McLaren introduces in Austria the biggest update package of 2023!

(Cover picture: FormulaPassion)

The team that most disappointed the expectations set this season in the first part of the 2023 World Championship is, together with Ferrari, McLaren... Since the unveiling of the MCL60, the new Team Principal Andrea Stella has been pretty clear about the competitiveness level of their single-seater, admitting that the performance targets hadn't been met.

For this reason, the McLaren MCL60 was born as a car with poor aerodynamic efficiency, which severely compromised its straight line speed - and therefore the possibility of battling on equal terms with other single-seaters. To overcome these issues, the Woking team's Technical Department immediately identified the weak points and set to work to approve a substantial package of aerodynamic updates, which it was decided to split as follows:

• 50% of the innovations were introduced at the Red Bull Ring, in Austria: we'll focus on these components (installed on Norris' car only);
• A further 25% of the novelties will be introduced at Silverstone, for the British Grand Prix;
• The remaining 25% of the novelties will be introduced at the Hungaroring, on the occasion of the Hungarian GP;

So let's into the updates that allowed Lando Norris to clinch fourth place in the Austrian Grand Prix.

Revised floor with changes to the side edges

Given the importance of the floor in current Formula 1 cars, it's imperative to start our analysis from the changes in this area. As usual, it's important to specify that when we talk about the floor we come across a big question mark about what hides under the car, which is often difficult to spot (a rare case was in Monaco, when the cranes that lifted the crashed cars have revealed these details).

New spec of McLaren MCL60 (Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images)

Old spec of McLaren MCL60 (Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images)

As you can see in the comparison between the updated car (driven by Norris) and the old one (in the hands of Oscar Piastri), the biggest change between the two versions is that the floor cut near the rear wheels has been removed: this allows a greater seal of the floor itself against possible draughts of high pressure air right from its side edges.

But then why was the MCL60 - as well as many of its rivals - equipped with that cut? Well, to give an answer you have to think that in current single-seaters the underfloor generates such an amount of aerodynamic load as to suck the entire car to the ground, triggering the infamous porpoising. From this point of view, having a floor cut that alleviates the pressure difference between above and below the floor means giving up the maximum possible value of downforce, but as an advantage you get greater control over the vehicle stability.

Having given up this tool means for McLaren to be confident enough about the possibility of avoiding porpoising even in conditions of maximum downforce: if used well, this is no small advantage!

The MCL60 switches to waterslides like Aston Martin and Alpine!

Even if the sidepods make a minor contribution to downforce generation than the floor, we have to report a radical change of aero philosophy by McLaren in this area.

Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

Abandoning the Red Bull style sloping-sidepods concept, the Woking team converted to a philosophy typical of Aston Martin and Alpine: that of "waterslides". In fact, there are now two tunnels which, running along the upper area of the sidepods, convey the flows towards the central area of both the diffuser and the overlying beam wing - in an attempt to increase the aerodynamic efficiency of these two important components.

New spec of McLaren MCL60 (Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images)

Old spec of McLaren MCL60 (Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images)

The redesign of such a large volume of the car has also made changes necessary in the area of the sidepod inlets, which are now wider and more flattened: in contrast with what was expressed above, this single improvement follows what Red Bull did on their RB19 in occasion of the Azerbaijan GP.

Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

An extra advantage lies in being able to increase the so-called undercut, in which channeling more air means feeding the diffuser with a greater quantity of energy: as it's easy to imagine, this translates into more downforce!

More rounded diffuser edges prevent flow separation

Other innovations concern the diffuser, modified in the profile that connects the vertical plates to the "roof" of the same.

Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

As can be seen in the image above, these edges are now rounded; on Piastri's car, on the other hand, they were much more sharp... What are the advantages of both approaches?

• A diffuser with sharp edges makes it possible to exploit all the space made available by the Technical Regulations to try to expand the airflow coming from the underfloor, maximizing in theory the aerodynamic load produced;
• A diffuser with rounded edges gives up part of the available volume (aiming for slightly lower downforce values), but helps a lot in reducing the risk of airflow separation. This phenomenon would be detrimental, because it would make the vehicle highly unstable in transient conditions;

At the other end of the spectrum to what was chosen for the floor side edges, in the area of the diffuser McLaren engineers want to keep a legitimate safety margin (think that Red Bull was doing the same until a couple of races ago...).

Minor changes to the mirrors and to the Halo fairing

To conclude, we would like to point out that two other detailed modifications have also been introduced to Austria, in the cockpit area:

• The mirrors have been revised: now they no longer feature profiles above and below the structural part, like what was done by Mercedes;
• The Halo fairing has been modified in its "trailing edge": you can now see two more marked vertical deflectors, whose purpose is probably to direct the turbulent airflow generated in the cockpit towards the abovementioned waterslides;

What else to expect from the remaining 50% of undisclosed updates?

Between Silverstone and the Hungaroring we'll see the introduction of the remaining half of the updates "promised" by Team Principal Andrea Stella. The big absentees from what we have seen so far are the two wings: it's likely that the front wing in particular will see changes aimed at improving the overall balance of the single-seater, which after the innovations analyzed still has a lot to discover.