McLaren on Tuesday unveiled its new car for the 2023 F1 season, the MCL60, the name of which the Woking team honors the 60th anniversary of Bruce McLaren’s creation of the set. The British team has been fighting for years in its development to restore the name of the mythical structure at the top of the grid. With the arrival of Zak Brown as the new CEO of the company since 2018, the team has not stopped taking steps forward. He is penultimate in 2017 Constructors’ Championship (9th), 6th in 2018, 4th in 2019, 3rd in 2020, 4th in 2021 and the arrival of the new regulations in 2022 seemed like a good opportunity for those in orange to climb the step they were missing, but last year’s car did not start as they wanted, and after good progress in all year, McLaren finished 5th in 2022, just behind Alpine in the middle zone and heavily affected by the few points contributed by Ricciardo. Now, in the second year of the current regulations, English presented a MCL60 aims to reduce the weaknesses of its predecessor to take another step.
The new McLaren MCL60 has many similar features to MCL36 where the ‘papaya’ formation completes the course, with the same rear part, where at first glance the lateral cooling in the form of the gills that the car used last year has increased. The main change came in the lower central area of the car (1), narrowerfollowing the line of Red Bull and all the teams are trying to implement. The car is thin on that side obviously, applying a lower cutout of the sidepods where Red Bull was so surprised at the beginning of last year with the car that finally dominated the championship, but this time in a stronger way.
McLaren also changed the shape of the sidepod air intakes (2)narrower in the Red Bull style and slimmer, and the the upper air intake appears to be somewhat round (3). Although, yes, it should be noted that in these cars most of the downforce is marked by the floor of the car, something that is completely hidden.
“The biggest challenge is to keep improving as a team and climb to the front of the grid. And we can do it. We have raised the standards and we must focus on performance”, said the team’s new Team Principal, Andrea Stella, who replaced Andreas Seidl, who is now at Sauber.
“In terms of performance and expectations, we remain realistic in the short term. We will see where we are in the tests in Bahrain and in the first race and whatever it is, we have some good evolutions planned, so we hope for next season”, added the Italian along with CEO, Zak Brown, who said he was “excited” about the challenges ahead.
“Good! It’s good to see the developments since last year and I hope that they will move us in the right direction and take steps forward. We will have the answers in a few weeks”, he pointed out in relation to the Bahrain tests that will be held from February 23 to 25. “This is an evolution from last year, this is my first car and it will be very special. Looks good”, commented Australian ‘rookie’ Oscar Piastri.
The fact that McLaren is showing a car that is similar in many points to the latest evolutions presented last year can be a clear indication of how satisfied they are with the progress made last year, believing in the change applied they can continue to close the gap with the teams above. McLaren chose an evolution and not a revolution to keep getting closer to the top.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Rose Herman and I work as an author for Today Times Live. My expertise lies in writing about sports, a passion of mine that has been with me since childhood. As part of my job, I provide comprehensive coverage on everything from football to tennis to golf.
