The first signs of recovery, finally. In Baku, McLaren brought home important points thanks to the ninth place obtained by Lando Norris, moreover on a track which, at least on paper, was unfavorable to say the least for the MCL60s. Instead, Norris’ good performance gave him more points after those brought home before the April break on the Melbourne track.
The Woking team has brought the first big updates to Azerbaijan for a single-seater judged by the team itself not ready since the day of the presentation. These words proved to be prophetic in the tests and in the first outings of the year, but now it seems that the road has once again become smoother.
The use of a new bottom, but also of a new beam wing, helped the papaya single-seaters to obtain better results. Andrea Stella, McLaren team principal, said he was satisfied not only with the result, but also with the updates that seem to have worked right away. But be careful, because in order to draw up a complete balance, confirmation will be needed in the next races starting from the one in Miami.
“Our main focus of the weekend has always been preparation for the race, because that’s where you have the most points available,” said Stella at the end of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. “The mission was to finish behind the top four cars. And that’s what we achieved. We are therefore satisfied with this result. We are also satisfied that this result was made possible by the fact that we updated the car. this is just specific to the track, how much we have really improved compared to some of the opponents”.
“However, I think that some of the opponents did not make the most of their performances during the weekend. We will therefore have to be careful, especially Alpine, who seems to have had a bit of a troubled weekend. But yes, I think we will leave Baku with many positive aspects We are particularly impressed by Oscar (Piastri) who drove the race feeling unwell, but making no mistakes, driving really cleanly. That’s part of the positive news. And of course Lando who is a very, very solid driver. another clean weekend and a couple of very useful points.”
The fund convinced, but Stella wanted to underline the importance of the new beam wing. This has improved the aerodynamic efficiency of the car, although the MCL60 still suffers from too much drag with which it was designed in its basic version.
“We have made some progress for this track with the new beam wing, which you may have seen, the lower part of the rear wing which helps with overall efficiency and drag reduction and also with the refinement of the upper part of the rear wing” .
“I think at the moment the problem is still that you can reduce aerodynamic drag and be faster on the straights, but you’re not fast enough in the corners because that’s the overall efficiency we lack at the moment. And this happens to practically everyone drag levels, at all rear wing levels, but at tracks like this you feel it even more. So there is definitely work to be done to improve the top speed of the car.”
Improving aerodynamic efficiency helps, but it’s not enough. Stella underlined how having more speed on the straights can help overtaking, but that it is not synonymous with an improvement in race pace. That’s why the team has other innovations in store that we will see in the next tour de force to improve in that respect as well.
“You always hear me talking about efficiency. As in the case of Alpine, which has chosen a very small rear wing. But that doesn’t solve the race pace problems, because you can be faster on the straight and slower in the corners. “When a car is efficient, like Red Bull, it can use a small rear wing and still have good cornering grip. This is the result of the overall aerodynamic development. And we know we have to catch up.”
Read also:
