With Mercedes continuing their struggles with the new ground effect F1 car design regulations, McLaren find themselves in a fight with Ferrari to be the ‘best of the rest’ behind Red Bull. The Woking based team started 2023 in woeful fashion, scoring just seventeen points by the time the team brought their mid-season upgrade.

Yet the new aerodynamic package McLaren designed brought about a remarkable turnaround in their fortunes. Over the remaining thirteen rounds following the Austrian Grand Prix, the Woking based squad scored more points than any team besides Red Bull and Lando Norris was the highest scoring driver behind Max Verstappen.

 

 

 

McLaren 2024 start pleasing

Norris landed five podiums over the final eight rounds, with rookie team mate Oscar Piastri taking a Sprint win along with best Grand Prix finishes of P2 and P3 in Qatar and Japan.

The team decided against a Mercedes style ‘revolutionary’ design overhaul during the winter instead believing the platform introduced in Austria had plenty more performance potential to explore. After three rounds this year, the approach has paid dividends given McLaren are firmly in P3 with more than double the points of rivals Mercedes.

Last time out in Melbourne, Lando Norris claimed the first podium of the year for McLaren coming home behind the Ferrari pair who benefitted from the retirement of Max Verstappen with mechanical failures. 

Lando Norris assessment of the Australian weekend was bullish, through he was uncertain had his pit strategy gone to plan he cold have caught and passed race winner Carlos Sainz.

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Norris claims better pace than Leclerc

“I didn’t expect probably us to be competing against the Ferraris. I think our pace was not as good as Carlos, but probably better than Charles. So I think if I was being honest we maybe missed out a little bit on an opportunity to be P2. But yeah, for us to say that is a good sign. And I think it’s a good positive for the whole team,” Norris mused in the media pen.

Yet its not all plain sailing for the team with the second highest number of all time F1 victories. Team principal Andre Stella believes the weaknesses of the revised 2023 car remain in the MCL38 which can’t be addressed util upgrades coming in 4-6 weeks at either Miami or Imola.

Specifically Norris has repeatedly highlighted how the McLaren car works superbly in the high speed turns but struggles in the longer slower corners and has a DRS whose efficiency needs to improve.

“We are extremely happy with the rate of development over the last 12 months, but there’s, I would say, another 12 months’ development that we need to go through to actually offer a car that is strong in DRS and is strong in the long corners,” Stella explains to Autosport.

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Upgrades coming race 6-7

“Around race six or seven we should have a decent round of upgrades, and hopefully there will be potentially a couple of them throughout the season.”

Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri will be disappointed with the timescale in Stella’s assessment particularly given the early season promise of being regularly ahead of the Mercedes pair.

“It will take the whole season to actually add enough performance and say we don’t see these weaknesses anymore because these areas have improved,” reveals the McLaren team boss.

However, despite the longer than hoped development period, Stella insists it is not because the design itself is problematic. Of course with the FIA budget cap now in place, McLaren like their competition have to chose carefully which areas of the MCL38 to experiment with.

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MCL38 ‘weakness’ to be developed out

“Erasing the weaknesses is car development,” he said. “It’s not like you have these weaknesses because something goes wrong.

“There’s nothing going wrong, the car is [just] not developed enough and these aspects expose themselves, like you become weak in long corners or you don’t have enough speed in DRS.”

Yet unlike Mercedes who are struggling to understand their all new W15 and have admitted their simulation tools and real life on track experience do not correlate, McLaren are seeing the tweaks made back at the factory working as expected when the car set up changes are made.

“But this is effectively a consequence of the development. If you ask me how is the car behaving, I say very well, like it goes as expected.

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McLaren simulation tools match real life

“It does exactly what we expect from the wind tunnel. It does what we expect from the computer development,” Stella confirms.

Despite the positive progress of McLaren who believe wins are possible this year and next, lead driver Lando Norris does not think Red Bull can be toppled from the position of dominance.

“No, I think for things to really shake up, you need to wait until 2026. I think that could potentially be a big shake-up for every team, including the power units probably being one of the biggest things,” said Norris in Melbourne.

Two years from now the new FIA power unit specifications will be introduced and it is anyone’s guess which team will crack the conundrum they have been set to deliver a unit where 50% of the power is produced by the electrical components.

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McLaren remain Mercedes engine customer

The last big power unit regulation change was in 2014, which Mercedes aced giving Lewis Hamilton and his team mates a significant advantage over the competition for several years to come.

However, Mercedes were reported to have ingested over $1bn in research and development of their V6 Turbo hybrid power trains, something none of the manufacturers will be capable of this time around.

The FIA has set out strict spending rules to prevent a repeat of 2014, with each team restricted to the number of test benches they can employ which are:

Single-Cylinder Dynamometers: 3
Power Unit Dynamometers: 3
Power Train Dynamometer: 1

Full Car Dynamometer: 1
ERS Test Benches: 2

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FIA spending restrictions outlined

The number of operational hours each manufacturer is allowed for development is restricted and the spending limits restricted to $95m 2022-25 and then $130m thereafter.

While Aston Martin will cease to be a Mercedes power unit customer in 2026 having announced their exclusive partnership with Honda, McLaren have again thrown in their lot with Mercedes which may prove to be problematic.

McLaren ex-team boss Ron Dennis used two argue, a customer team can never beat the power unit manufacturer because they do not have access to the “source code”  in the management system,“then you are not going to be able to stabilise your car in the entry to corners etc.”

The last time a customer team beat Mercedes in the constructors’ championship was back in 2012 when it was McLaren who dumped their power unit supplier finishing behind champions red Bull in second place.

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VETTEL’S OLD STRATEGIST PREDICTS HIS F1 RETURN

Sebastian Vettel has become the focus for fevered speculation about the German’s return to Formula One. He recently admitted having a conversation with Mercedes’ boss Toto Wolff following the bombshell news that Lewis Hamilton was leaving for Ferrari next season.

Having tested a Porsche Le Mans hypercard last week, Sebastian was asked about his thoughts on a future return to the pinnacle of motorsport. “Of course you think about it and flirt with it,” Vettel admitted but refused to drawn on whether he was fully committed to the cause… READ MORE: