I know it’s a powerful item but are you suggesting a new floor of some sort would be classed as a big upgrade now?Emag wrote: ↑04 Jul 2024, 20:35Probably not.CjC wrote: ↑04 Jul 2024, 17:55So we can assume there won’t be a new floor in Silverstone
https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/mclar ... /10631277/
There has been a noticeable slow-down in the "original" plan for their upgrades. Or at least, in the supposed original plan we could deduce from their words earlier on the season.
Let's look at the timeline:
- Before the season even started, they mentioned that they see big potential in the development curve and they would be accelerating development to reach that potential.
- Then the season started and they mentioned that they had planned (I believe) 3 big upgrade packages for this season. The first one comes in Miami and it's a huge success. By their own words, much bigger improvement than they expected.
- After a couple of races in the blind, Stella speaks out saying that they're now confident they understand why the Miami upgrade package brought forward more performance than anticipated, but he also says there won't be any more big upgrade packages for McLaren this year, but rather they would start bringing smaller bits as soon as they're ready from the factory.
- That holds somewhat true, but the first visible change only came in Austria in the form of a front wing. Zak threw some words around potentially hinting towards some more upgrades in Silverstone, but so far there's nothing there. Could be that they split the cars to maximize learning during practice (they have done that plenty of times before), so I am going to wait until both tracks hit the track tomorrow to confirm.
So, all in all, even if they do bring something here, I was particularly surprised by Stella's comments a couple of races ago saying they won't be bringing a big upgrade package like Miami anymore. And that comment came around the same time he said they were confident they understand why the Miami package turned out better than expected.
I suspect the performance gains from Miami surprised them and it caught them off guard. In a bid to better understand why it happened that way, perhaps the factory was focusing more on correlation work rather than development. And I suspect they might have found something which could have nullified their initial development plan.
If that is indeed the case, then it's not great news for this season. However it's great news for next year since it means they rectified potential development issues early enough to adapt the 2025 concept. Of course they know that taking a step in the wrong direction is very costly in this regulation set. Discounting Aston Martin which has been lost for a while now, just look at Ferrari. Even they got caught off guard by unexpected problems their developments brought.
They have to make sure everything they work on now actually delivers the expected results, otherwise you not only waste resources for nothing, you end up losing double that in trying to rectify the problems.
For instance the Miami car was a big upgrade but that included more than a new floor…