Lando Norris, McLaren, Losail International Circuit, 2021

McLaren has “20% more work” in progress than usual to complete 2022 car

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In the round-up: McLaren says preparing its new car for the 2022 F1 season requires more effort than usual due to the drastic change in technical regulations.

In brief

McLaren managing increased workload for 2022 car to finish “as late as possible”

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McLaren operations director Piers Thynne says the team is having to work harder than usual to ensure the new MCL36 is ready to run in the first test at the Circuit de Catalunya later this month.

“This year, when compared to those previous years, we’re running hotter, with a little over 20% more work in progress across the factory and our supply chain,” said Thynne. “The product is of similar complexity but all of it is new: there are very, very few bits of carryover.”

The team is producing fewer spare parts than usual as it plans to introduce an upgrade at the first race in Bahrain next month. “We are very keen to be as late as possible and as lean on stock as we can be, to ensure there is opportunity to deliver upgrades in sync for race one,” said Thynne. “The layout of the programme is fundamentally different for the ’36 compared to previous cars.

“The programme is difficult, and when you factor in the constraint of the cost cap on top of a significant engineering and manufacturing challenge, that’s when you really have to rely on great teamwork, great collaboration and a total laser focus on achieving targets.”

Ferrari predict F1 sponsorship revenue dip in 2022

Ferrari has reported a 23% year-on-year increase in revenues for the car manufacturer, including its F1 division. However in its guidance for 2022 the team said its expected revenues from F1 reflect “more diversified but lower sponsorship, partially offset by better prior year ranking”.

The team rose from sixth to third in the championship last year. Its long-running sponsorship deal with tobacco manufacturer Philip Morris International was not renewed at the end of last season, though it has announced the return of former sponsor Santander, four years since they parted ways.

Mercedes and Verstappen nominated in Laureus Sport Awards

Max Verstappen has been nominated as one of the sportspeople of the year and Mercedes’ Formula 1 team as one of the teams of the year at the Laureus sports awards. Verstappen was previously nominated for breakthrough of the year, in 2016 and Mercedes has received 8 nominations over the years, winning team of the year in 2021.

W Series looking to younger drivers for Arizona test

As W Series completes its Arizona testing session in the search for new talent, series CEO Catherine Bond-Muir said in a press call that it is looking towards drivers earlier in their career, for its third season.

“The drivers [in Arizona] this week are on average, a lot younger than the drivers that we’ve seen before. So that’s really important because we want to start picking up the younger drivers,” Bond-Muir explained. “We’ve had a driver who just turned 16 this week, for example – if she doesn’t make it through this week, and I have no idea whether she is or not, she’ll be certainly someone that we carry on looking at.”

Bond-Muir said that progress for the drivers had been clear over the course of two testing days. “I’m pleased to say that there was a big improvement in a lot of the times today, which I think is fantastic, it demonstrates that they’re all learning.

“What we’re really looking for is talent,” Bond-Muir continued “The whole point about W Series is we want to find the girls who, ultimately, will be propelled into the higher echelons of motorsport and by definition, will be racing against the men. But we don’t want W Series drivers to go into the other series and to be at the back. We want them to be highly competitive.”

Former F1 driver Chilton to develop McMurtry Spéirling

Max Chilton, who drove for Marussia in F1 in 2013 and 2014 before moving to Indy Lights and IndyCar with Carlin and Ganassi, has been announced as the development driver for the McMurtry Spéirling sports car. Chilton will be tasked with driving the bespoke car, which has a fan-driven downforce system which can change the car’s ground effect aerodynamics on demand.

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Comment of the day

After Alfa Romeo revealed it will run a testing livery in Barcelona, Adam brings up the way testing liveries can make the eventual, less creative, reveal somewhat disappointing.

I don’t like testing liveries because usually the testing livery is really nice and actually more interesting to look at than the actual launch one. Like that one in the image is super pretty! A lot more character than the very bland and very corporate mostly-white and red one.
@rocketpanda

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Brawngp!

On this day in motorsport

Jules Bianchi, Paul di Resta, Nico Hulkenberg, Force India VJM05 launch, Silverstone, 2012
Race drivers Paul di Resta and Nico Hulkenberg plus tester Jules Bianchi presented Force India’s VJM05 today in 2012

Author information

Hazel Southwell
Hazel is a motorsport and automotive journalist with a particular interest in hybrid systems, electrification, batteries and new fuel technologies....

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1 comments on “McLaren has “20% more work” in progress than usual to complete 2022 car”

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    Jere (@jerejj)
    3rd February 2022, 7:45

    Nice insight on Mclaren’s progress – I’m sure all teams will survive & be ready.

    I share COTD’s view slightly. Testing liveries can occasionally be more creative than regular ones.

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