F1 News: McLaren Upgrades Haven't Brought Complete Fix for Current Issues

Alex Harrington | May 3, 2024

Nov 17, 2023; Las Vegas, Nevada, USA; McLaren F1 Team driver Oscar Piastri of Australia (81) during / Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports

Despite introducing a series of new upgrades at the Miami Grand Prix, McLaren has acknowledged that these changes have not entirely resolved their issues in slow-speed corners. The team faces ongoing challenges as they attempt to find the right balance in their car's performance for drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.

Entering the fifth race of the F1 season, the Woking-based outfit is seeing a good upswing in performance with British driver Norris scoring two podium finishes so far in their 2024 campaign. Despite this, as the Miami Grand Prix race weekend begins, team principal Andrea Stella has admitted that its slew of technical changes hasn't fully tackled the persistent slow-speed corner handling problem.

The McLaren upgrades are substantial this weekend, with a new front wing and front suspension, a change to its sidepod intakes and engine cover, and a small change to the rear suspension, as well. But these are only going so far, according to the Italian.

"Not to the entirety that we would have wished," Stella said on his upgrades fixing their current issues. “There are some more specific upgrades that we need to deliver for low-speed-specific."

The challenge, according to Stella, is balancing the car's low-speed and high-speed performance, a common difficulty in ground effect cars. This year's car dynamics are particularly sensitive because of their reliance on maintaining optimal ride height to maximize the under-car vacuum.

"I think that achieving a good compromise between the low-speed and high-speed is difficult with every kind of car, and for different specific reasons," Stella explained. “Normally one reason is ride height because even the previous generation of cars were achieving a level of ground effect, but these cars are much more reliant on ground effect.

“So for this car it is much more an element of the distance to the ground and how you manage what’s happening in the floor, around the floor and under the floor.”

"So for this car it is much more an element of the distance to the ground and how you manage what’s happening in the floor, around the floor and under the floor,” he added.

For the Miami Grand Prix, McLaren chose to equip Lando Norris with the full range of upgrades, while Oscar Piastri’s MCL38 received only half in the shape of the front wing. Despite this disparity, the team believed that effective communication between the upgraded parts would still demonstrate a clear improvement in vehicle performance.

Being a Sprint Weekend with only one practice session, it's going to be tough for McLaren to fully utilize their upgrades, so it's likely we'll see the full potential of the car not this weekend, but at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix later this month.