McLaren MCL38

[f1rules]

I dont know if this has been shared but some interesting insights from Stella. Found on racefans

“So in these are three key areas [there’s] a few projects that we had started, we saw that they had potential, but just we couldn’t finalise them in time to have on the launch car. So they will very likely become updates for the early part of the season.”

He said the team can add these updates to the car as soon as they are ready. “It’s not that the innovations didn’t make it, I think it’s more some development projects didn’t make it. When you embark in some development projects it’s not like, you want to, obviously you want to target them to deliver as soon as possible.

“But there’s full room in the way we have designed the car for these projects to land later on, onto the car. There’s no restrictions from a layout point of view for some of them to become available. So, it’s just a matter of the time required for projects to mature and then be ready to be delivered.

He said the team has made three major improvements over its previous car with its new design. “One was to improve aerodynamic efficiency, the second one was to improve mechanical grip and the third one was to improve the interaction with the tyres. Found on racefans

“Now, I wouldn’t want to give any proportion, but I would say that we’ve been able to improve on all these three areas. Even though, like I said, that the start, we see that there’s potential for further improvements in each of these three areas.”

[f1rules]

the pod wing

[Emag]

I dont know if this has been shared but some interesting insights from Stella. Found on racefans

“So in these are three key areas [there’s] a few projects that we had started, we saw that they had potential, but just we couldn’t finalise them in time to have on the launch car. So they will very likely become updates for the early part of the season.”

He said the team can add these updates to the car as soon as they are ready. “It’s not that the innovations didn’t make it, I think it’s more some development projects didn’t make it. When you embark in some development projects it’s not like, you want to, obviously you want to target them to deliver as soon as possible.

“But there’s full room in the way we have designed the car for these projects to land later on, onto the car. There’s no restrictions from a layout point of view for some of them to become available. So, it’s just a matter of the time required for projects to mature and then be ready to be delivered.

He said the team has made three major improvements over its previous car with its new design. “One was to improve aerodynamic efficiency, the second one was to improve mechanical grip and the third one was to improve the interaction with the tyres. Found on racefans

“Now, I wouldn’t want to give any proportion, but I would say that we’ve been able to improve on all these three areas. Even though, like I said, that the start, we see that there’s potential for further improvements in each of these three areas.”

The thing is, you have got to expect nearly all teams to have upgrades in the pipeline. Especially Mercedes and Ferrari which just switched philosophies and are probably waiting to validate their ideas on track. So this is great and all, but unless they have another "Austria" level of upgrade, how competitive they are on Bahrain I think will set the tone for the rest of the season.

At the moment it doesn't look as developed as Aston, Ferrari and Merc are. But who knows, perhaps looks can be deceiving.

[f1rules]

Its no excuse, i agree the car look very conservative, but, i also learnt, doesnt mean anything for a car to look agressive=fast unless its red bull. But agree the others look more mature/devloped. But the confidence the team transmit, they will look complete idiots if they didnt make a big jump so. No its more about the 3 areas they focused on i found interesting and the part about they can implement changes cause the layout dont cause problems. This is especially interesting, cause two late signings just started working and they will probably have fresh ideas. So i agree that its normally the same bla bla bla from all the teams about developments coming, but mclaren comments this year has a little more weight to them, with two so high ranking and knowledgeable people arriving with new ideas

I dont know if this has been shared but some interesting insights from Stella. Found on racefans

“So in these are three key areas [there’s] a few projects that we had started, we saw that they had potential, but just we couldn’t finalise them in time to have on the launch car. So they will very likely become updates for the early part of the season.”

He said the team can add these updates to the car as soon as they are ready. “It’s not that the innovations didn’t make it, I think it’s more some development projects didn’t make it. When you embark in some development projects it’s not like, you want to, obviously you want to target them to deliver as soon as possible.

“But there’s full room in the way we have designed the car for these projects to land later on, onto the car. There’s no restrictions from a layout point of view for some of them to become available. So, it’s just a matter of the time required for projects to mature and then be ready to be delivered.

He said the team has made three major improvements over its previous car with its new design. “One was to improve aerodynamic efficiency, the second one was to improve mechanical grip and the third one was to improve the interaction with the tyres. Found on racefans

“Now, I wouldn’t want to give any proportion, but I would say that we’ve been able to improve on all these three areas. Even though, like I said, that the start, we see that there’s potential for further improvements in each of these three areas.”

The thing is, you have got to expect nearly all teams to have upgrades in the pipeline. Especially Mercedes and Ferrari which just switched philosophies and are probably waiting to validate their ideas on track. So this is great and all, but unless they have another "Austria" level of upgrade, how competitive they are on Bahrain I think will set the tone for the rest of the season.

At the moment it doesn't look as developed as Aston, Ferrari and Merc are. But who knows, perhaps looks can be deceiving.

[saputra_25]

the pod wing
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GGUhiqJXYAA ... name=small

Nice..

[Goblin42]

[Marc.W]

Not a whole lot to see, but at least it's a different image

[mwillems]

Its no excuse, i agree the car look very conservative, but, i also learnt, doesnt mean anything for a car to look agressive=fast unless its red bull. But agree the others look more mature/devloped. But the confidence the team transmit, they will look complete idiots if they didnt make a big jump so. No its more about the 3 areas they focused on i found interesting and the part about they can implement changes cause the layout dont cause problems. This is especially interesting, cause two late signings just started working and they will probably have fresh ideas. So i agree that its normally the same bla bla bla from all the teams about developments coming, but mclaren comments this year has a little more weight to them, with two so high ranking and knowledgeable people arriving with new ideas

I dont know if this has been shared but some interesting insights from Stella. Found on racefans

“So in these are three key areas [there’s] a few projects that we had started, we saw that they had potential, but just we couldn’t finalise them in time to have on the launch car. So they will very likely become updates for the early part of the season.”

He said the team can add these updates to the car as soon as they are ready. “It’s not that the innovations didn’t make it, I think it’s more some development projects didn’t make it. When you embark in some development projects it’s not like, you want to, obviously you want to target them to deliver as soon as possible.

“But there’s full room in the way we have designed the car for these projects to land later on, onto the car. There’s no restrictions from a layout point of view for some of them to become available. So, it’s just a matter of the time required for projects to mature and then be ready to be delivered.

He said the team has made three major improvements over its previous car with its new design. “One was to improve aerodynamic efficiency, the second one was to improve mechanical grip and the third one was to improve the interaction with the tyres. Found on racefans

“Now, I wouldn’t want to give any proportion, but I would say that we’ve been able to improve on all these three areas. Even though, like I said, that the start, we see that there’s potential for further improvements in each of these three areas.”

The thing is, you have got to expect nearly all teams to have upgrades in the pipeline. Especially Mercedes and Ferrari which just switched philosophies and are probably waiting to validate their ideas on track. So this is great and all, but unless they have another "Austria" level of upgrade, how competitive they are on Bahrain I think will set the tone for the rest of the season.

At the moment it doesn't look as developed as Aston, Ferrari and Merc are. But who knows, perhaps looks can be deceiving.

The way he talks about a project maturing is what stands out for me, and what it means for something to mature. Does it mean it has found enough time to get on the car or does it mean the project itself is starting to reach a conclusion and has found the optimum gains for the effort put in?

In this case I think they decided there was more time to be found in some lines of development before they built parts and put them on the car. For overall development efficiency it was better to hold off on build a little longer as they could see more time could be quickly found by waiting a couple of weeks. "Targeting" the start of the season is no longer a method they work to it seems, it is about maximum gains for spend and if we wait, we wait. As he says the design is more modular than pre budget cap as it was last year and we saw this with the staggered rollout out of the Austria upgrade over 4 races.

It's also worth noting that neither the front or the rear of the car have been properly revealed yet, or the floor, the only substantial area revealed so far is the sidepods and suspension, one of which has a major change which will affect the way the platform behaves.

There is a parallel interview with Stella stating as much that is on the team thread. There is also an interview from Lando saying fans need to be patient, they will see all the parts in a few weeks, which I assume means the first or second race.

[LionsHeart]

Regarding updates for the first half of the season: it will probably be the front wing, as that element hasn't changed, although behind her the whole car has been transformed.

Also I have only one thought why they changed the side pontoons inlet, reducing the distance between the pontoons inlet and the venturi tunnels:

This is a possible attempt to accelerate the flows in this area by reducing the cross-section and sacrificing the volume fraction of air flows that flow further along the bottom and pontoons, thus changing and redistributing the pressure gradient so that the lowest pressure under the floor is at a different point, which may also be related to the suspension arms. This may also help to increase the mass flow, which will go into the Venturi ducts. I don't work with CFD so this is just a guess. But this change may be able to tie the balance of aerodynamics and the balance of suspension performance to a common denominator.

[Emag]

“Because we can,” was driver Lando Norris’s slightly tongue-in-cheek answer for why McLaren is hiding stuff. “Because it's a game of performance, and why would you ever want to give away anything?

“You’ll see what the car looks like. But you'll see in two weeks or something. So, be patient!”

That's a quote from Lando when asked by The Race why they are hiding stuff.
If he says you'll see in two weeks, then that means the "real" MCL60 will only be seen on the first race weekend. They will probably run this launch spec for the entirety of testing then, but I doubt much will change either way, because it doesn't make too much sense for them to have something big in the background and not test it beforehand.

[Venturiation]

the pod wing
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GGUhiqJXYAA ... name=small

So now we have RB and McLaren using the W14 mid wing

[haza]

Finally some pics to dissect

So McLaren and redbull have gone in a different direction to the rest of the field going with the W14 mid wing overbite Norris seemingly confirming that we won’t see the full car for a couple weeks ie race 1

[edgelo]

well they are trying to hide something, simply covered the tunnel/undercut with a photoshop brush,

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GGSnqSwXoAA ... me=900x900

The most I look at the front wing, the most I see a vortex generator in the up inner side of it. Kind a Mercedes solution but in a more unnoticed way

There is a curved separator between 3th and 4th elements, pointing outward and creating a kind of box with the nose where if I´m not wrong will appear a low pressure area. On the outter side of the separator it´s gonna be much higher pressure and when they encouter at the exit, they are going to roll one around the other creating a vortex.

Am I just talking nonsense?

[DiogoBrand]

well they are trying to hide something, simply covered the tunnel/undercut with a photoshop brush,

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GGSnqSwXoAA ... me=900x900

The most I look at the front wing, the most I see a vortex generator in the up inner side of it. Kind a Mercedes solution but in a more unnoticed way

There is a curved separator between 3th and 4th elements, pointing outward and creating a kind of box with the nose where if I´m not wrong will appear a low pressure area. On the outter side of the separator it´s gonna be much higher pressure and when they encouter at the exit, they are going to roll one around the other creating a vortex.

Am I just talking nonsense?

That's the adjustment slot, it's the plate designed to close the gap between the fixed and movable parts of the elements when they move relative to each other. Every front wing has this, but the outward curve can be beneficial in some way, probably creating some vorticity.


With that said, I'm pretty sure the wing they presented is the same as last year, and I wouldn't even expect it to be ran at Round 1.

On another subject:

Do you guys see a seam on the sidepod inlets, right over the Velo "o"?
I'm thinking this means the inlet can change, maybe to have a less conservative solution with a more pronounced overbite, or to suit the car for different cooling requirements.
Does that make sense?

[f1rules]

yeah its somethng discussed also in the aston martin thread, where it also look like a interchangeable panel their solution. Would make sense, that you could adjust, just like you adjust for cooling needs, wing confiq etc. Mclaren did it in the past, changed the inlet size of the sidepod, making it smaller for high speed tracks
Found here, for comparison, this almost look like a changeable panel also,