To the microphones of Motorsport.com Andrea Stella, team principal of McLaren, spoke of the news which were brought to the track a Baku, stating that more updates to the MCL60 will follow over the course of the season, whose shape will evolve.
McLaren: rollercoaster of performance
La McLaren has concluded the Baku weekend with a positive balance, after bringing the first update package precisely on the occasion of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. TO Miami the Woking stable, instead of improving, seemed to have gone backwards, with significantly lower performance compared to those of the previous week. The characteristics of the American circuit did not in fact play in favor of the MCL60, which although updated, suffers from high temperatures and also certain types of curves.
It is not new that the McLaren suffer. Last year, despite the transition to ground effect design standards, the MCL36 had the same mid-curve unpredictability, already noticed during the 2021 season.
Stella: "It's a millimeter question"
To make up for the shortcomings of the papaya-colored single-seater, the McLaren team opted for heavily loaded wings with which to get on the track. This choice had a negative impact as regards the top speed, but it proved to be optimal on tracks like Melbourne and Baku. It was precisely on this last circuit that the development path, launched to increase the aerodynamic load, took to the track.
In the fourth round a new fund debuted, with news at the bottom – the one not visible to viewers. To comment on it is the Stella team principal, which says – “La bottom of the fund it is different from the past generation of cars, where the prescribed geometry was flat. Now this prescription does not exist”. He then continued – “It's a millimeter question. The smallest level of updates it can change the concept of beam wing. Our intention is to continue developing this area. The bottom? I'm hoping for a couple more updates."
“The car will clearly evolve”
The new bottom hasn't changed the MCL60 radically, but the update package seems to have nailed it the target: improve the overall load generated in each situation. Stella later admitted – “We have not changed the aerodynamic maps. The load and instead greater in all directions. We are still working on theopening present in front of the rear tires. It's not easy, it could take 3 weeks for a floor with this closure, but it's not obvious how to get it".
An positive note for these new cars, however, Andrea Stella has found it – “The positive side of these single-seaters is the majority simplicity in finding the correlation in the wind tunnel data e those collected once they get off on the track". We will see in the next appointments also change the shapes of the bellies. This emerges from what Stella said – “Updates will have a impact on the rest of the car, the crafts of the car yes will evolve evidently".
