McLaren 2021 will in fact be a 60% new car: the Woking team has obtained from the FIA the possibility to thoroughly review the MCL35 to adopt the Mercedes engine instead of the Renault one, despite the rules require other teams to use the car from last year.
After the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, F1 had decided to extend the life of the 2020 cars by one year in order to cool development costs due to the drastic drop in revenues due to the GPs held behind closed doors and in a a much smaller number.
Each team can modify their F1 by spending two development tokens for major updates, while McLaren can rely on more significant interventions to house the Mercedes power unit, as the deal with the Star was signed before the limitations took effect. .
It is therefore not surprising that the McLaren is a single-seater with a brand new chassis: the MCL35 M will be very different from the car that finished the Constructors’ World Championship in third place and if it goes strong it will certainly spark controversy as it did, for others. reasons, last year with Racing Point.
“While the other teams will transfer most of their car from last year to 2021 – explained Piers Thynne, McLaren production manager -, our switch to the Mercedes engine has allowed us more important interventions”.
“The adoption of the different power unit has led to a huge amount of changes and, basically, we have built a new machine. The number of new parts introduced on the MCL35 M is more or less the same as when we built the MCL35”.
“The rear of the frame and the gearbox housing around the engine have changed significantly to accommodate the new powertrain.”
“Changing the engine significantly alters the architecture of the car and the packaging of the power unit: the entire cooling system and all the pipes have changed, as have all the electrical wiring and control units”.
The FIA, in fact, has created a list of parts called TCO (Transitional Carry Over) that allow them to be used without impacting the budget cap, because they are already present on last year’s F1.
“We tried to make the most of these TCO parts to transfer as much as possible of what we had available, such as the gearbox gear and some suspension components so we didn’t add to the costs for their design and production.”
McLaren homologated the MCL35M in December, while drivers Lando Norris and newcomer Daniel Ricciardo will test it for the first time during pre-season testing in March in Bahrain.
The team’s focus has now shifted to designing the 2022 car as aerodynamic research for ground-effect single-seaters reopened on January 1.
Thynne explained that McLaren was “able to get started” with wind tunnel work for F1 2022.
“We are at the beginning and the focus is mainly on aerodynamic research – said Thynne -. As aerodynamic concepts mature, we will make more and more parts for wind tunnel tests. These tests are very important: it’s about discriminating what works and what doesn’t, to define the machine with the best solutions “.
“You have to aim high if you want to find performance with a new regulation and there is always time to go back to more conservative solutions if they don’t work. The goal is to get back to fighting for the top of the grid.”
