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What's gone wrong for McLaren?

  • mallikarull
  • Mar 22, 2023
  • 3 min read

Updated: Aug 2, 2023

The start of the 2023 season has nothing less that disappointing for McLaren as they celebrate the 60th season in the sport. The MCL60 has proven itself to be a challenge, as the team find themselves at the bottom of the driver and constructor standings.

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After a downhearted launch in Woking back in February, Team Principal Andrea Stella made his feelings clear that he is not “entirely happy” with the launch specification of their 2023 challenger.

Early signs of trouble…

Bahrain gave a look into the troubling season ahead for the team, with the non-threatening lap times and the car not braking and turning in as well as the other cars on the grid.

During a press conference, CEO Zak Brown commented on the challenges with the MCL60. Brown stated the challenges are due to missing key development targets.

Andreas Stella later went into more details on these missing key developments, Andreas stated that "Last year, we had some clear objectives in terms of development," he said. "They had to do with aerodynamic efficiency; some development related to the exploitation of the tyres, and also some other objectives to improve the balance.


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"The reality is that most of these objectives have actually been met. But the objective in terms of aerodynamic efficiency of the car, that's the one where we are still shy of what was our target."

Issues with the car seem to be with the aerodynamic efficiency , which has resulted in too much drag at a set downforce level. This opposes want teams want, which is to maximise downforce for corners and minimise drag for good speed. The issued with having a car with too much drag, is not only the cars lack of pace on the straights, but the compromises the team have to make, such as reducing wing angles to compensate for the lack of pace.

The season so far…

McLaren have as expected had a tough start to the season. Bahrain saw reliability issues for both drivers. Piastri had to retire due to electrical issues that the team weren’t able to recover with a new steering wheel. Stella later stated that issues were further down the steering column.

"The electronic damage was further down the line around the steering column. So, the steering wheel wasn't the problem. It was a problem with the harness probably. We are investigating. [It was] Not fixable in a short time."


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Norris stayed out on track despite having a pressure leek with engine pneumatics, which forced the driver to pit every 10 laps so mechanics could refill the system.

Jeddah was next on the calendar, another poor performance for the team. A tough start to the race for Piastri after a promising qualifying session, where he qualified P9. Contact at the start with the Alpine of Pierre Gasly meant Piastri had to go straight to the pits with front wing damage, followed by his teammate Lando Norris after he made contact with the debris on track.

Stella seemed confident after Jeddah for a bounce back, stating "We're racers, we take these things on the chin, and we will be even more determined to succeed when we get to Australia. Before we go to Melbourne, we know we have work to do to improve our car, and that will be our immediate focus”.

Looking ahead…

Stella suggested that the current car reflects where the car was two or three months ago, realising the changes that needed to be made too late.
“We realised probably late that there were some development directions that had more potential in terms of development rate and also in terms of development over a longer period,”, confessed Stella.

McLaren are hopeful to bring the ‘real McLaren’ to Baku with new upgrades ready for Azerbaijan Grand Prix at the end of April and is said to be a revision with a lot of lap time potential. The teams’ targets being to challenge the big four in the championship.

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