McLaren rolled out a fairly extensive update at the French Grand Prix to support their battle with Ferrari for the rest of Formula 1 this year.
The first of these changes was to the front of the MCL35M, as McLaren finally saw fit to adopt the chassis “horns” we’ve been using from other teams for a while.
Those introduced by McLaren have a resemblance to those made by Mercedes, rather than the multi-element variants seen elsewhere such as Ferrari or Alfa Romeo.
These winglets help redirect the flow of air flowing past that area to improve the performance of the flow moving along the car.
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At this point in the season, McLaren has a better grip on the cooling needs of its Mercedes engine and has decided to slim down the cooling outlet at the rear of the car for aerodynamic benefits.
To compensate for this, the team has the option of opening the cooling panels next to the cockpit, which is what McLaren did in France and which were easy to spot because they were made of raw carbon rather than painted parts.
The fairings were only found on the left side of the car, suggesting that the components in this side pod need a little more cooling support than the right side.
At the rear of the car, the team made significant changes to the design of the rear wing end plates, opting for a horizontal set of louvers where slots would normally be found to create strakes.
McLaren MCL35M tailgate panel detail
Photo by: Giorgio Piola
The panel with these louvers appears to be almost a mirror image of that in the top section of the endplate, with the louvers bent up rather than down as the airflow is moved outward rather than inward.
Ferrari optimized wing
Ferrari SF21 front wing comparison
Photo by: Giorgio Piola
Ferrari arrived at the French Grand Prix with a redesigned front wing assembly that featured numerous subtle changes.
The newer spec wing is the top of the two in the picture and shows how the flat section of the footplate has been removed, increasing the width of the arch, changing the shape, speed, and direction of the vortex created.
In the meantime, the ratio of the adjustable flaps has also been changed, with the adjuster moved further out, which means that more of the top two flaps are affected when a flap adjustment is made.
This would allow the team to trim the car a little more to improve vehicle balance, at the expense of airflow over and around the front tire in the outermost section.
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Ferrari also changed its rear wing at the French Grand Prix, with the lower rear area of the end plate being cut back significantly (blue arrow).
Magic button protective cover
Mercedes AMG F1 W12 steering wheel back protection, French GP
Photo by: Giorigo Piola
Mercedes decided to make a small change to its steering wheels in France to avoid repeating the problem that Lewis Hamilton faced when the Azerbaijan Grand Prix restarted.
As you can see in the inset, Mercedes put in button protectors to prevent the button from being accidentally pressed, which from now on requires a more deliberate push of a button to trigger the braking magic.
AlphaTauri push
Alpha Tauri AT2 soil comparison
Alpha Tauri continued to seek performance for the AT02 as it introduced a new floor for the French Grand Prix.
During the updates, the area in front of the rear tire was taken into account, because an additional flap was added where there was previously a single flap above the scrolled floor section.
However, this is shorter than the previous version, as an additional strake has now been added to the bottom edge (red arrow), which also shortens the scrolled section.
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AlphaTauri AT02 new front wing end plate with arrow details, French GP
Photo by: Giorgio Piola
AlphaTauri had introduced a new front wing at the Spanish Grand Prix that changed several aspects of the overall design, including a revision of the shape of the wing tips, the stripes on the underside of the wing and the shape of the footplate.
The footplate has been squared, which means that the shape of the surface leading to the cavity in the footplate has also been changed.
Yuki Tsunoda’s car, which was lifted off after his accident at the French Grand Prix, also gave us a great view of this area of the wing from below (below).
You will notice that the footplate has a stripe in the middle (red arrow), while the airflow flowing through the cavity appears to be directed into a channel machined into the side of the lower part of the endplate.
AlphaTauri AT02 front wing detail
Photo by: Uncredited
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