McLaren has challenged the widespread assumption that all Formula 1 teams will approach pre-season testing with a provisional configuration, only to arrive in Australia with a significantly upgraded version of their car. Ferrari is among those following this philosophy, with team principal Frédéric Vasseur stating last December that “everyone will do it,” explaining that during the first tests “the most important thing is to accumulate mileage, not to chase performance.” However, the reigning world champions are taking a different path, opting for an alternative development strategy.
McLaren: Spain as the dress rehearsal for Melbourne
The topic emerged during a press conference organised by the Woking-based team with several specialist media outlets. Speaking on the subject was Chief Designer Rob Marshall, who outlined McLaren’s thinking: “I think what you will see between Barcelona and Melbourne will probably be very close to what we will take to the first race. Our efforts will be focused on understanding this package, and we also have to consider what our competitors will be working on. We need to let ourselves be inspired by what others may or may not achieve and by what they might show us.”
In a season where the development curve is expected to be extremely steep and where the real bottleneck for updates will be the cost cap, McLaren has decided to preserve its financial resources until it has gained a clearer understanding of the MCL40 after testing. Marshall continued: “We will be really focused on understanding this car. Everything is very complicated, everything is new. There is a lot of new stuff that we need to get used to. Bringing a lot of updates early on would complicate things. I think it is better to understand our platform before thinking about modifying it when it has not even put its wheels on the ground yet.”
Aerodynamic question marks
Mark Temple, Technical Director of Performance, went into greater detail on the technical areas where McLaren is eager to find answers: “There are aspects of these new regulations that make the aerodynamics more complex and harder to predict on track. Part of that is because we are still relatively early in a regulation cycle. Until we go on track and see the discrepancies between what our tools predict and what we observe in reality, it is difficult to have real confidence in our understanding.”
McLaren remains faithful to the approach that has defined the team in recent years, investing in solid fundamentals and in a deep understanding of the core concepts, with the aim of strengthening development methodologies and then introducing updates consistently over time. Temple added: “Part of the reason why we are excited about going on track is because we will finally see what these differences are. We will gain more certainty about things that at the moment are still unknowns, and we will understand how to incorporate these discoveries into our development further down the line.”
Small updates expected
The decision not to radically change the car ahead of the first race has led McLaren to delay final project sign-off as much as possible, to the point of planning not to run the car until the second day of testing. That does not mean, however, that there will be no new elements on the MCL40, as explained by Team Principal Andrea Stella: “Obviously, I think there will be updates on virtually every car between the Barcelona tests and the first race. However, we felt that, in the context of the season, it was important to start with the most competitive package possible. That is why we pushed the timelines to the limit.”
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