MCLARENDISAPPOINTEDIN2023SEASON AFTERBEINGCAUGHTOUTBYREGULATION CHANGES.

By Adam Karacsonyi

After McLaren unveiled its brand new car for the 2023 Formula 1 season, the MCL60, Team Principal Andrea Stella announced its goals for the new single seater series; of ending the season in the top 4 of the Constructors Championship. However, as of March 25, 2023, Mclaren is tied for fifth place in the Constructors Championship with 14 points to the team’s name, trailing 64 points behind Ferrari Team Owner Zak Brown commented on the start of the team, calling it ‘disappointing’. As a result of consistent misdirection while developing the MCL60, McLaren is lagging behind other top constructors by a significant margin

Compared to Ferrari, McLaren has been struggling significantly in terms of straight line speed, with Ferrari’s car bringing them to 1st and 3rd in Bahrain with speeds of 326 6 and 325 2 On the other hand, McLaren is significantly slower, reaching top speeds of 320.2 and 316.8, landing them in 14th and 19th.

It is important to analyze the gap between McLaren and its competitors by different types of data, such as, qualifying sector times, race pace, and race results. The average qualifying position of the McLaren cars this season has been 14.4, although it is important to note that McLaren had an excellent qualification session in Baku, a track where Lando Norris (driver No 3) and Oscar Piastri (driver No.81) started 7th and 10th respectively. If this outlier is not included the average qualifying position is 15.9. An interesting detail to take into account is that McLaren struggles in hard-braking zones and straight sections of the track

Until now, Red Bull has been dominating the 2023 season, winning every single race (as of March 25, 2023), taking advantage of the new regulations from the previous season and developing their car further. Red Bull has implemented a special type of upgrade known as a triple DRS (Drag Reduction System), that uses their rear beam wing as an advantage for higher top-speeds and faster acceleration. McLaren is little more than a second off from reaching Red Bull in qualifying times, however this gap enlarges on high-speed tracks, where downforce is not an important factor

Despite the difference in top speed, Red Bull has created a better all-around car which can be said to be an all-rounder in terms of performance and McLaren simply can not compete against it

While targeting fourth place in the Constructors Championship, McLaren is considerably disappointed with its results so far However, there is a silver lining to the problem at hand, with Andrea Stella reporting that they realized that their concept was going to be affected by the 2023 regulations of raising the height of the floor by 15 mm McLaren was forced to change its design at the last minute and as a result the MCL60 was not ready for the 2023 season. Driver Lando Norris has further confirmed this, commenting that the car will not be as competitive as the team wishes for it to be, with upgrades arriving further down the line The driver also spoke about the weaknesses of the McLaren, discussing that the MCL60 was aerodynamically inefficient compared to the downforce it generates This signifies that the car has too much drag, which refers to the forces that oppose the motion of the object through the air. Second driver Oscar Piastri commented that the car has a lot of understeer, and lacks the much needed turn-in which would compensate for its deficiency of power, allowing drivers to increase power earlier.

Despite McLaren’s poor start to the 2023 season, it is completely possible that the Woking based team can salvage the season with upgrades. The team has already shown massive progress at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, by bringing new upgrades to the floor, an area which was a weakness for the team. The team has announced other upgrades focusing on aerodynamic performance, such as new rear bodywork and a new rear beam wing, in an attempt to reduce the deficit in straight line speed McLaren is striving to become best of the rest again, which it had achieved in 2021, finishing 4th in the Constructors Championship with the MCL35M, a car that was known for its extremely good top-speed As the season progresses McLaren hopes to end the season closer to the top competitors such as Mercedes and Aston Martin, through upgrades that will attempt to shrink the pace deficit