P1racenews AI automatic summary:
McLaren says addressing low downforce F1 phenomenon now a priority
The McLaren team has made significant progress this season with their MCL60 car and has emerged as a consistent challenger to Red Bull in recent races. However, their performance at the Las Vegas Grand Prix revealed that their rivals are better prepared in low downforce configurations. As the calendar includes more circuits that necessitate high-speed demands, McLaren cannot afford to ignore this aspect of development. Team boss Andrea Stella admitted that their data showed a bigger loss in competitiveness compared to their competitors in low downforce trim. The emergence of high-speed street tracks like Baku and Vegas means that teams can no longer ignore low downforce performance. McLaren has been focusing on developing their car for these circuits, in addition to medium and high downforce setups. The aerodynamics of cars become extremely sensitive at low downforce levels, particularly due to the impact of lower front wing levels on the front wheels’ wake. Stella revealed that rather than a linear loss of downforce, there’s a point at which it is lost more than linearly, and they are working to bring it back to a linear loss. For the Las Vegas GP, McLaren had an ultra-low downforce specification ready with just one beam wing element, but they chose not to use it due to the low grip track surface.
