[ 2020 ] Mclaren F1 Team - Renault

[Mansell89]

Looking forward to seeing the car on a fast and flowing Silverstone and how we compare with some of the others. Quietly confident of showing some good speed but again it will come down to executing the race really well and getting things right.

I actually think Red Bull will be more suited to this track so it’s not going to be easy to get some hefty points, but let’s see!

[Darth-Piekus]

How is the FIA investigation with Racing Point? I am curious to see if they are legal. Also if they are legal would it be a risk to try and do the same thing? Will the team benefit for such a move or do they believe that their base car will eventually outdevelop the copy quickly?

[Jackles-UK]

Redesigning the whole car just to become a Merc-laren in the way Racing Point have would cost many, many tens of millions of pounds and, even if they do nail it, would only be for the gain of MAYBE a few tenths of a second.

I fully believe McLaren can close that gap down organically as they upgrade their car as it is; partly because McLaren have a much greater pool of resources than Racing Point and partly because I get the feeling that a new concept will have far more scope for development than a car that was already near the end of its pathway at the back end of 2019.

[Raleigh]

Attempting to clone the W11 starting from the MCL35 is not an option because of restrictions to 2021 development, essentially aero updates are allowed but the chassis and suspension are frozen with only 2 development tokens for each team to make changes. McLaren in particular have said they will require both tokens for the switch to Mercedes power, so apart from the new engine they are restricted to aero updates only for 2021.

Which presents a challenge because Racing Point will get their 2 tokens and are also allowed to update from 2019 to 2020 spec non-listed parts (suspension etc) without using tokens, this means Racing Point can use tokens for the 2020 style Merc sidepods, update to the 2020 Merc suspension for free and then use unrestricted aero development to fully update their W10 clone into a W11 clone which is possible because the two cars are still very similar in concept (wheelbase, aero philosophy etc).

[diffuser]

How is the FIA investigation with Racing Point? I am curious to see if they are legal. Also if they are legal would it be a risk to try and do the same thing? Will the team benefit for such a move or do they believe that their base car will eventually outdevelop the copy quickly?

We'll know something by January 1st.

[Ground Effect]

Can McLaren still do any suspension work this year, or is the restriction already in place?

[bauc]

GULF deal is official

https://www.mclaren.com/racing/partners ... p0WuzmYoBs

[pazazamadaz]

"From 2021, Gulf will become the preferred lubricant supplier to McLaren Automotive, with all cars to be filled with Gulf Oil and fuel optimised for high performance engines"

That answers that question, then.

[pazazamadaz]

The Autosport article on this states "As predicted by Autosport last week".

We all "predicted" this one, Autosport
Lol

[_cerber1]

[mclaren111]

Not My taste....

[djos]

"From 2021, Gulf will become the preferred lubricant supplier to McLaren Automotive, with all cars to be filled with Gulf Oil and fuel optimised for high performance engines"

That answers that question, then.

Hopefully they will still be using the same oil as Mercedes in the PU so they don’t suffer in the performance department.

[FW17]

Why are people so exited about Gulf, it is not the same company as it was in the 70's (financially)

[JordanMugen]

Redesigning the whole car just to become a Merc-laren in the way Racing Point have would cost many, many tens of millions of pounds and, even if they do nail it, would only be for the gain of MAYBE a few tenths of a second.

I fully believe McLaren can close that gap down organically as they upgrade their car as it is

There is only one more season to go on these regulations anyway! Plus the token system prevents major changes, plus McLaren doesn't use Renault gearbox or suspension (I think that is a waste of money for both McLaren and Renault who should be pooling their resources, but it seems the McLaren-Renault ship has sailed and Renault are unwanted by McLaren despite continued excellence ) and won't use Mercedes gearbox or suspension either (AFAIK?).

McLaren's target surely has to be to build the best possible 2021 regulation car?

[M840TR]

"From 2021, Gulf will become the preferred lubricant supplier to McLaren Automotive, with all cars to be filled with Gulf Oil and fuel optimised for high performance engines"

That answers that question, then.

This is for Mclaren Automotive, not the F1 arm. Up until now they had a deal with Exxon Mobil.