2023 - McLaren Formula 1 Team

[f1rules]

Spot on

As we all know our rankings since 2018 were
2018 6th
2019 4th
2020 3rd
2021 4th
2022 5th.

I don't see any progress in that. Fighting for 6th or 5th or 4th in 2023 is not progress. It is so much different to fight for 2nd or 3rd than being at most the 4th team. I have been a fan of the team for 30 years and i still am. But this, for me, is not Mclaren.
I can not believe that the team needed all these "awakenings" that have been talked about. First the "ok the structure is not working" then the "maybe its not just the shitty honda engine" and then the "we just realized we don't have enough engineers and we will hire some".
To me as an engineer and business owner, there is only one problem with the team and that is financial resources. Aston Martin improved because Stroll made huge investments. We had to sell and leaseback MTC. I hope that now, with the budget cap, the team can be profitable enough to repay those huge loans and start focusing on how to win. Because till now it was how to survive.

[mclaren111]

I think the telemetry that was posted earlier in the thread showed McLaren struggling a lot in traction zones.

If you compare Bahrain with Jeddah (and even Melbourne), the traction zones are nowhere near as significant. The minimum corner speeds at Bahrain were 65km/h in T1, 105km/h in T4, 70km/h in T8, 65km/h in T10 and 105km/h in T14. In contrast, at Jeddah, after T1 (90km/h), T2 (80km/h) and T27 (100km/h) there's nothing less than 140km/h.

Jeddah is a very different circuit and McLaren's traction challenges won't hurt it as much. The telemetry from earlier in the thread indicated they are around mid-pack on drag, and that will matter a lot at Jeddah.

https://mercedes-benz-archive.com/marsF ... =190181828
https://mercedes-benz-archive.com/marsF ... =189925416

Counter-inuitively, despite Melbourne being a street circuit, it's quite fast with fewer traction zones than Bahrain.

Is our traction problem due to Aero or Suspension ?

[MrGapes]

I think the telemetry that was posted earlier in the thread showed McLaren struggling a lot in traction zones.

If you compare Bahrain with Jeddah (and even Melbourne), the traction zones are nowhere near as significant. The minimum corner speeds at Bahrain were 65km/h in T1, 105km/h in T4, 70km/h in T8, 65km/h in T10 and 105km/h in T14. In contrast, at Jeddah, after T1 (90km/h), T2 (80km/h) and T27 (100km/h) there's nothing less than 140km/h.

Jeddah is a very different circuit and McLaren's traction challenges won't hurt it as much. The telemetry from earlier in the thread indicated they are around mid-pack on drag, and that will matter a lot at Jeddah.

https://mercedes-benz-archive.com/marsF ... =190181828
https://mercedes-benz-archive.com/marsF ... =189925416

Counter-inuitively, despite Melbourne being a street circuit, it's quite fast with fewer traction zones than Bahrain.

Is our traction problem due to Aero or Suspension ?

Aero, lack of traction in slow speed has been prevalent for years now.

[BrunoH]

aero? i would say its mechanical at 65km/h downforce is hardly a thing...

[haza]

I hope McLaren goes in the same direction as Aston and rbr with canted down top wishbones they seem to be so instant on turn in

[Lucky]

[mclaren111]

Racefans:

Fast-forward to now and while McLaren have addressed some weaknesses of the MCL60’s predecessor – creating “a much better-balanced car” with “mechanical updates [that] seem to be working” too according to Key

Lets hope the traction problem can be solved with setup...

[mwillems]

As we all know our rankings since 2018 were
2018 6th
2019 4th
2020 3rd
2021 4th
2022 5th.

I don't see any progress in that. Fighting for 6th or 5th or 4th in 2023 is not progress. It is so much different to fight for 2nd or 3rd than being at most the 4th team. I have been a fan of the team for 30 years and i still am. But this, for me, is not Mclaren.
I can not believe that the team needed all these "awakenings" that have been talked about. First the "ok the structure is not working" then the "maybe its not just the shitty honda engine" and then the "we just realized we don't have enough engineers and we will hire some".
To me as an engineer and business owner, there is only one problem with the team and that is financial resources. Aston Martin improved because Stroll made huge investments. We had to sell and leaseback MTC. I hope that now, with the budget cap, the team can be profitable enough to repay those huge loans and start focusing on how to win. Because till now it was how to survive.

For the group to survive, yes, but not for the team. The team had active investments from the owners to try to ensure it could compete.

it wasn't at the level of Merc, Ferrari or RB, for sure, but it certainly had a sizeable budget.

But yes, everything else just seems like excuses.

None the less, getting back to 4th fastest car for me is a good start because it pushes our progress back in the right direction. But AM show what is possible and they have the same budget and do not yet have the new wind tunnel etc

[Ground Effect]

[Ground Effect]

[mwillems]

[Mostlyeels]

Good to hear the pneumatic issue wasn't from McLaren's side.

[organic]

Good to hear the pneumatic issue wasn't from McLaren's side.

Surprised McLaren didn't say anything sooner about them not being culpable. Made their reliability look worse than it really was

[billamend]

Mercedes hates getting blamed for their PU reliability issues. If I had to guess, there was a push to not say it was a Mercedes issue. I remember the same happening with Racing Point recently.

[Ben1980]

Good to hear the pneumatic issue wasn't from McLaren's side.

Surprised McLaren didn't say anything sooner about them not being culpable. Made their reliability look worse than it really was

They announced it was a PU issue pretty early. People just ignored it.