McLaren MCL33 nose and front wing, Circuit de Catalunya, 2018

McLaren reveals radical new nose for MCL33

2018 Spanish Grand Prix

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McLaren has revealed a radical new nose design for its MCL33 ahead of this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix.

In a major departure from its previous design the new nose features a trio of vents at the front and vertical fins which extend to the onboard camera housings in front of the rear suspension. A horizontal plane sweeps out from beneath the wing.

The team is looking to make a significant step forward as Fernando Alonso estimated they are up to two seconds per lap slower than the front runners.

“If you take the first qualifyings over the year so far in Q2 times, that we [were] eliminated in all four races, we were 1.8-2.0 seconds behind. That’s my estimation, I don’t know how much they push in Q2, so maybe it is a little bit more or a little bit less, depends on the circuit.

“We have been in power-sensitive circuits so far in the first four races to I think here, Monaco, we see a different picture of different teams. They’re moving around, so hopefully McLaren is one of those that picks up a little bit of pace.

“And, as I said, Spain brings a lot of updates for all of the teams. Some of them they work better, some of them, they need a little bit more time. So, hopefully on that we can benefit somehow as well.”

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McLaren MCL33 nose and front wing, Circuit de Catalunya, 2018
McLaren MCL33 nose and front wing, Circuit de Catalunya, 2018

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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28 comments on “McLaren reveals radical new nose for MCL33”

  1. Looks like a clown fish. Hope it works.

    1. Looks like a front wing that wants to make out with other front wings.

      1. One 2nd thought…. it looks exactly like the face of E.T !!!

        1. Looks like a sausage dog, having sausage doggy style sex.

        2. @todfod

          ha ha let’s make it stick

  2. Why is this story tagged ‘McLaren Honda’? :-)

    1. Good catch.
      I think as soon as one hears Fernando give excuses of ‘power sensitive tracks’, one thinks he is referring to Honda ;)

  3. This is indeed radical. Not really pretty but if it works then good for them! Lots of new shapes in there, curious to have some technical analysis on that.

  4. What i only care about is mclaren, this team has been a midtable team for the least 3 seasons, this is not acceptable at all, they posted a pic thag that new parts have arrived.
    Until i see significant gains towards redbull im gonna hold my horses because the team as it is now is not acceptable at all, and some heads need to change especially at top management, a team with legendary status look at where they are, totally unacceptable….!!!!!

    1. I’d love to be proven wrong but I think it’s going to take a lot more than a new nose to turn that McLaren into any kind of threat to Red Bull Racing.

      1. this is not acceptable from a legendary team, to become this bad, to become a midtable team, man how can they sleep at night???? even

        1. Look at Williams and how far they’ve fallen.

    2. You should not *only* care about your team; this is part of what makes F1 so “emotional”, sometimes you’re up, but most times (F1 history-wide) you’re not.

  5. I think the bargeboards are where they are lacking the most.

    1. They’ve updated those too. An extra turning vane and an extra slot.

  6. Platypus bill. I like it, quite distinct, after watchin 6 hours of same car diferent livery Spa, some f1 is in need.

  7. Ah! You can always trust McLaren to produce the weirdest aerodynamic winglets, Devices, sorry, Devices!
    Great!

  8. I really like it, hope it works.

  9. That’s more like the McLaren I know. Pushing boundaries and coming up with different and unusual concepts in pursuit of performance. That was why I became a McLaren fan in the first place.

    Yeah, it might turn out to be useless but at least they’re trying again.

    1. They did the size zero which………didnt help at all.

  10. i would love to ask the management at mclaren, how can they even sleep at night seeing this team 3rd year in a row midtable, not even close to 4th best team even, being so slow vs their rivals, how can they even sleep???

    1. Not even close to 4th best? I suggest you look at the race pace rather than qualifying.

      1. Even being 4th and fightinf for 10th and 9th place during the race, they are very slow, and the difference ferrari was huge last time, 1.6 sec off the pace in baku

  11. Aesthetically I don’t love it, but who the hell cares. If this works I will worship the damn thing.

    1. I’m sure it has a great personality.

  12. it is is extremely unlikely to gain them the two seconds that they need but meh, at least they are doing something.

  13. The general shape of the nose is now looking very much like 2014 Ferrari.

    And I don’t see anything specially innovative or radical about this. It’s just putting more and more additional winglets for the sake of modifying/stabilizng the airflow.
    They could just cut to the chase already and make the cars look like egg slicers – with the whole car covered with parallel plates directing the entirety of the airflow the way it is desired.
    https://www.ikea.com/ca/en/images/products/slat-egg-slicer-yellow__0150775_PE308847_S4.JPG

  14. When you put Force India’s nostril and Red Bull’s teapot nose together.

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