2025 McLaren F1 Team

[mwillems]

They may be trying to compare the behaviour of the car vs today's, to better understand the front ends quirks. They might be able to use different setup ranges to see what this does to the behaviour of the car and compare it to the 39, to help inform what they want to do to make it more precictable at peak speeds on Saturday. And I guess that would stand for any area of the car.

[Emag]

Something interesting about the 2023 car is that it was an absolute beast in high speed corners after the Austria GP update, but it was really bad on medium-speed and long-radius corners so any gains they made in high speed sections they tended to lose it back on mixed tracks. Singapore package made the 2023 car more balanced and that sort of philosophy carried over into 2024. They "sacrificed" their strength to make an overall more balanced car.

A cool comparison point is T4 in Hungaroring. In 2023, Lando smoked the field there and even RedBull was completely outclassed. The 2023 car was so good there, that the MCL38 the next year was also no better than it (although not by much, loses around 0.02s).

[Henri]

Something interesting about the 2023 car is that it was an absolute beast in high speed corners after the Austria GP update, but it was really bad on medium-speed and long-radius corners so any gains they made in high speed sections they tended to lose it back on mixed tracks. Singapore package made the 2023 car more balanced and that sort of philosophy carried over into 2024. They "sacrificed" their strength to make an overall more balanced car.

A cool comparison point is T4 in Hungaroring. In 2023, Lando smoked the field there and even RedBull was completely outclassed. The 2023 car was so good there, that the MCL38 the next year was also no better than it (although not by much, loses around 0.02s).

Yeah the mcl60 in qatar and sf23 in Singapore where the pnly times the rb19 was beaten in pure racepace.

[CjC]

I posted this on the MCL39 thread but there are a few more generic points I’d like to discuss here.

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/clue ... ke-design/

As suggested in the article, when Mclaren were branded laughing stocks for struggling with their front brakes in ‘22 testing I wonder if overcoming those struggles have given them a greater understand of the internal air flow?

Also, as Gary Anderson summarised, the whole back end of the McLaren is playing its part. Rival fans are hoping to see new rear brake ducts in the coming races but to get to the level of the McLaren they’ll need new front and rear suspension layouts as well.

[FittingMechanics]

I posted this on the MCL39 thread but there are a few more generic points I’d like to discuss here.

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/clue ... ke-design/

As suggested in the article, when Mclaren were branded laughing stocks for struggling with their front brakes in ‘22 testing I wonder if overcoming those struggles have given them a greater understand of the internal air flow?

Also, as Gary Anderson summarised, the whole back end of the McLaren is playing its part. Rival fans are hoping to see new rear brake ducts in the coming races but to get to the level of the McLaren they’ll need new front and rear suspension layouts as well.

With the Key comment I think it's quite clear that McLaren was working on this for years, probably trying to get various cooling channels to stall/work at different speeds. You want less cooling on a warmup lap and more cooling on a hot lap. Could also mean that there is no PCM at all.

[bluechris]

I posted this on the MCL39 thread but there are a few more generic points I’d like to discuss here.

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/clue ... ke-design/

As suggested in the article, when Mclaren were branded laughing stocks for struggling with their front brakes in ‘22 testing I wonder if overcoming those struggles have given them a greater understand of the internal air flow?

Also, as Gary Anderson summarised, the whole back end of the McLaren is playing its part. Rival fans are hoping to see new rear brake ducts in the coming races but to get to the level of the McLaren they’ll need new front and rear suspension layouts as well.

With the Key comment I think it's quite clear that McLaren was working on this for years, probably trying to get various cooling channels to stall/work at different speeds. You want less cooling on a warmup lap and more cooling on a hot lap. Could also mean that there is no PCM at all.

This is my take also... somehow they became masters in this an kudos to them. I dont think no matter what that anyone could reach them in this area, this year at least.

[Matt2725]

I posted this on the MCL39 thread but there are a few more generic points I’d like to discuss here.

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/clue ... ke-design/

As suggested in the article, when Mclaren were branded laughing stocks for struggling with their front brakes in ‘22 testing I wonder if overcoming those struggles have given them a greater understand of the internal air flow?

Also, as Gary Anderson summarised, the whole back end of the McLaren is playing its part. Rival fans are hoping to see new rear brake ducts in the coming races but to get to the level of the McLaren they’ll need new front and rear suspension layouts as well.

With the Key comment I think it's quite clear that McLaren was working on this for years, probably trying to get various cooling channels to stall/work at different speeds. You want less cooling on a warmup lap and more cooling on a hot lap. Could also mean that there is no PCM at all.

This is my take also... somehow they became masters in this an kudos to them. I dont think no matter what that anyone could reach them in this area, this year at least.

I don't think anyone will be able to match. However they don't need to in that sense. If they can get close enough and make-up the deficit in other ways then it's game on.

[BMMR61]

With Pirelli choosing to debut the ultra soft C6 compound this weekend at Imola, will this play McLaren's way with the degradation factor? At a glance this looks like a chance for McLaren's MCL39 to exercise and maybe increase it's race pace advantage. The stated intention is to encourage two stop strategies to enliven the tactical on track battles.

[Emag]

With Pirelli choosing to debut the ultra soft C6 compound this weekend at Imola, will this play McLaren's way with the degradation factor? At a glance this looks like a chance for McLaren's MCL39 to exercise and maybe increase it's race pace advantage. The stated intention is to encourage two stop strategies to enliven the tactical on track battles.

Teams are bringing upgrades in Imola though. Haven't heard anything about McLaren, but things could get spicy. Let's see.

[TeamKoolGreen]

Edit: posting in other thread

[TeamKoolGreen]

I posted this on the MCL39 thread but there are a few more generic points I’d like to discuss here.

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/clue ... ke-design/

As suggested in the article, when Mclaren were branded laughing stocks for struggling with their front brakes in ‘22 testing I wonder if overcoming those struggles have given them a greater understand of the internal air flow?

Also, as Gary Anderson summarised, the whole back end of the McLaren is playing its part. Rival fans are hoping to see new rear brake ducts in the coming races but to get to the level of the McLaren they’ll need new front and rear suspension layouts as well.

Maybe they were fighting their way through a development of a new brake design that they knew would have a big advantage when it was eventually done.

It is also interesting how Mika Häkkinen predicted that the McLaren would be fast in 2023, the weekend before it happened.

McLaren’s remarkable resurgence came after two-time World Champion Mika Hakkinen predicted a major turnaround following June’s Canadian Grand Prix, where the team failed to score a point.

“The only surprise I think we’ll see is McLaren’s possible progress during the next two months,” he said.

“I think they will surprise us massively. Just in terms of the speed of the car, they will probably challenge Red Bull.”

Asked to explain where his belief in the team had come from, Mystic Mika revealed a visit to McLaren’s factory in Woking had left him convinced that the team’s on-track fortunes were about to be transformed.

He told McLaren’s official website: “From spending time at the factory with different departments.

Somebody at the factory probably told him that they have the new brake cooling system all figured out and ready to go

[Macafangrskg]

I posted this on the MCL39 thread but there are a few more generic points I’d like to discuss here.

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/clue ... ke-design/

As suggested in the article, when Mclaren were branded laughing stocks for struggling with their front brakes in ‘22 testing I wonder if overcoming those struggles have given them a greater understand of the internal air flow?

Also, as Gary Anderson summarised, the whole back end of the McLaren is playing its part. Rival fans are hoping to see new rear brake ducts in the coming races but to get to the level of the McLaren they’ll need new front and rear suspension layouts as well.

Maybe they were fighting their way through a development of a new brake design that they knew would have a big advantage when it was eventually done.

It is also interesting how Mika Häkkinen predicted that the McLaren would be fast in 2023, the weekend before it happened.

McLaren’s remarkable resurgence came after two-time World Champion Mika Hakkinen predicted a major turnaround following June’s Canadian Grand Prix, where the team failed to score a point.

“The only surprise I think we’ll see is McLaren’s possible progress during the next two months,” he said.

“I think they will surprise us massively. Just in terms of the speed of the car, they will probably challenge Red Bull.”

Asked to explain where his belief in the team had come from, Mystic Mika revealed a visit to McLaren’s factory in Woking had left him convinced that the team’s on-track fortunes were about to be transformed.

He told McLaren’s official website: “From spending time at the factory with different departments.

Somebody at the factory probably told him that they have the new brake cooling system all figured out and ready to go

I think the whole Race video and article points to that MCL39 is a car that so much synergies that it almost impossible for the other teams to focus on the brakes and comeback to us. I also think that McLaren has a complete plan for the TD in Barcelona and that is why they don't bring upgrades. Especially the floor that they tested for two races and they dont run it i think is a solution for the TD.The new philosophy for the past 2 years are 2 big upgrades evaluation and smaller upgrades before and after that close the loop. Remember in 23 the Azerbaijan update didnt bring anything in time but laid the foundation for the totally new philosophy that the Austrian update incorporated .Then they close the new design with the Singapore upgrade. Same think last year with the Miami upgrade.I think due to TD they pushed the major upgrade back to the triple header that they test evaluate and launch by Barcelona

[CjC]

Upgrades for Imola?

https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12040 ... ar-piastri

The article doesn’t confirm any upgrades even though the headline suggests so (clickbat). Also the article itself is just regurgitated quotes from Miami

[Mansell89]

Looks like McLaren are cleared of any water tricks for tyre cooling, according to Sky

[Watto]

Looks like McLaren are cleared of any water tricks for tyre cooling, according to Sky

Yeah saw an FIA document floating around on twitter earlier saying the wheel assembly of the McLaren was checked and cleared. So all is well - not that is much of a surprise