McLaren has unveiled its 2019 Formula One race car, named MCL34. As with the 2018 car, the covers were taken off at the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking, UK.
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Seidl about development of MCL34: "Now we are in the process of planning to stop the development of the current car completely and move all resources to the new car to make further progress in 2020".
Apparently, McLaren started working on MCL35 a long time ago.
Seidl about development of MCL34: "Now we are in the process of planning to stop the development of the current car completely and move all resources to the new car to make further progress in 2020".
Apparently, McLaren started working on MCL35 a long time ago.
By summer break almost all teams transfer all development resources to the next year car anyway. Exceptions are made when few teams are tied in close battle for the championship and they need to extract every bid performance possible out of the existing chassis to complete their season goal, so this news are not surprising to me, but gives good sing that the MCL34 is behaving as expected and also it shows that the team has confidence that the upgrades that are already in the pipeline will deliver.
Seidl about development of MCL34: "Now we are in the process of planning to stop the development of the current car completely and move all resources to the new car to make further progress in 2020".
Apparently, McLaren started working on MCL35 a long time ago.
By summer break almost all teams transfer all development resources to the next year car anyway. Exceptions are made when few teams are tied in close battle for the championship and they need to extract every bid performance possible out of the existing chassis to complete their season goal, so this news are not surprising to me, but gives good sing that the MCL34 is behaving as expected and also it shows that the team has confidence that the upgrades that are already in the pipeline will deliver.
I can never understand this, regulations are no changing for 2020 so why stop development on something thats just going to be an evolution surely theres no better way to test than during the season? Yes if this was 2021 id fully understand stopping development on the current car.
Seidl about development of MCL34: "Now we are in the process of planning to stop the development of the current car completely and move all resources to the new car to make further progress in 2020".
Apparently, McLaren started working on MCL35 a long time ago.
By summer break almost all teams transfer all development resources to the next year car anyway. Exceptions are made when few teams are tied in close battle for the championship and they need to extract every bid performance possible out of the existing chassis to complete their season goal, so this news are not surprising to me, but gives good sing that the MCL34 is behaving as expected and also it shows that the team has confidence that the upgrades that are already in the pipeline will deliver.
I can never understand this, regulations are no changing for 2020 so why stop development on something thats just going to be an evolution surely theres no better way to test than during the season? Yes if this was 2021 id fully understand stopping development on the current car.
Under normal circumstances most teams start developing next year's car even before the season begins and shift most resources around mid-season, i.e Silverstone, Hockenheim etc.
Seidl about development of MCL34: "Now we are in the process of planning to stop the development of the current car completely and move all resources to the new car to make further progress in 2020".
Apparently, McLaren started working on MCL35 a long time ago.
By summer break almost all teams transfer all development resources to the next year car anyway. Exceptions are made when few teams are tied in close battle for the championship and they need to extract every bid performance possible out of the existing chassis to complete their season goal, so this news are not surprising to me, but gives good sing that the MCL34 is behaving as expected and also it shows that the team has confidence that the upgrades that are already in the pipeline will deliver.
I can never understand this, regulations are no changing for 2020 so why stop development on something thats just going to be an evolution surely theres no better way to test than during the season? Yes if this was 2021 id fully understand stopping development on the current car.
We are getting a bit off topic here, but when you have stable regulations like we have now (2019 -> 2020) the teams use the existing car as starting point when designing the model for the next season. However, when doing that you want to address the areas where the existing car/chassis is lagging and there are few things you cant change/test during the season, so in other words the parts that work good are beeing refined and the parts that failed to deliver the performance expected are going back on the drawing board.
Well sometimes certain gains require major changes, like monocoque changes, which generally aren’t done mid season. So say when Ferrari introduced their sidepod concept in 17, no one could really make that happen that year itself. Maybe get close, like Red Bull did, but it will always be a compromise. So when you have the ability to make a larger scale change, that also propagates to other areas, which then require rework.
Basically, my understanding is that they can make more significant changes that they feel may have a larger development scope. It’s possible and even probable that McLaren’s current concept’s development scope won’t ever reach the levels of the top 3 without massive spend to put in all the incremental gains. Whereas they may find a new path that will be able to get more gains at less cost during in-season development.
OR
McLaren in specific may be trying to front-load all their development for 2020 now, so the second the new regs are dropped for 2021, they can shift the majority of the resource there, rather than on completing the 2020 car, since much of the work will be done already.
Well sometimes certain gains require major changes, like monocoque changes, which generally aren’t done mid season. So say when Ferrari introduced their sidepod concept in 17, no one could really make that happen that year itself. Maybe get close, like Red Bull did, but it will always be a compromise. So when you have the ability to make a larger scale change, that also propagates to other areas, which then require rework.
Basically, my understanding is that they can make more significant changes that they feel may have a larger development scope. It’s possible and even probable that McLaren’s current concept’s development scope won’t ever reach the levels of the top 3 without massive spend to put in all the incremental gains. Whereas they may find a new path that will be able to get more gains at less cost during in-season development.
OR
McLaren in specific may be trying to front-load all their development for 2020 now, so the second the new regs are dropped for 2021, they can shift the majority of the resource there, rather than on completing the 2020 car, since much of the work will be done already.
Your first point is on the mark, some changes are too expensive, too dramatic or would take too long to do in season and are better left till next season to put onto the car. Is also important to note that most teams will have planned out all their developments for the rest of the year by now and be working on them. Unless something huge is found they'll most likely stick to this plan.
Last edited by Ground Effect on 11 Jul 2019, 15:15, edited 1 time in total.
Q: (Stefano Mancini – La Stampa) Kimi, will you help Vettel to win his championship this year?
Kimi Raikkonen: I can only drive one car, obviously.
@2018 Singapore Grand Prix drivers press conference.