The fundamentals of the design will have been decided months ago, so they have a solid base from which to develop all the other parts to the car. Stoffel was likely in a mock up of the 2017 car or it could be the real deal. You'll likely find they've been making various parts to stress test and to look for design flaws for a while. No point leaving it until January as if you slip behind there, you don't have a lot of time to get a car ready for the first pre season test. You also have to factor in the track crews needing time to build, strip and rebuild the car. As far as the PU goes ? They will have been getting data from Honda for the simulator and other pertinent information. The design of the PU is probably not fully decided yet.Andres125sx wrote:I was refering to the chassis/car. Maybe they´ve prepared a monocoque for the crash test, but that´s far from a 2017 car/chassis, no floor, no wings, no bargeboards, no brakes, no wheels, no suspensions, no PU...
You need a solid platform to develop aero parts, which means the design of the 2017 car will have been decided months ago with the flexibility to change things if needed. Now it's a case of crash tests and production lead times on the various parts of the car, I expect they will start assembling the car as soon as they can.A monocoque is just a monocoque, they can manufacture one while still developing aero so I´ll keep my previous statement, it would make no sense to build a 2017 chassis in december
We have no idea where McLaren is in terms of the design and build process, so everything could be moot.
All I can tell you is I have seen the carbon fibre shop at Williams, it's a sterile environment, with a lot of complex layering of carbon fibre and composite materials going on. Some parts were bagged and ready for the autoclaves.