried to much speed in it would lock its left front instantly, so it lacked the low speed downforce to maintain a higher min. speed, and inherently lacked traction out of the corner. The car sucks here.
Turn 13-14 similarly just lacked rotation through corner, compromising its line and traction
The drag has improved massively from last year, although still bleeds time to some cars (like Aston) but nowhere near as much as last year.
We didn't get to see much in terms of race stints, although initial thoughts, in the initial phase of stints comparing that of Oscar and Lando's 1st soft stint, the tyres took a little longer to get into a ideal window, until they were showing quite stable pace (reminds me of the W13), similar to Lando's 2nd hard stint he brought the tyres in for 2-3 laps until he showed significant pace (unfortunately we didn't get to see the rest of that stint due to issues).
I think Jeddah will be a interesting track, analyzing MCL36 is quite difficult cause the brake issues certainly compromised the overall package because they basically lost in every part of the track. I think it should be better than Bahrain due to lack of low speed, although the question is how much will they lose on the straights?..
I can imagine internally there might be excuses in McLaren why the car is not that fast - the old infrastructure. And maybe they want to give current team opportunity to try and show what they are capable of with new windtunnel.
But with the windtunnel coming online pretty soon and the new car will be developed in there (right?), there should be results next year already.
We can see it in Aston Martin, Dan Fallows (and more engineers) started in AM just last April and they were able to produce pretty good car.
it is? do they produce a good car mechanicly? i dont think they excelled in slow speed for years? and im unsure if the 4 years of weak frontend is aero of mechanical related, but no matter. Will be interesting if indeed key pushed for this move to get a new aero guy, or he will be replaced as TD. My bet is the sec. He was head of car concept at ferrari, why change for an Aero only role.
It seems pretty obvious that Sanchez is going to replace Prodromou. Key is a mechanical engineer, and in that side of the car things are working really well. There is no reason to replace him.
it is? do they produce a good car mechanicly? i dont think they excelled in slow speed for years? and im unsure if the 4 years of weak frontend is aero of mechanical related, but no matter. Will be interesting if indeed key pushed for this move to get a new aero guy, or he will be replaced as TD. My bet is the sec. He was head of car concept at ferrari, why change for an Aero only role.
It seems pretty obvious that Sanchez is going to replace Prodromou. Key is a mechanical engineer, and in that side of the car things are working really well. There is no reason to replace him.
If I may....
Sanchez - Chief Designer/Chassis Director?
Q: (Stefano Mancini – La Stampa) Kimi, will you help Vettel to win his championship this year?
Kimi Raikkonen: I can only drive one car, obviously.
@2018 Singapore Grand Prix drivers press conference.
“And what’s been really good in the team is we’ve done a fantastic job with this under a lot of pressure, we’ve looked at how we go about such developments in quite a fresh way.
“It’s not experimental but it’s definitely a new approach for us with how we’re going about this.
“It seems to be working very effectively. So, let’s see how the results on track come as the new iterations appear.
“It’s actually opened our eyes to a lot of new possibilities. So, it is a blessing in disguise in that respect.”
They’re definitely talking it up.
Looks like seeing AM closing the gap to the top has negated the argument on blaming facilities all the time. Seems more impetus to drive forward which is good to see. I want to see what’s going to happen this year. If there is a genuine push forward from where we are then the design team deserves a chance on the ‘24 car. Fingers crossed the gains on track are significant and outstrips what rivals can do
