Andrea Stella is not worried about reduced wind tunnel development time in 2025, after McLaren F1 won the constructors’ championship. According to him, it will be a question of better succeeding in exploiting this development time.
“We obviously take first place in the championship if we can, then we seek to improve our efficiency in terms of aerodynamic development by combining CFD and the time spent in the wind tunnel, because these two elements combine” Stella said.
Stella says that the new wind tunnel in Woking has helped to make progress, but that the resulting logistical facilities also help: “The new wind tunnel is undoubtedly a big step forward. But the big step forward is mainly from a logistical point of view.”
“I always emphasize that last year the improvements in Austin and Singapore were designed and developed in the Toyota wind tunnel. But to develop things in the Toyota wind tunnel, you have the part ready and then it is tested two days later, simply because of the shipping delay.”
“Today, the part is ready and tested two hours later, which increases efficiency. But in reality, the effectiveness of the flush is not just due to the blower, but to the whole approach aerodynamic development.”
“And I have to say that we have seen – we have experienced it ourselves – that even though you have more and more restrictions, from a development point of view, the way you generate the knowledge, the efficiency, is by far the most important thing.”
The Italian confirms that progress is not necessarily correlated to time in the wind tunnel, but to the efficiency of its operation: “Just because I have three times more time in the wind tunnel doesn’t necessarily mean I’m going to develop the car three times faster. That’s not the case.”
“I think we’ve seen that very well this year, because some teams have made developments on track that haven’t necessarily translated into progress. It’s not necessarily about quantity; we invest a lot in quality development.”
