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McLaren is working to develop a new low downforce package in time for the Italian Grand Prix to address an ‘urgent’ issue with the MCL60.
Strong performances in recent races from Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri coincided with the introduction of what effectively amounted to a B-spec car at the Austrian Grand Prix.
But while that saw the baseline performance of the car improve, it retained a number of weaknesses.
According to team boss Andrea Stella, the upgrade saw additional load added to the car, improving medium-speed performance.
Low speed remains a weakness, as does straight-line speed – a point that hurt at the Belgian Grand Prix.
In Spa-Francorchamps, McLaren proved blisteringly quick through the middle third of the lap but would lose time through the first and third sectors.
The opening segment of the lap in Belgium includes La Source, a slow-speed hairpin, and the run through Eau Rouge, Raidillon, and the Kemmel Straight.
The lap ends with the high-speed blast from Stavelot, through Blanchimont, and into the low-speed chicane.
McLaren’s choice of rear wing angle attracted attention in Belgium, with a notably deeper chord than its rivals.
A steeper rear wing offers greater downforce but comes with greater drag.
Stella concedes it was a sub-optimal solution but one which, on balance, was the best given the options available to the team.
“We have definitely improved,” Stella observed.
“I think independently of the rear-wing choice, we would have been very strong in the second sector.
“Even with less rear wing, the car has improved in some areas, this was confirmed, and we take the benefit.
“But at the same time [the Belgian GP] confirmed that the areas that we haven’t addressed yet give us a reality check of that there’s more work to do, and to some extent confirm that those areas, they need to be addressed quite urgently.
“This urgency, for instance, comes from the fact that the second race after shutdown is Monza, and you can’t go racing in Monza like this.
“So there’s urgent work that needs to happen at McLaren to fix the situation.”
That solution is the development of a low downforce package, something the team does not currently have as it invested its early season resources into the Austria upgrade.
Monza and Spa-Francorchamps are outliers, of sorts, on the calendar – few others place quite such an emphasis on top speed.
As such, not having a low downforce package was a prudent move; McLaren played the percentages in developing its Austria update, something that will transfer to most other circuits.
“We could have tried to find some other solution to reduce the drag on the car,” Stella added of the Belgian GP weekend.
“I’m not sure how much efficiency we would have… I mean, we know how much efficiency we would have shed, we would have removed off the car, and it could be that we couldn’t have been able to achieve [second in the F1 Sprint] if we had made this choice.
“For a dry race, you do want to race less drag.
“There’s a correlation between the fact that were focused on the upgrades and then the decision on set-up,” he added.
“The real correlation is the fact that, because we were very busy working on other things, we didn’t have time to work on low drag rear wings. So that’s the real correlation.
“All the rest is not correlated with the fact that we were busy developing the car.”
