With the MCL60 compromised by McLaren's initial approach to the 15mm floor change rule, technical director James Key is confident that the Woking team will recover.

As a result of the widespread bouncing throughout 2022, the FIA, with the agreement of the teams, brought in a number of rule changes for this season.

Floor edges were to be raised by 15 millimetres, with the throat of the diffuser raised also. At the same time, the diffuser edge stiffness is increased and an additional sensor mandated to monitor the phenomenon more effectively.

Early tests with the 2023 model suggested that the car would be down on performance, consequently the Woking outfit opted to seek an alternative option. However, the call came too late for this to be available for the season opener, which explains Andrea Stella's comments following the launch.

"Where this happened actually is when we took the 15mm floor step," says Key, according to Motorsport.com. "So we all agreed that as porpoising protection, which was very sensible given at the time last year that was still quite a major issue. It began to improve for everyone as things improved during the year.

"That sounds very small, but these floors are huge and incredibly sensitive. Look at how much downforce it generates, massive. So when we did it on our car, it actually gave us a much bigger loss than anticipated. It seems to have affected different teams in different ways. And to a certain extent, it seems to be related to the floor edge geometry that you're running at the time.

"If you look last year, there were two camps beginning to develop," he continued, "one which we were in, and one which probably the majority of teams were in. And when we took that (15mm) step, it was a really big knock for us.

"And then trying to recover with what we knew at the time, and this was probably September time, we were thinking this is not working, we've actually got to change direction entirely with these geometries. Which is a big change, because they're very big projects, and very complex projects.

"So I think the timing of the reg, and the fact that we took a particularly large hit, and then that it clearly wasn't going to come back easily, meant that we had to change direction quite late."

Rather than targeting Bahrain, Key says that the team first wanted to confirm that its package was properly developed and understood.

"It wasn't like we were dawdling around and thinking what to do, and actually why don't we do this," he explained. "It was sort of forced upon us by a recognition that the new regs weren't going to recover with what we knew from last year. That led to a completely refreshed and revamped approach to that area of the car.

"It takes a while to develop these things," he continued. "We tried to get it for race one, it wasn't mature enough. It would have performed a bit better. But with these floors, you've got to maintain stability, good correlation and everything else to guarantee that it's going work, and it was a little bit risky for race one."

Asked if the late timing of the regulation change was frustrating, he admitted: "Absolutely. I mean, it is frustrating because, to be honest, the route we're on now seems to be pretty prolific, it's doing what we hoped it would do.

"There's still some work to do," he added. "The development rate on that is so much higher than what we had. Had the reg been earlier or had we clocked the fact that actually you need to do a different thing with this four weeks earlier, we wouldn't be talking about it right now, to be honest.

"So it's a bit it's a bit of a shame, but we are where we are, and we're just going to recover from it."

LATEST NEWS

more news >

LATEST IMAGES

galleries >

Click to go to the main galleries section

READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by BillH, 10/03/2023 18:52

"Quite a good insight into the challenges these teams face when there is a late regulation change, particularly if the team is on a different path to the majority of the others.
Hopefully as @workingchap says, McLaren can quickly adjust and be able to be more competitive."

Rating: Neutral (0) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

2. Posted by kenji, 10/03/2023 2:15

"Just hope that Key is promoting a different and better brand of 'reptilian lubricant' than that sold by Zac Brown!"

Rating: Positive (1) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

3. Posted by Defiant, 09/03/2023 23:16

"I wish I was as convinced as Mr. Key."

Rating: Neutral (0) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

4. Posted by alvarezh3, 09/03/2023 12:05

"That is not a very encouraging promise, recovering to where? Again to fifth place in the championship? For as this moment in time they have been classified at 10th by the FIA!

I have nothing personal against Mr. Key, probably a very nice fellow, but his trajectory as a car designer has a lot to wish for.

Specially in F1, if you want to compete as one of the top three teams, you need to have first the proper financial resources and a top notch design team, with this last necessity not being fulfilled by McLaren. Sad!"

Rating: Positive (1) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

5. Posted by Wokingchap, 09/03/2023 9:57

"I really hope they do recover from it and get back to towards the frunt end of the grid."

Rating: Positive (4) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

Key confident of McLaren recovery

LATEST NEWS

RELATED ARTICLES

LATEST IMAGES

POST A COMMENT

Post your comment

READERS COMMENTS

Share this page