Formula 1 teams are always looking for the extra tenths of a second needed to improve their on-track performance.
This has become one of the main challenges of the current regulation package, as teams usually pile on downforce and work out which tracks it suits the most.
Red Bull has shown how easy it is to upset a concept that was dominant in 2023, but is now struggling to reach the same gains as the rest of the pack, now that they have converged.
McLaren is now the benchmark team, but they have been quick to temper any suggestions that they can turn up at every track and have a car capable of race wins. McLaren hasn’t lost its ‘guiding path’ like Red Bull, according to F1 technical experts, which has made them the likely victors of this year’s title.
Discussing their successful season on the BBC Chequered Flag podcast, journalist Andrew Benson outlined how the team has done one thing that no other F1 team would ever do on the grid.
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| Photo by Joe Portlock/Getty Images |
McLaren focused on driver-specific tweaks that Red Bull or Ferrari would never do
Lando Norris struggled early on compared to Oscar Piastri to put in consistent results, which McLaren identified as being part of a suspension development they brought to this year’s car.
The Briton was unable to feel the front end of the car the way he wanted, which in turn impacted his ability to generate heat into the tyres and bring them into the optimum working window for performance.
McLaren introduced an upgrade specifically for Norris’ car at the Canadian GP, and ever since, he has been a lot closer to Piastri. Benson believes this is something no other team on the grid would attempt to achieve.
“They changed something in the front suspension, specifically to address that for him. Piastri isn’t even using it. So they’ve got two cars. It doesn’t actually affect the overall theoretical optimum performance of the car,” said Benson.
“What it does do is it allows Norris to access more of the theoretical performance of the car himself, whereas Piastri’s happy doing that with the way the car was before. And that’s a very rare thing to happen in a motorsport team in any category.”
McLaren has the margin to make their car suit their drivers
It’s not uncommon for F1 teams to adapt their car to suit specific drivers, with McLaren once giving David Coulthard a foot clutch in his car for the 1997 and 1998 seasons instead of using the hand-operated clutch on his steering wheel.
It is perhaps indicative of where McLaren currently stand in the competitive order, although teams like Red Bull never did this when they were miles ahead of the pack.
Max Verstappen was backed as the main driver, while Sergio Perez was left chasing his performance, which in turn made it difficult for him to finish second regularly in a car that was clearly capable of achieving those results.
Now Red Bull are stuck in a design cul-de-sac, having tried out two different drivers this year and seen no improvement in results, while McLaren’s approach will likely see them as the only contenders for race wins in the final 10 races.
- Rory Mitchell
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