McLaren MCL33

[ollandos]

the only one car ...who beat last year Q best time in 2 practice ....is mcl33 .....look like the 1 second benefit from renault engine in place of honda is there ...torro rosso is 0.5-0.6 slower from last year practice times....and it was in q3 with both cars if remember correct ...1 for sure ..

[DiogoBrand]

Diogo, good post but please man, don’t be so angry. I agree with you that you cannot tell anything from a car just by looking at its exterior and concluding it looks basic. However, last years Red Bull was also looking bare at season start and I too thought, well, this says nothing, the shapes and flows might be just right. But after bits got started adding to it it did achieve more efficient downforce. Now what is happening inside the RBR13/14 we also cannot tell, nor extrapolating this to the MCL33 would be sensible, but you cannot simply discard the Notion altogether. Lets wait and see how the season progresses. I do expect we are going to see a more intricate sidepod flow conditioner over the comming months.

I'm not angry at all . And you do have a point: It is possible that McLaren's aerodynamics are underdeveloped, as was the case with last year's Red Bull. But also, look at their split front wing elements and their slotted front wing pillars. Both of these were copied by none other than Ferrari. Then there are their rear wing endplates, that I would actually say look overdeveloped which may or may not be a good thing. The only place that may just look a bit too simple is the bargeboard space, and it's practically unchanged from last season. But let's wait, a lot of times Boullier is a master of defecating through his mouth, but I do expect them to steadily upgrade the car once they understand what they have in hands.

Also there were people saying that McLaren was blaming Honda for their poor performance while actually their chassis was to blame. The fact that they were the 5th fastest team yesterday probably shows that the car has some potential to it.

[Sieper]

Misiterpreted your mood, sorry for sure there are already a lot of components that are at the spearpoint of tech, like you mentioned but also the rear upper wishbone. also, I love the tightly packed, smaller, high rake concept, I feel that is what a race car is about, not making it longer and longer, and then longer.

The bargeboards and the sidepod deflectors is where my rather amateurish view is where in the more obvious department we will see the MCL33 get developed further during the season, I expect significant gains from that.

[jh199]

I don't know exactly how that wavy bargeboard element works but based off of the overall space and elements used, the Mclaren certainly falls short of most if not all the teams. Not to beat a dead horse but the barge board side deflector looks like it could use a ton of work. Even Renault, with their similar concept, has at least added slots to it.

But isn't it interesting how McLaren likely have the most complicated front wing and rear wing endplates (As Diogo pointed out) where development is more limited but then they seem to lack in the bargeboard area where regulations are somewhat eased? I just find that a bit odd. Is it possible their philosophy doesn't rely on vorticies running down the side of the car to help out flow attachment and the rear wing? Maybe their tire wake is exactly where they want it and they are getting enough clean air to the rear so bargeboard development hasn't been worth it up to this point

Hopefully well see the upgrade come Bahrain

[PhillipM]

It's quite amazing how much diversity we have in bargeboards given most cars converge on other elements.

[DiogoBrand]

Misiterpreted your mood, sorry for sure there are already a lot of components that are at the spearpoint of tech, like you mentioned but also the rear upper wishbone. also, I love the tightly packed, smaller, high rake concept, I feel that is what a race car is about, not making it longer and longer, and then longer.

The bargeboards and the sidepod deflectors is where my rather amateurish view is where in the more obvious department we will see the MCL33 get developed further during the season, I expect significant gains from that.

You touched a good subject there about their rear suspension. When people saw it, everyone said right away that "their rear suspension is bad, they're gonna have no traction, McLaren is doomed".
So basically when McLaren does nothing different, they're being conservative and will never fight for wins being conservative. When they innovate, they're taking too many risks and it won't pay off, so their car will suck.

I'm not directing this at you, but if people complain when they're conservative and also when they innovate, they'll never be able to please anyone.

[ringo]

Mclaren never got the memo on high suspension pickup points as the others this year.
Maybe a relative weakness.

[Andres125sx]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DYqx-pmXcAAivZj.jpg:large

I don't know exactly how that wavy bargeboard element works but based off of the overall space and elements used, the Mclaren certainly falls short of most if not all the teams. Not to beat a dead horse but the barge board side deflector looks like it could use a ton of work. Even Renault, with their similar concept, has at least added slots to it.

No slots? OMG we want slots!

[LeClerc]

No slots? Clearly, you are doomed

[wesley123]

His point was clear

[ScottB]

It's quite amazing how much diversity we have in bargeboards given most cars converge on other elements.

Perhaps this is in part down to technology and resources. They are, I imagine, increasingly difficult to model and build, and with CFD and tunnel time limited, maybe it's been beyond some teams to develop / implement the more complex solutions?

[ESPImperium]

Ive got no sources on this, but its a hunch. I think McLaren have decided to spend the last two-to-three weeks on getting onto of their thermal issues and their cooling needs as its a new installation. With what Alonso has said, i think that they car has a lightening package on its way as McLaren have gone a little over the top on cooling for the Renault, as some radiators and plumbing systems may be designed for reliability over performance. Back in the V8 era, HRT once lightened their car by 75KG over the season, it was their only major update and kept them up with Virgin and Lotus in 2010.

Im sure that if McLaren dial in with this installation, and they have more money than HRT, they can lighten the chassis quicker and better. This may be worth 0.8 of a second.

As for aero, i think they have decided to postpone most of their updates till Bahrain as the cost of last minute freight to Melbourne is crazy, and takes 3 aircraft to get there. I think Bahrain, where its only one aircraft but importantly 7 hours away will be better for them, and cost less.

Ill be surprised if they don't have a new floor, bargeboard aero and an almost B-Spec car coming. This could be worth an extra second.

I think McLaren will improve by the standard 2.5 seconds this year, however if the rest can only find four-fifths of that, they will be in good shape next year. However, if they find more than the standard 2.5 seconds, i think they could get a win on their own merit at the tail end of the year, and even a win in a crazy race like Azerbaijan last year if they are in the right place at the right time. This chassis is good, how good, we don't yet know as its isn't fully unlocked.

[PhillipM]

Perhaps this is in part down to technology and resources. They are, I imagine, increasingly difficult to model and build, and with CFD and tunnel time limited, maybe it's been beyond some teams to develop / implement the more complex solutions?

Even amongst the top teams you see completely different flow philosophy, some are hell bent on turning the flow to feed the floor, some are much more concerned with generating downforce in the middle of the car and turning the flow is secondary, and some are working the corner of the floor or even just there to help flow attachment around the sidepod.

[jh199]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DYqx-pmXcAAivZj.jpg:large

I don't know exactly how that wavy bargeboard element works but based off of the overall space and elements used, the Mclaren certainly falls short of most if not all the teams. Not to beat a dead horse but the barge board side deflector looks like it could use a ton of work. Even Renault, with their similar concept, has at least added slots to it.

No slots? OMG we want slots!

Yea, my point being that Mclaren has done near nothing to this element while near everyone else have entirely revamped it or at least done something small to it. I bet we see some slots in 2 weeks time though

And thanks Wesley for that bit of support

[Thunder]

This has gone a little to much General Off Topic in here.