2019 Mclaren F1 Team - Renault

[f1rules]

completely agree, its not a new philosophy

I don't think they have a new aero philosophy, just went a bit more aggressive with the outwash front wing.

[Darth-Piekus]

I have to laugh at everyone saying it's not good enough, it's exactly where Mclaren themselves and anyone that's been watching the rest of the season expected the car to be this weekend - I said this before even practice that Mclaren were expecting HAAS and TR to be much faster here so they brought more hard tyres to use it mainly as a test session for the new aero. I think they'll be pretty damned happy with a P8, and as someone already said, Sainz was managing tyres and fuel to do a potential one-stop race without the safety car, so they could have still been up at the same spot even without the SC.

The question is though how come they expected Haas and TR being faster than them? Were they not having faith in their own upgrades?

[PhillipM]

Because everyone brings updates to Barcelona - and this is only a baseline update for Mclaren now they're happy with the car, updates will be much more frequent from now - and the TR and Haas have serious pace when they can get the tyre working. Barcelona is a circuit that cars all the are setup for as it's the test circuit, and the teams already have data on - so nobody has tyre problems here.
Mclaren's forte this year is their car is responding well to setup changes (unlike last year) to get the tyres working everywhere, unlike the other two.

[Darth-Piekus]

So this Upgrade is just a basic upgrade? Can we expect a real Big Upgrade in the next races?

[UnaF1]

OK, I can understand this, but still, how did Friday pace fade away?

[Bisonas]

I have to laugh at everyone saying it's not good enough, it's exactly where Mclaren themselves and anyone that's been watching the rest of the season expected the car to be this weekend - I said this before even practice that Mclaren were expecting HAAS and TR to be much faster here so they brought more hard tyres to use it mainly as a test session for the new aero. I think they'll be pretty damned happy with a P8, and as someone already said, Sainz was managing tyres and fuel to do a potential one-stop race without the safety car, so they could have still been up at the same spot even without the SC.

I have to laugh at everyone saying that SAI would get P8 with a Soft/Medium one stop.
RIC behind him was matching his times on same laps used Hards waiting for the last 15 laps to pass him.
Soft/Medium/Soft 2 stopper was a more probable outcome without SC.
And even if SAI managed to pull out a Soft/medium one stop, RIC would pass him for sure on track, and HAAS TR drivers would probably all re-pass him on track being right behind him on last 15 laps, on fresh rubber while SAI would be on what ?? 35 laps mediums ??

[Bisonas]

i don't want to open a debate here. We are all on the same side.
But i want to point out, that the new FW is uncharted territory for MCL.
We all know or heard how the FW dictates how the air will travel from then on. Its one of the most aerodynamically important aspects of the car. New rules reduced some of its importance, but make no mistake, its still very very important.
I hope they are sure on what they are doing. And i really hope they will make the best use of the 2 day test to evaluate it.
But if i saw on those 2 days MCL doing back to back tests again with both FWs, old and new, i would be really really worried. I hope i don't see the old FW on the test, because if i do, that means they are not so sure about it. Even though there are many reasons to use the old FW for comparison on the 2 days test, personally it will get me worried a bit.

[restless]

I was expecting this huge update to show something.
Completely new FW, new bargeboards, new "high" downforce RW - you can't have bigger update bar completely new chassis!
If they were not sure in new FW - why bother, when we have tests starting?!

[PhillipM]

I have to laugh at everyone saying that SAI would get P8 with a Soft/Medium one stop.
RIC behind him was matching his times on same laps used Hards waiting for the last 15 laps to pass him.
Soft/Medium/Soft 2 stopper was a more probable outcome without SC.
And even if SAI managed to pull out a Soft/medium one stop, RIC would pass him for sure on track, and HAAS TR drivers would probably all re-pass him on track being right behind him on last 15 laps, on fresh rubber while SAI would be on what ?? 35 laps mediums ??

Ric hadn't been able to get past him for 15 laps even trying every time down the main straight, the Mclaren was too fast out of the chicane for him to get anywhere near close enough down the start of the straight. Sainz was still putting in laptimes more than fast enough that with a pitstop and deg on the mediums they still likely wouldn't have caught him in time.

[PhillipM]

If they were not sure in new FW - why bother, when we have tests starting?!

Because it worked. Mclaren had massive understeer issues in Barca in testing in S3, compromising them onto the straight.
Here the car was balanced enough that even a Renault breathing down it's neck got gapped so much it couldn't pull it back on the straight even with DRS. Neither could the Torro Rosso late on.

[nirvaand]

I love the overreactions on this thread. McLaren never said anything themselves, you all are just making stuff up yourself. Every team brings a major update for Barcelona. Have you even checked the updates that the other teams brought or are you just commenting based on what McLaren brought?

The quality of this thread is decreasing year on year.

[Jambier]

Front wing didn't work for Ferrari , Alfa or McLaren

Maybe they took the wrong path :/

[Dipesh1995]

IMO, I think they need time to dial this package in and to gain better understanding of how to get the best out of it.

[max_speed]

lets not fool ourselves, today's points are brought to you by Norris. without norris saniza had no chance and would have been with Racing point. to me, it also looks like , taking ferrari route on Front wing might be the problem. maybe they got influenced by ferrari's pace in pre-season and went there. mclaren does not have enough resources to purse 2 different philosophies in parallel (unlike merc/rb) they committed to Ferrari's one and might have made a blunder.

[godlameroso]

I was expecting this huge update to show something.
Completely new FW, new bargeboards, new "high" downforce RW - you can't have bigger update bar completely new chassis!
If they were not sure in new FW - why bother, when we have tests starting?!

It did do something, they're ahead of Renault, an 8th place is a good result for this track, finishing only behind 1 Haas and the top runners. Shame for Norris, but perhaps a double edged sword.

The direction is clear, this is the first step of a long series of updates, particularly they need to focus on the floor, specifically the area under and directly behind the side pod deflectors. They made a step by putting a flow conditioner there, but the real gain will come by up turning the floor.



Mercedes has much more detail in this area compared to McLaren.



To me that would be the direction I would focus in if I were McLaren, the floor area under and directly behind the side pod deflectors.



They have a tunnel that deflects air, but the edge of the bargeboards isn't as contoured as it is on Ferrari or Mercedes.