The McLaren F1 believes that the new-generation F1 car MCL36 has finally been able to remove the “obstacles” in low-speed corners that it has suffered in the past.
Introduced in 2022, the new-generation F1 car was reborn as a ground effect car, designed to minimize the effects of dirty air from cars that were hindering subsequent drivers.
At the same time, the new F1 regulations have helped to address the weaknesses of the McLaren F1 over the past few years: slow turns.
“Slow speeds aren’t perfect, but they’re no longer the real obstacles we had last year,” McLaren F1 technical director James Key told The Race.
This issue has not been completely resolved, but James Key attributed it to the “characteristics” of 2022, not the McLaren F1 issue.
“It’s true that some of them are broader features of these cars. They’re still a few characteristics of these cars for a completely different reason than last year,” explained James Key.
“There’s little reason behind the problems that happened before. We knew what they were, but major changes and fresh approaches in some important areas that were always difficult to make during the season. It was really difficult to budget without it. “
With eight rounds in the 2022 campaign, James Key says the McLaren F1 was able to better understand the MCL36 and its optimal setup and balance performance levels across different corner types.
“After the race earlier this year, we repeated the car setup, optimized it around the platform we got, learned how to use it, made mechanical adjustments, and made mechanical adjustments so that we might set up the car more mechanically. By doing and balancing, we are now balanced by corner speed, “said James Key.
“We’re still strong at medium speeds, but probably nothing special at high speeds. Not a weakness, but average. Looking at the GPS overlays, I think it was pretty good in Spain.”
“Low speed is no longer a really difficult situation like it used to be when the car mightn’t do what the car was hoping for.”
“So, to some extent, it depends on the design, but to some extent, regulation has found a direction that is definitely improving low-speed performance.”
“There are still some kind of corners that are a little worrisome, but there is no big imbalance between really strong high speeds and sometimes really bad low speeds.
And this is the perfect time for McLaren to find gain in the slower sections. Key believes that new regulations that rely on the aerodynamics of the ground effect effect will provide even more gain in these sections of the track.
“When we see the level of downforce go up, those slow corners are more important than ever for different cars,” said James Key.
“Looking at the example of the Spanish qualifying overlay, it’s interesting to see how Mercedes and Red Bull were done. To be honest, the high speeds are all very similar.”
“And the performance differentiators are starting to slow down. Now, downforce is making it easier for everyone to get faster.”
Category: Category: F1 / McLaren
