A late change in the aerodynamics philosophy, justified by the rule changes in Formula 1 for 2023, is the trigger for the current problems of the Woking team, according to McLaren technical director James Key.
Last summer, teams and the FIA agreed to raise the underbody edges by 15mm in an effort to combat ‘porpoising’.
“We all agreed that this was a protection against porpoising, which was very reasonable as it was a big problem last year,” Key recalls. “It sounds like a small change, but these underbody are huge and very sensitive. The amount of propulsion they generate is enormous.”
However, after testing the new specification in the wind tunnel, McLaren were not convinced the package could improve on 2022. Therefore, in September it was decided to take a different path.
“In fact, when we put it on the car, we had a much bigger loss than we expected,” Key explains the problem with the first draft. “Apparently different teams are affected in different ways. And to some extent it seems to be related to ground edge geometry.”
The decision to switch back was made too late to finalize the new package for Bahrain’s season opener. Instead, the team now aims to make a big leap when it launches in Baku.
New rule “a big hit” for McLaren
From Key’s point of view, the fact that the new underbody rule hurts McLaren so much has to do with the aerodynamic path that the team followed with the MCL36 from 2022.
“If you look at the past year, there were two camps that started to develop: one that we were in and one that was probably where the majority of the teams were,” explains the McLaren chief technical officer. “And that change of 15 millimeters was a really big blow for us.”
“We were trying to get back on our feet with what we knew at the time. Then in September we realized that wasn’t working and we had to completely change direction with these geometries. It’s a big shift because it These are very large and complex projects.”
“I think the timing of the re-regulation and the fact that it was a particularly big setback for us from which we found it difficult to recover meant that we had to change direction quite late.”
That’s why the conscious decision was made not to rush the entire new package to the start at the first race in Bahrain, but to ensure that it was fully developed and understood first.
“It wasn’t like we were just dallying around and trying to figure out what to do,” says Key. “We were sort of forced into it because we realized that the new rules didn’t match what we knew from last year, which led to us completely redesigning that area of the car.”
New package not mature enough for Bahrain
“It takes a while to develop these things. We tried to get it for the first race but it wasn’t mature enough,” stresses the engineer.
“It would have worked a bit better. But with these subfloors you have to ensure stability, good correlation and everything else to make sure it works. And for the first race it was a bit risky.”
When asked if it was frustrating making the decision so late, Key says, “Absolutely. I mean, it’s frustrating because we’re on a path now that seems to be quite productive. It does , which is what we hoped for. But there is still work to be done.”
“The development rate is so much higher compared to before. If the rule change had happened earlier or if we had realized four weeks earlier that it has to be dealt with differently, we wouldn’t be talking about it now, to be honest.”
“So it’s a bit of a shame,” Key says in retrospect, but remains confident: “We’re where we are now and we’ll definitely recover from that.”