Ahead of a landmark moment for the team, as it prepares to put its 2024 car in its new wind tunnel for the first time, the squad still wants to eke out one final effort for its current MCL60.
For beyond bespoke low-drag solutions that will be needed for high-speed tracks like Monza and Las Vegas later this year, team principal Andrea Stella says that there are further improvements to come to help it build on recent podium finishes in Britain and Hungary.
“We are working on an evolution of these concepts for post shutdown,” he said. “There is another kind of round [of changes to] the bodywork and floor.
“We still have to sign this off, and we have a few more days of work, but if we are successful, then we will definitely attempt to bring it in one of the events soon after the shutdown.”
Despite the big step forward that McLaren made with its most recent upgrade, Stella is cautious about building too many expectations for the next step.
Although the recent upgrade delivered more than even McLaren was expecting, he is well aware that the next one may not produce as much as hoped.
“I think we kind of understand what happened with this one, but what we are working on is not only simple millimetres, it is a bit of a conceptual evolution,” he said,
“So, there's a degree of uncertainty with aerodynamic evolutions. And, really, the evidence comes only when you test these kinds of things trackside, because even if you have a good wind tunnel correlation, and good CFD correlation, you're always a little bit on the edge of knowledge. And I think this is the same for every team.”
The final work on the 2023 car comes as McLaren prepares to put a first version of its 2024 challenger in its new wind tunnel at Woking.
Source: Autosport