2021 Mclaren F1 Team

[Macklaren]

I disagree with Scarbs here -- he seems to imply that many other teams would have evaluated McL's diffuser solution (because it was so obvious) and dismissed it because it didn't work for them rather than it not occurring to them at all. If that was the case, I'm sure many other technical directors would have come out at the test and said "saw that, ignored it" rather than saying it was an interesting interpretation of the rules and that they would look into it.

[FittingMechanics]

Lando Norris.

“So very productive between us and the Merc guys – HPP [High Performance Powertrains] – and I think we can be happy with the improvements we’ve made over the last three days. There’s still things to work on, again not just with the car but with the PU and so on, but it is at the moment looking good and we’re happy with how things have gone. So we have to wait until qualifying to really unlock the potential and see what the baby’s got.”

“Obviously no one – well we haven’t gone low fuel and full beans and you don’t show everything. We have a lot of sensors on the car and things like that so no-one shows everything and you don’t get to know exactly what the car’s going to do until you get there, but in terms of going out and feeling like you can push the car to a good limit and within a reasonable pace I’m very happy."

He seems to be suggesting they left quite a bit of performance in the locker(PU wise at least),
Unless I'm over reading,
Very encouraging methinks.

Source.
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/arti ... pWLcR.html

This is good to hear as well:

“I think it’s a very good car to start off with. From the first lap that we managed to do we felt very confident in it and we can push on it a lot. I think trying to unlock that final extra bit that you really need come qualifying come Q1 and come Q3, we’ve really got to sit down and go through everything from the last few days.

[diffuser]

Daaaaayum... The consistency of the Macca laptimes is unbelievable.

You don't find it strange that the time varry so little on different fuel loads through 3 test days and a night with varying temps (different track temp)?


I would find those strange for Macca in FP1 or FP2.

Not strange if they are purposely driving to a Delta, actually positive since it means the car is consistent and stable enough to allow the drivers to deliver consistent lap times.


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My point exactly. They aren't going as fast as they can, they're going to a lap time. How much faster they can go ...who knows ...88 seconds was the time to be last year in quali. Doudt they get there this year.

[SmallSoldier]

You don't find it strange that the time varry so little on different fuel loads through 3 test days and a night with varying temps (different track temp)?


I would find those strange for Macca in FP1 or FP2.

Not strange if they are purposely driving to a Delta, actually positive since it means the car is consistent and stable enough to allow the drivers to deliver consistent lap times.


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My point exactly. They aren't going as fast as they can, they're going to a lap time. How much faster they can go ...who knows ...88 seconds was the time to be last year in quali. Doudt they get there this year.

If what the teams are saying is true, that they have already recovered 2020 DF levels and considering that almost every single engine manufacturer has said that they have had power gains for this year, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Qualy times are close to last year actually.

Track conditions during Qualy will probably be an even bigger factor, the tests were also performed under quiet windy conditions, which depending on their direction could have helped or handicapped the lap times.

In Mclaren’s case, if they have the same Downforce levels as in 2020, with a car that seems to be less draggy or more slippery and a PU with additional power, they could very well beat their Qualy lap time.

According to the chart below, Alfa Rome was already almost on par with their lap times from last season and Williams was already 1.1 seconds faster (granted, they did so on C5 tires when at Bahrain the softest compound will be / was C4)... So, it wouldn’t be surprising to find out that the teams are already there.




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[diffuser]

I disagree with Scarbs here -- he seems to imply that many other teams would have evaluated McL's diffuser solution (because it was so obvious) and dismissed it because it didn't work for them rather than it not occurring to them at all. If that was the case, I'm sure many other technical directors would have come out at the test and said "saw that, ignored it" rather than saying it was an interesting interpretation of the rules and that they would look into it.

Does it matter?

Not like you can prove it either way ?

Maybe he has spoken to some of them and that's what they said, anonymously.

[Lucky]

Not strange if they are purposely driving to a Delta, actually positive since it means the car is consistent and stable enough to allow the drivers to deliver consistent lap times.


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My point exactly. They aren't going as fast as they can, they're going to a lap time. How much faster they can go ...who knows ...88 seconds was the time to be last year in quali. Doudt they get there this year.

If what the teams are saying is true, that they have already recovered 2020 DF levels and considering that almost every single engine manufacturer has said that they have had power gains for this year, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Qualy times are close to last year actually.

Track conditions during Qualy will probably be an even bigger factor, the tests were also performed under quiet windy conditions, which depending on their direction could have helped or handicapped the lap times.

In Mclaren’s case, if they have the same Downforce levels as in 2020, with a car that seems to be less draggy or more slippery and a PU with additional power, they could very well beat their Qualy lap time.

According to the chart below, Alfa Rome was already almost on par with their lap times from last season and Williams was already 1.1 seconds faster (granted, they did so on C5 tires when at Bahrain the softest compound will be / was C4)... So, it wouldn’t be surprising to find out that the teams are already there.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202103 ... c59981.jpg


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Williams Quli Bahrain 2020 - 1.29.3(C4)
Williams Testing Bahrain 2021 - 1.30.1(C5)

[SmallSoldier]

My point exactly. They aren't going as fast as they can, they're going to a lap time. How much faster they can go ...who knows ...88 seconds was the time to be last year in quali. Doudt they get there this year.

If what the teams are saying is true, that they have already recovered 2020 DF levels and considering that almost every single engine manufacturer has said that they have had power gains for this year, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Qualy times are close to last year actually.

Track conditions during Qualy will probably be an even bigger factor, the tests were also performed under quiet windy conditions, which depending on their direction could have helped or handicapped the lap times.

In Mclaren’s case, if they have the same Downforce levels as in 2020, with a car that seems to be less draggy or more slippery and a PU with additional power, they could very well beat their Qualy lap time.

According to the chart below, Alfa Rome was already almost on par with their lap times from last season and Williams was already 1.1 seconds faster (granted, they did so on C5 tires when at Bahrain the softest compound will be / was C4)... So, it wouldn’t be surprising to find out that the teams are already there.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202103 ... c59981.jpg


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Williams Quli Bahrain 2020 - 1.29.3(C4)
Williams Testing Bahrain 2021 - 1.30.1(C5)

I didn’t vet the information... I found the discrepancy on Williams, the chart used the Q2 Time instead of the Q1 time at Bahrain (I’m guessing assuming that it was faster) an overlook by the author for sure.


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[sri1031raj]

From Fomula1.com... Race Pace after testing:

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202103 ... c80fbf.jpg


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Data seems too arbitrary .. Mercedes never showed their performance. The data assumes lot of unknown quantity.

[SmallSoldier]

From Fomula1.com... Race Pace after testing:

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202103 ... c80fbf.jpg


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Data seems too arbitrary .. Mercedes never showed their performance. The data assumes lot of unknown quantity.

The Formula1 analysis after last season’s testing was way off... So I would take it with a grain of salt, but it’s always worth sharing the available information.


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[Herr_Koos]

https://preview.redd.it/769sjrgbwen61.p ... db1b3f2184

Daaaaayum... The consistency of the Macca laptimes is unbelievable.

You don't find it strange that the time varry so little on different fuel loads through 3 test days and a night with varying temps (different track temp)?

I would find those strange for Macca in FP1 or FP2.

Perhaps, but this depends entirely on what data is being shown, which is not clear. If the data represents longer runs only with in-laps and out-laps excluded, it isn't strange at all.

[CjC]

I disagree with Scarbs here -- he seems to imply that many other teams would have evaluated McL's diffuser solution (because it was so obvious) and dismissed it because it didn't work for them rather than it not occurring to them at all. If that was the case, I'm sure many other technical directors would have come out at the test and said "saw that, ignored it" rather than saying it was an interesting interpretation of the rules and that they would look into it.

I think Scarbs is referring to this:
Red Bull boss Christian Horner admitted in an interview with Sky Sports during the test: "I think it's something interesting, I think it's a concept we've looked at previously."

The same Christian Horner who isn’t a fan of Mclaren to say the least and would never admit to Mclaren coming up with an idea Red Bull didn’t.

[mwillems]

I disagree with Scarbs here -- he seems to imply that many other teams would have evaluated McL's diffuser solution (because it was so obvious) and dismissed it because it didn't work for them rather than it not occurring to them at all. If that was the case, I'm sure many other technical directors would have come out at the test and said "saw that, ignored it" rather than saying it was an interesting interpretation of the rules and that they would look into it.

I think Scarbs is referring to this:
Red Bull boss Christian Horner admitted in an interview with Sky Sports during the test: "I think it's something interesting, I think it's a concept we've looked at previously."

The same Christian Horner who isn’t a fan of Mclaren to say the least and would never admit to Mclaren coming up with an idea Red Bull didn’t.

That's interesting, it suggests they didn't immediately see the benefits and will be watching Mclarens progress to see what they missed.

[Juzh]

more good news for mclaren, this time coming from Sainz who had an unusually honest interview recently:
https://www.motorsportweek.com/2021/03/ ... eed_id=377

The Red Bull looks good, the McLaren I am sure it will be there, because the car, simply with a smaller engine already allows you to improve the aerodynamics of the car and you have more power, so it’s a win-win. So McLaren is going to step forward for sure.

he goes on:
“What I can assure you is that we have more power than last year. We can measure it and see it. That is good news,” “What happens is that I am quite sure that the others have also gained power, both Honda and Mercedes for example, and we have seen that the McLaren has an incredible top speed.

[mwillems]

It's looking really positive for Mclaren, fingers crossed we can make a massive step. When the car was revealed I said that my hope is that we can challenge Red Bull more and everything seems to suggest that we may have closed the gap to the front. I'll expect Merc to sort their issues pretty quickly but I don't think we'll catch them even if they aren't sorted pretty soon.

The changes across all the cars are more widespread than folks thought they might be and I do think there is a lot of progress made. I also think that some teams will be close to if not surpassing last years times. I will not be surprised to be fighting tooth and nail again with Aston Martin, but my gut feeling is Renault are further back than they appear, Ferrari a dark horse to be back up there.

But, only 11 days before we find out what has happened, hopefully we haven't flattered to deceive and we are 6th on the grid come a week on Saturday!

Even then, we know nothing because this track doesn't show off certain characteristics like others so the next few races might come as a shock to many inside and outside the paddock.
But it is great to hear we have fantastic straight line speed, if only we can have high, consistent and balanced cornering grip too....!

[godlameroso]

Clear step forward from McLaren, the cornering grip is similar but top speed is improved.



Should Mercedes be worried?

McLaren vs Mercedes for the spare podium?