McLaren set top four target as they reveal new F1 car for 2023

21 comments on “McLaren set top four target as they reveal new F1 car for 2023”

1. 

   Qeki (@qeki)
   13th February 2023, 17:24

   I don’t like how these generation of cars look. It’s like there is too much curve and aero on the side. Sponsors don’t look good there
2. 

   Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
   13th February 2023, 17:26

   This colour combination Mclaren uses is absolutely horrendous. Why is that light blue there? I get it they got excited after that special Gulf livery 2 years ago, but everything from there after (including the Formula E and Indycars) is horrible!

   Drop that light blue!
   1. 

      Lee1
      13th February 2023, 18:56

      I actually love the light blue and orange. Too much black though.
3. 

   Jere (@jerejj)
   13th February 2023, 17:28

   Good target, but the outcome isn’t entirely in their hands considering Alpine & AM, especially the former.
   1. 

      MichaelN
      13th February 2023, 18:28

      It is in their hands, though. They need to perform better than those two and they’re pretty much guaranteed that 4th place. It’s not really a great target for a team with such a history of successes in F1, but I suppose they’ve accepted that they can’t compete for the real prizes without their own engine.

      The most interesting thing about McLaren will therefore likely be how well Piastri does compared to Norris. Especially since Norris’ trouncing of Ricciardo has propelled him way up a lot of people’s and outlets’ driver rankings, and Piastri comes into F1 having made short work of the junior categories. Both will be very keen to make their case.
      1. 

         anon
         13th February 2023, 21:47

         MichaelN, I would say that McLaren have had deeper issues in recent years than the engine, and some of those issues are still ongoing.

         After all, their most recent cars have been criticised for having unusual handling traits that have made them difficult for the drivers to maximise their performance. Norris has made some rather pointed criticisms of McLaren’s designers recently, suggesting that they’d made too many compromises in trying to achieve the ultimate peak performance that it meant they could never get a set up that could achieve that peak performance, resulting in the handling balance constantly shifting.

         Additionally, Norris was complaining that, though he’s been able to work around some of those issues over a shorter stint, the odd handling characteristics have caused problems with excessive tyre temperatures and abnormal wear patterns that caused their pace to drop off too rapidly in race trim, ultimately hurting the overall race pace.

         Similarly, McLaren have been talking about the wind tunnel being a limiting factor for development, but whilst they began the upgrade project in 2019, they’ve been running behind schedule. The original plan was to start calibration work in 2021 but, due to the pandemic, in 2021 they then pushed back the start of that calibration work to 2022.

         However, they’ve been continuing to slip further behind schedule since then, with Key now confirming that calibration work is going to be starting later this year, with the hope that it will be fully online by 2024 – with Zak Brown having stated that their 2025 car is probably the earliest one which will see any benefits from those upgrades. Even allowing for some delays due to the pandemic, they’ve still got rather bigger problems to deal with when their major upgrade programme is currently two years behind schedule.
         1. 

            MichaelN
            14th February 2023, 9:24

            Absolutely, these are definitely further problems for the team. The odd characteristics of their cars now go back several years and persisted between very different sets of rules. This points to, perhaps, a combination of a flawed design philosophy and inadequate tools to verify and test the effects certain design choices have on the overall package.
   2. 

      Luke S (@joeypropane)
      13th February 2023, 23:10

      Alpine aren’t going to be anywhere – no customer teams to get extra data on the engine for a start. Also, I like Gasly a lot, but he isn’t going to be pushing development anything like Alonso was.
4. 

   Kris Lord
   13th February 2023, 17:30

   We want an orange car yes? Then make it orange! Every year it seems to get more and more black parts.

   The older orange cars looked much better than this.
   1. 

      eljueta (@eljueta)
      13th February 2023, 17:58

      I agree, either go orange with blue bits or black with orange bits but this doesn’t work at all. And top that with the Google wheels it’s a colourful mess.
5. 

   Dan G (@dang)
   13th February 2023, 17:36

   I was going to mock the launch – since when did a racing car need an Apple-style product launch? – but that was actually pretty good. The film of Bruce McLaren was properly moving. Sometimes an end is just a beginning, indeed.

   I think Norris and Piastri are going to give us a lot of entertainment over the next season.
   1. 

      Spencer (@spencer)
      13th February 2023, 18:11

      F1 Car launches used to be far more over the top than this!
      1. 

         Tifoso1989 (@tifoso1989)
         13th February 2023, 18:40

         Like having the Spice Girls at the launch event.
6. 

   dot_com (@dot_com)
   13th February 2023, 18:23

   The orange is rapidly fading from this color scheme. I think they should go chrome again, since Google Chrome sponsorship is almost covering the entire car!
7. 

   Tifoso1989 (@tifoso1989)
   13th February 2023, 18:34

   I like how McLaren named their car the MCL60 to honour their 60th anniversary. This is a clear departure from the naming convention they have been using since 1981 if I’m not wrong that included the edition number first with MP prefix then MCL. McLaren do have a glorious racing history and I’ve always thought that they need to do more to promote it. I think they are heading in the right direction with that regard.

   As for the car itself it seems to have adopted the RBR style sidepods and kept the front pull-rod rear push-rod suspension schemes. The orange papaya is beautiful but the combination with the blue is just pathetic. They have done the same thing Ferrari did with that stupid green of Mission LoseNow.
   1. 

      MichaelN
      14th February 2023, 9:27

      McLaren do have a glorious racing history and I’ve always thought that they need to do more to promote it.

      Definitely, and it’s been great to see them spread out to different series over the last few years, from GT3 to Indycar and F1.
8. 

   theRealMax (@millionus)
   13th February 2023, 18:35

   Well that didn’t take long for designs to merge..!
   1. 

      The Dolphins
      13th February 2023, 20:20

      It never does when something works (we even saw design homogenization late last season) but the real test will be to see if Mercedes stick with their concept — if they do and it proves successful it may introduce a fork in designs as others will likely be looking to copy Mercedes’ compact cooling systems as well.
9. 

   topo (@vieste)
   13th February 2023, 19:49

   The Google clown colors ruin this car.
   1. 

      ChrisJ (@chriju0411)
      13th February 2023, 20:06

      The “Google clown colors” pay a lot of bills. The car’s colour scheme ruins the car – again.
10. 

    ryanoceros (@ryanoceros)
    13th February 2023, 21:33

    The light blue is ugly, especially with those “page loading” wheel spinners.

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