MCL36 by McLaren will be a much more balanced car than its 2021 challenger which was a speed demon on high-speed tracks as told by James Key.
After finishing in the top four of the constructors’ championship, McLaren can look back to a thrilling season of 2021. Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris blocked the podium with their 1-2 finish in the Italian Grand Prix.
Optimisms are high as the technical director discusses the shortcoming of the 2021 car and what can be expected with the new generation.
Taking references with the 2021 McLaren’s MCL35, Key stated: “We did pay a lot of attention to drag on the 2020 car, and as we did for the ’19 car. That was a bit before my time, but I know that was a priority for that car and it all carried through.”
Old Era passes the knowledge to the new one
Key describes how the old generation car excelled on high-speed tracks with high efficiency and low drag but it did suffer in low-speed corners stating:
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“Efficiency is good. I think what we’ve seen with straight-line braking. This is one of our strengths, and high-speed corners reflect the sort of performance we can generate with the nature of the car we have.
“What we’re missing we did work on. From this for 2020 and ’21 – try and generate that performance in low-speed. We know why we’re not quite there yet.
“The car isn’t quite as robust as it is in high-speed in the low-speed corners. A lot of the work that went into the ’21 car was to specifically try and address some of these problems.
“Unfortunately, it isn’t just a silver bullet where we switch it on and suddenly it’s great. It takes a while to get them to work. That’s why we knew Zandvoort would be difficult. Equally how we kind of knew that Monza would be strong.”
“The same process but done differently due to the regulations” – Key addresses the McLaren challenge of 2022
As the floor will produce a higher percentage of downforce, Key believes it is a great opportunity for the team to work on the shortcomings. However, it is very difficult to address if McLaren will still have the strength of excelling on high-speed circuits compared to the previous year.
“I think it is more of a case of trying to have a car that more attacks its weaknesses rather than its strengths,” he explained. “The nature of the 2022 cars means it’s probably a little easier to maintain some of the strengths that we have, but strengths are all relative.
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“We know that we had certain strengths in our car. But I don’t know where other people will be for next year. Perhaps it’ll be a different scenario.”
“We’ve concentrated more on trying to have a more balanced car through various different conditions than we would have had now. That is what we would have wanted to do had the regs stayed the same.”
“The same process but done differently due to the regulations.”
