When McLaren revealed its new Formula 1 car last month, the team was pretty open that it had been quite aggressive with its design.
Believing that it needed to make a step in performance if it was to build on its 2024 success, it felt a revolution rather than an evolution was needed over the car that had already helped it win the constructors’ championship last year.
But while the team has patted itself on the back for being brave in its approach, and its work seems to have paid off so far based on how the MCL39 shone in testing, not everyone is totally convinced by what it has done.
In fact, Red Bull technical director Pierre Wache made an eyebrow-raising observation in Bahrain - in suggesting that McLaren may have taken a bit of a gamble with its front suspension.
Speaking to The Race, Wache said: “The suspension of the McLaren is very interesting – in terms of kinematics. And one aspect is the anti-dive. It is very high.
“It is quite a risky kinematic for me. If they can make it work, it will be interesting.”
Asked what he meant by it being risky, Wache said: “In terms of the load on the suspension legs and everything.”
The Race’s Rosario Giuliana has cast his eye over the McLaren to offer his take on the changes it's made.
A risk too far?
Rosario Giuliana
McLaren showed at the Bahrain test that it still has the best car on the grid. The MCL39 especially impressed with its race pace, clearly faster and more consistent than rivals Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull.
The Woking team completed 381 laps without any major issues, even trying out two different rear wing configurations on a car that was already pretty distinct from its previous MCL38.
It is clear that the team’s focus over the winter was to build a single-seater that was a more extreme version of its 2024 challenger. The goal of Andrea Stella's team of engineers was to keep the strengths of last year’s car while removing some of its weaknesses.
The strengths were aplenty because, ever since the Miami Grand Prix, the MCL38 had often been the fastest car – particularly in race conditions.
Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris enjoyed a car that was the most balanced of the lot in different layout and temperature conditions. In the second half of each race, the McLaren was almost always the best on race pace, and it did not have any standout vices.
If you were to pick out any ‘weak’ points, it was probably only a lack of straightline speed that held it back at some circuits. The MCL38 often had to use configurations with less downforce - using a lighter beam wing with only one aerofoil - to make up for this.
It's clear McLaren was not afraid to make some extreme changes – and one of the areas where it's been bold is indeed the front suspension that has caught Wache’s attention.
While it has remained with the pullrod configuration, there has been a total repositioning of the two wishbones and steering arms. This has triggered an aggressive anti-dive choice.
And it is this layout that Wache thinks could pose some risks – with the anti-dive layout perhaps exposing the individual suspension components to much greater structural forces than a more normal suspension layout would have.
This could pose headaches in terms of opening up potential reliability problems, but also perhaps require compromises in needing to bulk up individual components to make sure they are strong enough. That has weight consequences.
The extreme anti-dive is not the only peculiarity of the car, as the entire suspension design has undergone changes in both kinematics and aerodynamics.
The suspension legs have been moved slightly forward, while the steering track rod has been moved to the centre of the lower wishbone.
McLaren has also reshaped the rear suspension, where one of the wishbone legs has a double slope.
The whole rear end of the car has been updated from an aerodynamic point of view, too, mainly to reduce drag and allow more downforce on the rear wing.
Changing the concept
Since the arrival of the current ground effect cars in 2022, their behaviour has become increasingly difficult for engineers to predict.
Things have not been helped by the fact that windtunnel and computer simulations cannot accurately replicate how the cars actually perform out on track.
Teams have all too often found that upgrades that seemed to deliver decent numbers back at base did not work as hoped when fitted to the actual cars.
Even Red Bull found itself struggling to get to grips with its concept last year after making some big changes. The RB20 had taken many aerodynamic concepts to extremes, even changing the position of the internal cooling, in order to maintain the big advantage the team had enjoyed in 2023.
Red Bull’s experience will act as a warning to McLaren about the dangers of heading down a different route, but it is also true that McLaren's strength in recent years has been in being able to bring upgrades that have always delivered the desired results in terms of speed.
Indeed, sometimes the results on track have delivered more than expected – which was especially true in Miami when its upgrade unleashed far more potential than it anticipated.
So it's not surprising that McLaren again believes itself to be able to stay on the right side of the risk-reward spectrum in this rules era.
