In their effort to chase down Red Bull, McLaren is introducing improvements to the MCL38 at the Dutch Grand Prix
During the summer shutdown, we made the case that as good as McLaren has been so far this season, they could be even better in the second half of the campaign. Why? While some might point to McLaren ironing out some of the strategic miscues they made during the first half of the year, the deeper reason is that the team brought just one significant upgrade package to the track so far this year, at the Miami Grand Prix. With Team Principal Andrea Stella noting that more were coming, there is room for McLaren to improve even more.
It would seem that process has begun at this weekend’s Formula 1 Dutch Grand Prix.
The sport’s governing body released the “Car Presentation Submissions” from each team on Friday morning, outlining the new components that each team is introducing this weekend. While McLaren is bringing two “circuit-specific” upgrades to Zandvoort — a higher downforce rear wing and a higher downforce beam wing — they are also bringing four general performance upgrades:
INSERT IMAGE
Of these upgrades, the most intriguing might be the revised floor edge. According to the team’s submission, this upgrade “ ... improves both local
load generation around the floor edge as well as flow conditioning improving overall floor performance.”
Albert Fabrega, the brilliant F1 technical analyst, captured a picture of that revised floor edge at Zandvoort:
El nuevo fondo del McLaren con soportes del ala del borde más pequeños
— Albert Fabrega (@AlbertFabrega) August 23, 2024
New McLaren floor with smaller edge wing support brackets#f1 pic.twitter.com/PJybberhCm
These photographs I took from pit lane at the Miami Grand Prix show the previous floor edge. For those reading on Apple News embeds from Threads do not appear automatically, so you can click the link to see the photographs:
Of course, these upgrades all need to work properly for McLaren to live up to the promise of a stronger second half. But if FP1 is any indication, the upgrades might just be clicking for McLaren. Once weather conditions eased, Lando Norris topped the timing sheets ahead of Max Verstappen, with Oscar Piastri in P7.
There is a long way to go, but a solid start for McLaren with the new upgrades.
