Mclaren MCL40

[AR3-GP]

Stella said the Macarena was not critical for them and that it can't be a distraction. I don't expect to see it this year.

[Brahmal]

Marked the new rotational axis in pink. Maybe not the flip wing, but it's interesting how they are still adjusting the geometry nonetheless.

[SilviuAgo]

The camera mounted on RW actuator in FP1:

[AR3-GP]

The camera mounted on RW actuator in FP1:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HNcSC8XX0AA ... name=large

I wonder what it is that Mclaren is fussing with. Woking has been a full time rear wing factory of late.

[SilviuAgo]

From another angle:

[SilviuAgo]

From Xavi:

[AR3-GP]

so no macarena? I'm very confused

PF1 says it will be trialed during FP1 this weekend.

[AR3-GP]

From this McLaren Austria rear wing shot (unsure of photo credit), it looks like they have designed a Red Bull Racing style of Macarena wing. The actuator has a hinged pivot that sweeps under the wing in a RB22 style rotation direction.

Caveat is, they haven’t totally redesigned it since Austria. But most I’ve spoken with think that this is the style we will see tested this weekend in Budapest.

I’ve now spoken to a few Aeros inquiring why this design may be preferred. Obviously I didn’t get specifics, but understand that there are some aero advantages of this design over the Ferrari one.

Also, this design apparently is easier to implement without a wholesale change of the entire rear wing assembly. So if it doesn’t work reliably, it’s not such a detriment to development time.

[AR3-GP]

I had a theory about how it was moving based on how it looked and I found an online kinematics visualizer that allowed me to demonstrate how this linkage could work.




disclaimer: I am still not vouching for any dodgy kinematics in this visualization ( ) and it's just a dummy model so it is not going to be exactly what Mclaren are doing. They had some problems with it in Austria (reportedly), so the picture could be outdated too. The gray linkage represents the central actuator. It would be driven by a hydraulic piston that is not shown here. The green linkage represents the floating hinge which provides the rotation axis for the wing as in the case of Red Bull:

The difficulty with this kind of design is probably the closing phase. As the long wishbone becomes more vertical, the force that pulls the wing forwards naturally decreases. Furthermore, if there is any play in the hinges, you lose some precision in the position of the wing. It's a very fiddly thing to develop.

[Brahmal]

The difficulty with this kind of design is probably the closing phase. As the long wishbone becomes more vertical, the force that pulls the wing forwards naturally decreases. Furthermore, if there is any play in the hinges, you lose some precision in the position of the wing. It's a very fiddly thing to develop.

Strange thing is that none of these wings seem to have the displaced hinge that Red Bull have, or at least no photo evidence of it yet. It's possible that they have another solution that either doesn't need that added geometry, or they're using a different hinge mechanism like a double-pivot. I suppose we'll find out this weekend, looking forward to it.