McLaren has revealed six key changes to its Formula 1 car at Zandvoort as it brings the first major upgrade to its car since Miami.
The Woking-based team has emerged as Red Bull’s most consistent challenger recently, and has its sights set on launching a bid to beat its Milton Keynes rival to the constructors’ championship.
McLaren's run of form since a major overhaul to its MCL38 helped it win the Miami Grand Prix in May has come despite the squad electing not to bring any significant developments again up until now, preferring to hone what it already had.
But having saved up its car's potential over recent weeks, McLaren has emerged at the Dutch Grand Prix with a host of changes.
In its submission document to the FIA explaining what is new on its car, McLaren outlined the key areas that have been modified.
These are:
- New brake scoop which is aimed at helping improve the airflow conditions downstream to improve aerodynamic load.
- Revised front suspension to help optimise the changed airflow off the front brake geometry
- New floor edge to add more downforce in that area, as well as help improving flow conditioning to the rest of the underside.
- Modified rear suspension to boost flow conditioning around the rear corner, the diffuser and beam wing area
- New high-downforce rear wing aimed at performance for the demands of Zandvoort type circuits
- New beam wing to work in conjunction with the changed rear wing.
Speaking ahead of track action getting going, McLaren’s Lando Norris said the delay since Miami in bringing any major upgrade to its car was about ensuring it maximised the performance step of what it brought – and didn’t commit to anything until it was sure that it would be a step forward.
Asked what the aim of the upgrades was, Norris said: “To go quicker, to provide more grip and we go faster.
“We've not really had an upgrade since Miami. We've added little things to the car, but nothing which could really be called an upgrade. They were just kind of between small little steps forward, but nothing which was a pure good step of performance - as a lot of other teams have done over the last few races.
“In a good sense, we've taken our time to try and understand things well, and we've seen other teams put things on the car and it not necessarily work.
“We wanted to make sure we avoided that. So, we were patient. I think we've paid the price the last four races, but we've had some great races compared to some other teams who had upgrades.”
Williams brings first major upgrade
McLaren is not alone in bringing a major upgrade to the Dutch GP, with Williams also unleashing a pretty hefty revamp of its car, having spent the early phase of the season focusing on getting weight off the FW46.
Attention has now shifted to more traditional performance gains. The changes to the car that will be raced by Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant include:
- An updated floor body as part of a completely new floor geometry
- A reprofiling of the diffuser
- Revised sidepod inlet geometry, with the upper surface longer than the lower surface.
- Changed sidepod gully design and tweaked engine cover profile
- New main roll hoop geometry, with internal ducting and external aero surfaces reprofiled. This has delivered weight gains too.
Albon hoped that, after a challenging first half to the year, the development would boost Williams’ chances of scoring points over the remainder of the season.
“I'd say it's our first proper upgrade that we've had this year,” he explained. “So, let's see where it puts us.
“I think we've been able to hold on a little bit. There's some weight as well which always helps when it comes off the car. This should also put us a little bit further up.”
