flmkane wrote: ↑13 Aug 2021, 19:19
That's a really good article but I need some help wrapping my head around it.
The current McLaren likes to brake late and then corner with a high yaw rate? Yet the front end is weak?
How does that happen? If the front end is weak its supposed to be slow in yaw.
Also, of the characteristics that stood out to me (brakes late, rotates fast, apply throttle fast, weak front end), most of them sound like an Adrian Newey or Rory Byrne approach to building a fast car. Except the weak front end. Schumacher, Kimi and Lewis drove like that. Did Mika as well?
This sounds to me like the car behavior carried over since about 2009. I hesitate to give an earlier date, but even Montoya said that his McLaren felt as if "the steering wheel isn't connected".
Also, the extremely stiff suspension (even by f1 standard rds) has been a McLaren feature since about 2009 also (plus or minus a year). Same with the lack of low speed traction. Back then I though it was the lack of a double diffuser. Then I put it down to an inferior exhaust blow diffuser. But the low traction characteristic has remained throughout the successive generations.
I could probably make a stronger conclusion if I knew how to compare the lines that Lando and Ric take but I lack the skill to eyeball that. Suggestions for doing such an analysis?
All I can get is it isn't very good at the transition but it only gives you the variables in the corner that affect it, not the reason. The aero stops working well in the transition so the transition needs to happen before the corner and the way to do this is to scrub speed first enter the corner and then push out.
Those factors you mention can all affect it.
We do know that they made the front wing larger so that it would not bottom out as much if it were too close to the floor, so we can assume that this was/is part of it. Not necessarily for front grip but possibly when the front wing unloads they suffer Y250 degradation.
I don't think it would be crazy to think that in the transition to acceleration from braking, whilst turning, perhaps they are struggling to keep the floor sealed and it might take a little too long for that transition to complete and for the car to regain the traction to pull out of the corner.
Imagine a car that does what you expect going into the corner, feels stable, then as soon as you place your foot and the go pedal it starts losing rear grip and you can't accelerate your way out of the corner until your fully in a straight line. I have a feeling this is what he is experiencing.
I don't think it is a problem with he mechanical parts of the car, but how they are set up to work in tandem with the rake of the car and how the car moves under braking, which should be to try and lift it's nose up or slow the descent of the nose, and under acceleration where it should try and keep keep the nose down, or slow the nose ascent - contrary to what the nose would really like to do in those situations.
If the car has striking behaviours in those two moments then you could assume that the car loses front loading briefly and therefore loses the some of the floor seal and huge whack of downforce.
As the article suggests though, it's not a flaw because you can adapt a style to suit it and make it go fast, the issue here is that Daniel struggles to do that.
The concern is that they do not know it will be gone for next year either, according to Seidl, as they are not sure it is just a trait of their methodology and they also don't think it is a problem for the car as it is a fast car.
No point panicking now though, time will tell. Since Mclaren will likely be his last shot, I hope he isn't being stubborn but I genuinely feel like that may be a part of it, despite him saying otherwise.
There was a time in the past where Lewis Hamilton had to break earlier in his Merc when coming off from DRS, because it took a moment for the rear wing to load back up and it wasn't straight away. He'd dab the brake, carry speed and then brake in earnest, so that the rear was fully loaded as he entered the corner. The aero of the car was so complex that it took a moment for it to settle back down and reload under the DRS-Braking transition.
it reminds me a little of that.
