Alo_Fan wrote: ↑25 May 2025, 19:37
Looking forward to the Silverstone upgrade, reading between the lines from the Newey interview, it seems it will have some of his direction/instruction behind it and will be 100% from the new wind tunnel, while the Imola upgrade was an iteration from the Bahrain pre-season test upgrade package. I'm hoping to have a McLaren 2023 sort of effect, or at least make us the clear 5th best team, especially given Williams are done for this year in terms of updates.
I'm also hoping for a McLaren-style revival in 2023. In fact, a few weeks ago I was reviewing the modifications McLaren made.
In the fifth race of that season (Miami), McLaren hit rock bottom: it failed to reach Q2.
But by the tenth race (Silverstone), it was back on its feet. It finished P2 & P3 in qualifying and P2 & P4 in the race.
The modifications made resulted in the McL38 "B" and were as follows: a new front wing; new front suspension geometry; improved rear suspension; revised front and rear brake ducts and wiglets; a new floor; a revised sidepod inlet; and new engine covers.
They were so numerous, and some of them so significant, that I couldn't draw any conclusions.
But I also remember McL making some statements that caught my attention: at first, they had misinterpreted something; something was behaving in reality exactly the opposite of what was behaving in theory. I've searched for those statements but haven't been able to find them.
This year, seeing how Williams has also improved significantly, I also hoped AM would find the key soon.
We're having a bitter season, but I'm still confident that Newey will find the solution and that this feeling of failure will disappear... soon.
At least the car is running better now. The engine failure was a disappointment, but the engine itself is perhaps the least of my worries.