2021 Formula 1 McLaren Car Launch Review James Punt
2021 Formula 1 McLaren Launch: James Punt
Yesterday saw the launch of the new 2021 Formula 1 McLaren car. Credit where it is due. McLaren have turned their situation around. They have not gone down the same path as other great teams and dined out on the past before inevitable extinction.
It has been a slow process, getting the right people in the right places and finding the finances in difficult times. This is now a well-managed and resourced outfit who finished third in last year’s Constructor’s Championship. That was their best finish in eight years. The efforts of the rebuilding the team are bearing fruit.
This year sees more changes, but the momentum is still upward. The team will be using the Mercedes power units for the foreseeable future. While their Renault power units were much improved in 2020, they now have the best power unit available.
Power Unit
Obviously, changing power units comes with its own challenges in terms of fitting a different architecture into their chassis, having different cooling requirements and so on, but they will get a more powerful and reliable system. Getting the most out of it is their next job, but this should be seen as positive change. However, McLaren have had to use all their development tokens on the work required to accommodate the new power units. There must be a concern that this will compromise them in other areas of the car.
Despite the stable regulations, McLaren say that because of the change in power unit supplier, their MCL35M is ‘essentially a new car’. The majority of the chassis is brand new. The electronics and cooling systems have had to be changed and a new gearbox accommodated.
Wind tunnel time has already been switched to the 2022 car. McLaren need this year’s car to hit the ground running if they are to defend their 3rd place in the constructor’s championship. Any problems at the pre-season test could signal a difficult season ahead.
Weaknesses Targeted
The design of the new car is targeting two areas of weakness in last year’s car. Its low-speed corner performance and its sensitivity to gusty winds. This should make the car more consistent from track to track and in a wider range of weather conditions.
There is a driver change with Carlos Sainz leaving to go to Ferrari and he is replaced by Daniel Ricciardo. That is a fair exchange for McLaren as they are getting a proven race winner with a lot of experience to pair with the young talent that is Lando Norris. That is a good driver pairing in terms of ability and also marketability. Both are fun characters who will be bouncing off each other off the track and pushing each other on it.
Norris Confidence Growing
Norris was yet another driver to contract Covid19 during the winter break. It did result in him missing a couple of weeks training. While he only had mild symptoms, he said that it had left him very tired for a couple of weeks. Fortunately, he has had plenty of time to recuperate and ran a private F3 test recently to get back to the feel of racing again. With two seasons under his belt, Norris is feeling more confident about knowing what he wants from his car. He is taking on a slightly more senior role as he is the incumbent McLaren driver and the more experienced Ricciardo the ‘new boy’ in the team.
The team has received new financial backing from a US investment fund and are going ahead with a new wind tunnel. Like everyone else, McLaren are looking towards 2022 but they look well placed to hit the ground running in 2021. However, talk of being title contenders has been dismissed by the team boss Andreas Seidl.
Lots Of Ground To Make Up
The team have made very positive progress. However, the fact remains that they finished 371 points behind Mercedes in 2020. Red Bull were 117 ahead of McLaren last season and with Red Bull beefing up their driver line up, McLaren’s likely realistic ambition/target will be to retain third place in 2021.
McLaren scored two podium finishes in 2020, fewer than both Racing Point and Renault, but their consistency was better. If they can maintain that consistency, and the Mercedes power units should help, then more podiums should be possible. However, talk of being championship contenders seem to be wildly optimistic.
Car Launch
McLaren were the first to launch their car and the experts have been pouring over the MCL35M. On the face of it, the car looks very similar to last year. Most of the changes are of course under the skin as the car has been designed to run the new Mercedes power units. Visibly the cut away floor at the rear of the car is the biggest difference, but this will be common to all the teams.
The bodywork around the sidepods has been slimmed down and the roll hoop and airbox have been revised and not surprisingly, look very much like what was on the Mercedes last year.
As is normal with modern launches, what you see is not necessarily what you will get come the first race, or even testing. This year, with so much carry over from the 2020 cars, don’t expect too many surprises, if any across all the launches. Despite McLaren being the most modified car of all there are no huge clues about what to expect just from the launch package.
Aerodynamics
Technical Director, James Key, says that they are still looking at changes to the front of the car in terms of aerodynamics. McLaren did a lot of work in this area in the second half of last season but it’s likely that this area will be tweaked in the coming weeks.
Importantly, McLaren have reported no problems with running the Mercedes power unit on the dyno. This may be the single most important piece of news after Mercedes had said that they had had some problems with the new power unit earlier in the week.
