2018 McLaren F1 Team - Renault

[Alonso Fan]

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/mcla ... o-1045363/

Does anyone know if the weather changed from Friday to Saturday?

[M840TR]

0.6 sec slower in sec 1 & 2 and 0.8 in s3

https://www.fia.com/events/fia-formula- ... fication-5

[McMika98]

Aero aero aero...Yawn.

Aero still isn't the problem and our aero parts are still being copied where applicable. No-one will copy the new suspension, I assure you.

The fact is they deliberately compromised rear suspension by prioritising aero even on the suspension geometry. Dejavu a'la size zero. Pre season everyone was lauding and lapping the features as being unique and beneficial to aero. That PP has too much weight and has not learnt that its no more about just downforce but efficient aero.
To all the blind witnesses who think Mcl33 was amazing out of traction, could that not be the engine driveability and tuning on the dyno? The chassis was prolly fifth best and the engine wasn't as bad as we were led to believe.

[mwillems]

If the rear suspension has lateral movement, it may well be compromising straight line speed/stability, in a similar way that camber does. I don't think it is as much corner exit speed, but traction/stability on every inch of the track. The Aero is not great for sure, but it's not bad either and we know that it is an evolution in progress, a late one at that. But the suspension is a different problem entirely.

[mwillems]

Last year Honda were still having major problems at this point, but this new car is just 8 tenths quicker.

2018. ES Fernando Alonso McLaren 1:12.856 +2.092
2017. ES Fernando Alonso McLaren 1:13.693 +2.234

Force India - 1 sec faster
Red Bull - 1,5 sec faster
Ferrari - 1 sec faster
Renault - 1,2 sec faster
Willams - 7 tenths slower

So by switching to Renault (which according to McLaren should have given them more than half a second per lap), they made just tiny gains.

But we've seen that Mclaren have made some of the biggest gains on the other tracks prior to this race, as has been posted in this thread. One race does not a season make.

[McHonda]

Aero aero aero...Yawn.

Aero still isn't the problem and our aero parts are still being copied where applicable. No-one will copy the new suspension, I assure you.

The fact is they deliberately compromised rear suspension by prioritising aero even on the suspension geometry. Dejavu a'la size zero. Pre season everyone was lauding and lapping the features as being unique and beneficial to aero. That PP has too much weight and has not learnt that its no more about just downforce but efficient aero.
To all the blind witnesses who think Mcl33 was amazing out of traction, could that not be the engine driveability and tuning on the dyno? The chassis was prolly fifth best and the engine wasn't as bad as we were led to believe.

They had to change suspension anyway and it's not the first time McLaren have tried something outside of the box suspension wise but just because it brought an aero benefit doesn't mean the idea originated in the aero department.

You mean the '32 I assume, but yes the suspension was good, it got routinely praised in Amus and was named as one of the ones with the alleged lowering on straights trick. We know driveability and low band performance of the Honda wasn't good as they told us so when they brought the fix to Spa. Before Spain as well the driveability was so bad it effected gearshifts.

The revisionism is getting so boring. No the '32 wasn't the best chassis on the grid but it was still a good car against it's 2017 competition. This one isn't and that's largely down to trying to make 3 massive changes to a car in just one winter and one of them doesn't seem to work very well at all.

[ALO_Power]

Well, I must admit that as everyone, I was really disappointed yesterday but if we think calmly I think I end up to summarize the same as most people mentioned:

- Did McLaren lose all of their pace and suddenly became the last team? Definitely not, you can't be in the points in all of the races so far (also were in points in Monaco before DNF) and suddenly to become the last car on the grid.

- Did McLaren got heavily out-developed? Again, no. Not big changes happened on the grid in Canada to say that development played any role on this race (and also couldn't play such a big role). If it was Barcelona, you could say something but still. And no Sauber didn't outdevelop McLaren.

- So where is the problem? The problem seems to be the same they had all season long and they obviously haven't cured it at all. They obviously can't maintain the tires inside the correct temperature window and they seem to suffer more with softer compounds on this. We have seen this happening in almost all races so far apart from Monaco and Spain. (Monaco though is another story by itself and in Spain maybe the different compounds masked the issue bit better in conjunction with the long corners of Montmelo that can help generate heat). So, the chassis is definitely not a top 3 chassis, it seems to be on the midfield right now but this issue is dropping them even further back and on such a tight grid, it really shows!

- Is the car draggy? I thought so but probably drag is not such as dramatic as it seems. The top speed was really similar to Red Bull's (which is ok if u consider that they are not exiting the corners as fast) so, I think that as others mentioned, the car aerodynamically isn't wrong but definitely needs more development (bargeboards, sidepods etc.). The real issue is on mechanical grip. But hey, how they did so much better in Monaco which is the "king" of mechanical grip? I think this happened because in Monaco, the car is constantly braking and turning and accelerating out of slow corners which definitely helps in generating heat. In Canada their big issue got heavily exposed, was like putting a man with broken leg to do hopscotch. The temperatures definitely affected the traction and in Canada u need a lot of mechanical grip both in front and rear, in front to turn in sharply and attack the kerbs and in rears to be able to get on the power as early as possible. If u can't do this then the penalty will be massive since u will only keep losing and losing out on the big straights.

- Why were they more competitive in FP1, FP2? Maybe the temps were simply higher and they could do better and maybe they came with the car more "dialed-in" than others. Also, they did better with the harder compounds and judging from their race pace so far, the temperatures are definitely a massive factor since in the race they seem to do much better.

- And yes, I agree, the MCL32 was probably much much better against competition compared to the MCL33. The grid was not as tight in 2017 but it was definitely better with its tires and mechanical grip.

- Was switching to Renault a bad choice? Possibly it was, but in hindsight it's pointless to judge. Maybe tho it was a good wake-up call to have the Renault at the back.

So all of the above are my assumptions combined with most people's assumptions as well and not coming from any official source. If you have any other opinion, feel free to disagree.

[ollandos]

the only one good part on this car probably is the aero desing ...on mclaren side
the major problem is not the aero .. compare to last year car ...yes 2017 mclaren it was good car .but all the others top team find a way for big gains on winter and mclaren trying to keep the same performance ..on trucks with low downforce level....the remove of downforce from the car and leave alone the mechanical side ..create a sock picture on track ..if is the aero ..why mclaren is the best of the rest on barcelona and monaco on quali (all most ..less than tenth from p7 ) and miles away on low DF tracks ..??? engine power and mechanical side is more importal on this type tracks ....mclaren have to keep only 2 parts ..1.alonso 2.aero desing ..and must build new car very soon..if they dont fix the issue this year ..there is new back foot problems for the next ....they need new car from spa if not sooner ....

[mwillems]

In tracks that use a lot of kerb that don't require a stiffer suspension I think that the suspension is less of a dog.

It is also entirely possible that if the sidepods are narrowed, with more air/ cleaner air passing to the rear wing, the aero benefits of the rear suspension might come a little more pronounced as this flow is disrupted less. Less drag allied to extra downforce produced at the rear means the rear suspension will have less movement due to it being pushed closer to it's outer tolerances.
If this flight of fancy were true, you'd have a car with the requisite stiffness in mid-high speed corners and straights, but with a suspension that is still malleable enough to use kerbs, more so than other cars. It's probably more likely that they just screwed up though, but it's a thought I can't shake off.

[flmkane]

Anyone know if McLaren has had a new gearbox yet?

[Benii6]

Anyone know if McLaren has had a new gearbox yet?

I read somewhere that a new suspension will come with the new gearbox. Do you have any idea about that?

[McHonda]

Trying to pass a crash test was the last I heard about the new gearbox.

[mclaren111]

It's time to face the music. Dumping honda was a HUGE failure from McLaren management. Outpaced by ... pretty much everyone... Honda and Renault a side, the car is very, Very, compromised. Greetings to Matt Morris and his comments on great engine integration and no compromises... We have new Williams here.

I have to agree with everything you have said, as sad as it is to say.

Bouillier needs to be fired. McLaren's downturn coincided with his hiring by the team. How no one at McLaren has recognised this is beyond me.

I agree. Remember when they hired Sam Michael from Williams a few year ago and everything just went downhill.

History is repeating itself !!

[M840TR]

Bouillier is responsible for track-side operations not designing the car

[Big Tea]

Something to consider guys. Q2.

Fernando Alonso - 1:12.85
Stoffel Vandoorne- 1:12.86

Not saying Stof is slow, but...