McLaren’s dominance in F1 is now a longtime actuality, but one thing nonetheless eludes their rivals: tyres, brakes, cooling, and different mysteries.
McLaren reigns in F1, however many secrets and techniques stay hidden: from tyres to brakes, passing via the revolutionary cooling system. The engineers in Woking proceed to construct on the strong basis laid in 2023, now benefiting from a challenge on the top of its technical maturity. At mid-season, the rivals are nonetheless removed from understanding what the true “trick” of the MCL39 is — if there is just one.
Seven wins in 9 Grands Prix, six pole positions, and at the moment main each championships: McLaren is on the appropriate trajectory to safe each world titles. It’s a dominant but “hidden” efficiency: the time gaps seem smaller, way more contained than what Crimson Bull inbuilt 2023. However the margin over direct rivals issues little, given how simply Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris handle the races.
The Woking duo advantages from masterful tyre preservation, each on Sundays and Saturdays. The MCL39 is the one automobile on the grid able to profiting from the delicate tyres all through a whole qualifying lap. All others, together with Max Verstappen, are compelled to compromise both the primary or last sector. However tyres are solely one of many many “mysteries” of this automobile.
Brakes, tyres, cooling: the McLaren puzzle
Analyzing the MCL39’s strengths is troublesome. It’s a automobile that’s fast underneath all situations, does every little thing very effectively, however doesn’t present clearly outlined efficiency peaks. After Barcelona, our correspondent recognized one in every of its (many) successful options. However the puzzle is advanced, and Michael Schmidt of Auto Motor und Sport has tried to pinpoint crucial items.
Eliminating the versatile wing variable — which evidently hasn’t dented Woking’s benefit — many “small” clues stay. McLaren has proven competitiveness throughout a variety of trip heights, a degree the place Ferrari, for instance, nonetheless struggles. Credit score goes to Rob Marshall and Peter Prodromou, who recognized and achieved a extremely efficient degree of downforce, with its peak proper underneath the motive force’s seat.
This configuration could be the rationale for requiring a cockpit cooling system. Extra usually, the MCL39 has optimized temperature administration all through the automobile: “The complete automobile radiates much less warmth, additionally benefiting the tyres,” writes the German outlet. The worth to pay is larger drag and, consequently, decrease high pace.
MCL39: three unresolved mysteries
Past the overall functioning of the automobile, there are nonetheless just a few significantly intriguing questions. The primary, and most seen, issues the behaviour of the mechanics, who’re at all times cautious to dam the view of the automobile throughout work, particularly across the brakes. There’s additionally no certainty concerning the potential use of PCM supplies to additional support thermal administration.
Then there’s the difficulty of this system run throughout Free Follow 3: the 2 drivers often push to the restrict within the third apply session, when, based on AMuS, “it might make little sense.” Lastly, the thriller of the rear tyres on the beginning grid. McLaren is at all times the final crew to suit the rear tyres, simply earlier than the beginning. A fancy and nonetheless unsolved puzzle.
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