McLaren MCL33

[godlameroso]

I saw that and wondered the same thing....maybe a change for nex year? Maybe cause of the rain they added df and will remove depending on the conditions?

They needed to add downforce because it's a high DF circuit. But the slots were removed to reduce drag. It's a trade off.

The slots reduce drag. Removing them increases drag.

Nope, they make airflow under the wing more consistent, but slightly weakens the main plane vortex. Which means you lose downforce, although it's more stable in yaw. To compensate you have to run a high drag rear wing.

[kfrantzios]

Ok.. I thought you were referring to the slots at the top front of the endplates... My bad

[M840TR]

Weird thing Stoffel said after qualy: car is faster on supersofts than ultras. How's that even possible?

[radosav]

Weird thing Stoffel said after qualy: car is faster on supersofts than ultras. How's that even possible?

Maybe they should reverse shield polarity , or compensate something.

[mwillems]

Weird thing Stoffel said after qualy: car is faster on supersofts than ultras. How's that even possible?

I think at a few tracks they have had issues getting the softer tyres to work. Could be tyre temps. The Mclaren was decent with tyres at the start of the season but you see what some of the other teams can do with the tyres and this probably isn't the case now. Random thought, is the softer tyre less rigid, i.e. there is more movement in the tyre that affects the behaviour of the car? Probably not, but with the tolerances in F1 I guess it might be possible.

[Nonserviam85]

Weird thing Stoffel said after qualy: car is faster on supersofts than ultras. How's that even possible?

I would guess the high DF philosophy of the car overheats the tyres fast.

[M840TR]

Maybe it's just Stoffel who's having this problem. Anyways, a positive among all the cluster is that the design department is very committed to a low-drag philosophy. Car was decent on straights even if it came at a big DF compromise. Should bode well for next season given all the problems are fixed.

[PhillipM]

They've had problems with working the softest compounds all year.

[BrunoH]

they always fall into te same mistake. its a medium downforce track.. so hey lets put a high df setup so we can show our chassis is marginal better in the corners than the rest of the field... even though we have the worst straight line speed... This way we are a fraction of a second faster in the esses, but a ton slower in the straights.

trying to mask how horrible the car is by just putting more wing...

[Jackles-UK]

Weird thing Stoffel said after qualy: car is faster on supersofts than ultras. How's that even possible?

This has happened to a few teams this year. Renault struggled for months on the softer compounds in race trim and I think it was in Sochi that Verstappen was actually faster on his 40-odd laps old soft tyres that he started the race on than he was when he pitted for brand new super-soft tyres after his pit stop. Must be difficult to keep them in the operating window consistently without overheating them or something.

In terms of top speed the McLaren’s were predictably low in the major speed traps but Alonso jumps to 7th across the finish line and 4th in the 2nd intermediate speed trap; good going all things considered.

[munudeges]

Weird thing Stoffel said after qualy: car is faster on supersofts than ultras. How's that even possible?

Pirelli.

[M840TR]

Weird thing Stoffel said after qualy: car is faster on supersofts than ultras. How's that even possible?

This has happened to a few teams this year. Renault struggled for months on the softer compounds in race trim and I think it was in Sochi that Verstappen was actually faster on his 40-odd laps old soft tyres that he started the race on than he was when he pitted for brand new super-soft tyres after his pit stop. Must be difficult to keep them in the operating window consistently without overheating them or something.

In terms of top speed the McLaren’s were predictably low in the major speed traps but Alonso jumps to 7th across the finish line and 4th in the 2nd intermediate speed trap; good going all things considered.

http://f1i.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/ ... Austin.jpg

I was referring to the same data so thanks for sharing. As for the tyre deg during race, the car was always good like in Austria. I think it maybe overheating them on one lap because they can get the harder ones up to temps easily.
Verstappen turned down the engine in Sochi because his position was stable.

[LuisFeF1]

New Turning Vanes in Austin:



Three sections (red arrows)
A longitudinal cut in the lower part (green arrow)
Two metal reinforcements to prevent breakage (blue arrows)


White arrows: The new nose.

The new turning vanes are an evolution of the turning vanes seen for the first time in France, McLaren never used for the race:

[M840TR]

New Turning Vanes in Austin:

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1905/445 ... f9ce_o.jpg


Three sections (red arrows)
A longitudinal cut in the lower part (green arrow)
Two metal reinforcements to prevent breakage (blue arrows)

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1966/447 ... f3df_o.jpg
White arrows: The new nose.

The new turning vanes are an evolution of the turning vanes seen for the first time in France, McLaren never used for the race:

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/845/4122 ... fb8d_c.jpg

Did they use the new turning vanes for qualy and race?

[Edax]

they always fall into te same mistake. its a medium downforce track.. so hey lets put a high df setup so we can show our chassis is marginal better in the corners than the rest of the field... even though we have the worst straight line speed... This way we are a fraction of a second faster in the esses, but a ton slower in the straights.

trying to mask how horrible the car is by just putting more wing...

I think they have little leeway there. You know from alonso that he doesn’t mind having to throw the car around a bit and he can do so without hurting the tires. At ferrari he was always driving on the limit of downforce.

So I assume that he is doing the same at Mclaren. And I also assume that he has his say in what package goes onto the car.

For stoffel I am not so sure. I expect he prefers a more precise car. But from alonso I think it is safe to say that they cannot take more wing of the car without really getting in trouble.