The contradicting situation McLaren faces in F1 2021

So what can a resurgent McLaren Formula 1 team achieve when it returns to Mercedes power in 2021?

That’s one of the many fascinating questions that have yet to be answered as we head into a fascinating season that is below the sport’s first budget cap, against the backdrop of new aero test restrictions, and with the massive challenge of the 2022 rules looming on the horizon .

Under the leadership of Team Principal Andreas Seidl and Technical Director James Key, the team has made real progress in all areas over the past few seasons.

The team has regained the confidence that was so lacking in the Honda era and the numbers speak for themselves.

After a disastrous ninth place in the Constructors’ Championship in 2017 – the final year with Honda – McLaren made steady progress in his three years at Renault, advancing from sixth to fourth to third in 2020.

In the meantime, more pieces of the puzzle have come together. The move to Mercedes dispels all doubts on the engine side and brings the team on a par with the world championship team.

Meanwhile, the new Daniel Ricciardo brings the extra knowledge and confidence that being a race winner brings along with an optimistic personality that will help maintain the positive atmosphere the team has with the partnership between Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz created.

The challenge for McLaren now is to keep the momentum that has built – and head into the new world of 2022 in the best possible position.

It is clear, however, that repeating third place won’t be easy either, as Aston Martin, Alpine and a converted Ferrari will all be in the mix, as the team knows.

“First of all, it was of course a great achievement for us to be P3 last year,” says Seidl.

“This year we are again assuming a very tough battle with all the competitors we fought with last year.

“We have Lando in F1 for the third year now. We have Daniel on board, who is an important reference in this sport.

“We have the masterful drivetrain in the rear of our car. It is clear that we want to get closer to the cars in front of us, the Mercedes and the Red Bull cars, which we also managed last year.

“And at the same time we will give everything until the last lap in Abu Dhabi. I think there is a lot of optimism. And we have to be realistic. And that’s how we see it.”

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CEO Zak Brown agrees that the focus is not so much on championship positions as on closing the performance gap with Mercedes and Red Bull.

In view of the plan to fight for race wins and titles again, looking ahead instead of sideways – or even backwards – is a logical approach.

Many see Aston Martin as the obvious benchmark for McLaren, given its proximity in last year’s championship and joint engine supplier.

“Well, we’re going to keep an eye on all the competition,” says Brown. “I think it would be naive to underestimate the competition. It was so close last year.

“Our goal is therefore to close the gap forwards. We are not focused on a specific team or who has which drive unit. We want to be the best among the customer teams. ” [but] We have one goal in mind and that is to close the gap to the top of the field. “

When the pandemic broke out last year, McLaren was one of the teams pushing hardest for a lower cost cap, which wasn’t much of a surprise given the financial pressures it was under.

The switch and downward glide path for 2022 and ’23 pushed McLaren over the limit, and the team had to make changes accordingly – albeit far fewer than at Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari.

“The FIA ​​and the teams and Formula 1 have worked continuously to define and regulate them,” says Brown.

McLaren MCL35M

Photo by: McLaren

“I’m sure there will be insights from the first year and it won’t be perfect, I think they will get it right.

“And I think it will do what we hope for, which is a level playing field. We spent above the cap before so we had to make some adjustments to get the handful of others up.

“I think there will be a lot to learn this year, but I think the discrepancies will be pretty small. We will learn, we will move on. The most important thing is that Andreas and James and the team have the full resources to work.” the cap.

“So it’s clear that spending on the cap, which is focused on overall performance, is the goal. And I’m confident that the cap on the sport will do what we hoped for.”

The cap will fill the financial gap, but McLaren has some catching up to do in other areas. Seidl emphasizes that the team is still in the development phase after getting lost in the early years of the hybrid era.

“There is a lot of positive energy in the team this season,” he says.

“Of course we will again have one of the strongest drivers in the paddock in terms of driver line-up and the championship engine in the back of the car.

“But don’t forget, like Zak said, the fight we were in last year. We have a lot of respect for these competitors we fought with last year.

“We are fighting against full factory teams who have a much more modern infrastructure than we currently have.

“That’s why we can start the season with optimism. At the same time, however, we also have to be realistic about what is possible. We just need more time to make sure we implement our plan as we want to do it back to the front in F1. “

Commuting to the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne while the new in-house facility is being built is one of the main compromises McLaren is currently facing.

“We need more time to build up our infrastructure in order to be at eye level with the teams here and also with some of the people around us,” says Seidl.

“The biggest topic is of course the wind tunnel, it will take around two years before we can actually see the first advantages of this new wind tunnel, which is crucial on the development side of the racing car. And until then we just have limits. “

“At the same time, I think that we can still take steps as a team under the current circumstances, in the current situation. We are working on that.

“We want to get closer to Mercedes and Red Bull again. These steps are the key to getting back to the top at some point.”

This has been an extremely challenging winter for all F1 teams. Freezing mechanical elements took some pressure off, but in McLaren’s case, changing engine suppliers created a lot of extra work, and all changes had to be made within the confines of the FIA’s token system.

The usual year-on-year aerodynamics were influenced by the significant reductions in downforce imposed by the FIA.

The new aero test restrictions present an additional challenge. After finishing third in 2020, McLaren gains a bit of wind tunnel time and CFD usage compared to Mercedes and Red Bull, but loses to Aston, Alpine and especially Ferrari, at least until they are hired based on current championship positions as of June 30th.

With the 2021 and 2022 programs running in parallel, every tunnel trip is valuable, and the ATR rules will become even more important over the next year as the gap between team positions doubles.

In other words, a good championship result in 2021 leads to a loss of development potential in 2022.

“I think we’re going to accept that if you land high up, you will be penalized a little for wind tunnel time in the future. That’s part of the game now,” says Key.

“I suppose it might have a little impact on how we split ’21 and ’22. But it won’t dictate how we do that. I think we’re going to do a similar program and timing and number of weeks. ” every car as originally planned.

“It will probably have changed slightly what we would have done if we had been seventh or eighth and had a lot more runs where we could have done this split a little differently.

“It’s going to be a challenging year as the cost cup is there in every way to try and drive these two cars together. But of course it’s the same for every team.”

Like other teams with great ambition, McLaren sees 2022 as an opportunity to change the established order and preparation for the new rules must remain a focus.

The challenge is to juggle that longer-term ambition without sacrificing hard results in 2021.

“On our part, we simply want to be competitive this year,” says Seidl. So that’s kind of a decision that we have to make live after the first races about how long we will continue to develop this year’s car.

“I think it is important for our trip to have a good season this year in order to maintain this positive dynamic. At the same time, however, it is important not to lose sight of the big picture.

“In the next few years we just want to close the gap to the teams in front of us, we want to be able to fight for race wins again for a few years.

“And for that it is important to use the new regulations of ’22, which represent a big change, as an opportunity. And that’s where we are right now.”