In Singapore, McLaren once again demonstrated that it was the most successful team in the field. With a third victory in four Grands Prix, the British team protected itself from Red Bull in the race for the constructors’ championship. McLaren’s recent form can be explained by the caution it has shown with its various developments, but also by the fact that it is sticking to a floor design that it first introduced at Miami.
While McLaren has been on the same floor for 13 Grands Prix now, its rivals such as Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes have tried another approach. The latter, after trying different floor designs, encountered balance problems. However, the dilemma facing McLaren regarding this area of the single-seater could determine the outcome of the 2024 Formula 1 season.
McLaren’s current package appears to be working well, particularly at high-downforce circuits like Singapore, but team boss Andrea Stella said the British team was not sure it could deliver. hold on to what she has at the moment. Indeed, many teams have planned to make significant changes at Austin, which will take place in a month, while McLaren admits that playing it safe by sticking to its current package could see it fall back into his faults.
For Austin, the British team has been working on an evolution for its MCL38, but it wants to be sure that it works before putting it on the track. After the Singapore Grand Prix, Andrea Stella spoke about the dilemma facing McLaren, namely whether or not to proceed with this development.
“In all honesty, that was one of my thoughts after the race. We have a few projects in the works, and obviously when you have that type of performance on track you can always approach things with caution when it comes to development.”
“But at the same time, we have to trust the process. We have to trust the way we’ve worked so far. I’ve said it before, we took our time to make sure that once we “We have put it on track, we have done all the due diligence. So I don’t think it will change our plans.”
Oscar Piastri at the Singapore GP.
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
In the race for the constructors’ title, Red Bull seems to have understood where its difficulties came from and has begun its period of convalescence. At the same time, Ferrari continues its momentum after having experienced difficulties since the changes made in Barcelona. Despite McLaren’s advantage, it won’t take much for its rivals to come back and move ahead if they bring in things that work.
“You know, in Formula 1, I’m not sure you can slow down too much, because slowing down means the others can catch up with you.”recalled Andrea Stella. “And we don’t know what the others’ plans are. Red Bull, we see that on a circuit where they thought they weren’t very competitive, in the end they ended up second.”
“And I think we haven’t seen Ferrari [à son meilleur niveau]because even in FP1, FP2, they seemed to be as fast as us. So I think this run may have been a little flattering. From a competitiveness perspective, I would say we need to continue to be aggressive about development.”
Rob Marshall (McLaren) et Jonathan Wheatley (Red Bull).
Photo de: Alastair Staley / Motorsport Images
Rob Marshall, McLaren’s chief designer, explains that the team’s plan was to ensure that any developments made contributed to a big step forward.
“It’s about constantly chasing aerodynamic downforce”he declared. “We like to put the pieces together and distribute them in one go. So far, we’ve just put these pieces together. At some point, we hope to have another evolution to offer. In a way, it’s It’s good to offer lots of small improvements all the time, a bit like our beam wing here this weekend, but sometimes you also have to wait for a series of elements to arrive at the same time.
“The advantage of this method is that often the elements do not combine very well, or not as well as one would think. If they are delivered all at once, this sort of combination of parts has been subjected to the CFD together, it was developed together, it went through the wind tunnel together, so we can be more confident that this combination of parts works well together. Whereas if we do it little by little, we can introduce developments to a part. and then working on another one and finding out that it’s actually a little compromised by the previous change you made.”
