Why McLaren's F1 car is so tricky to drive

the esoteric driving style demands of the mclaren mcl 35m has been one of the big talking points of the 2021 formula one season this has been laid bare by daniel ricardo struggles compared to teammate lando norris after joining mclaren at the start of the season it has been a long hard and often fruitless slog for one of f1's most highly rated drivers but what makes the mclaren so difficult to drive and why can't it be sold with setup modifications or car changes and shouldn't ricardo be able to adapt to norris's approach let us know what you think about mclaren season so far and ricardo's struggles in the comments and whether you expect things to change in 2022 norris and former mclaren teammate carlos seitz also found the mclaren tricky to drive but they ultimately adapted well during his first 11 race weekends as a mclaren driver ricardo has been frustrated by attempting to implement a counter-intuitive driving style required by what he's described as a peculiar car usually you would expect a driver of ricardo's high caliber to get on top of a new car after maybe half a dozen races certainly he thought that was how long the process would take before reluctantly admitting more recently that his struggles are now what he called a reality rather than a temporary problem ricardo's troubles mean that he has been comprehensively outperformed by norris although ricardo's good racecraft has ensured he's been a consistent scorer he has only banked 50 points ricardo has outqualified norris three times although generally has struggled particularly at tracks where the idiosyncrasies of the mclaren are most exposed it's no coincidence that ricardo's biggest qualifying deficits to norris over the last seven races have been at monaco and the red bull ring circuits dominated by slow turns requiring significant rotation early in the corner and where there are things to hit if you get it wrong get the rotation wrong and you're steering the car for too long through the corner leading lap time as you do so mclaren's executive director of racing andreas stella suggests the problem is ricardo is from the opposite end in terms of driving style compared to the demands of the car he also says it requires some special adaptation while the car is stronger in the high speed corners and less tricky to drive meaning ricardo was able to be as quick as norris in qualifying at silverstone the low and medium speed corners that dominate at many other tracks are the problem ricardo's difficulty is that he likes to carry speed into the corner by braking a little earlier except of course when making one of his trademark overtaking moves and rolling the speed into the corner the mclaren has a front-end weakness that is mitigated by braking later but then appears to still require a relatively progressive application of steering lock as the more aggressive turning of the driver might usually default to in those circumstances doesn't work well ricardo has struggled badly to get to grips with this driving style often breaking earlier than norris and ending up with a car under rotated meaning he is still traction limited for longer in the exit phase than his teammate simply because he's effectively extending the corner during race weekends he often has plenty of direction from race engineer tom stallard based on live comparisons with norris but it's such a difficult style compared to ricardo's usual that it's as if he's at war with himself of course ricardo can see this all very clearly in the data so he understands exactly what norris is doing that he can't what he cannot do is translate his driving style which is as stellar puts it to roll the speed into the corner and not necessarily attack the braking as much as our car requires despite enormous amounts of work in the simulator and on race weekends ricardo has not managed to get on top of this this isn't held by the lack of testing ricardo had just a day and a half of testing in the car following his move from renault ahead of the season stella uses the example of a musician trying to sharpen his skills in concerts rather than with private practice to emphasize how difficult this situation is racing drivers are at their best when they're at one with a car driving through subconscious processing ricardo is at the opposite end of the scale he knows what he's trying to do but it's not coming naturally no wonder it's an infuriating experience the obvious question is why mclaren can't simply change the characteristics of its car to make it easier to drive after all we've seen other drivers who've had to adapt to the machinery be met in the middle by teams notably alpene driver fernando alonso who benefited from a power steering change that gave him the sensitivity he needed to optimize his driving style but in the case of the mclaren it is more about the aerodynamic characteristics than the mechanical ones and therefore it's not simply a question of just dialing it out the need to break later the fact the car has a weak front end perhaps indicates the necessity to be more aggressive in shifting the aero center of pressure forward corner entry in lower and mid-speed corners if you break earlier and roll the car into the corner as ricardo wants to the arrow center of pressure will not be quite as far forward as if the car is on the nose by braking later and harder the weight shifts forward more and the whole car will have more dive at turning which gives both a dynamic and aero advantage to compensate for the mclaren's weakness effectively this style maximizes the front end grip but ricardo's more progressive approach means that there is quite simply less grip but in attempting to make this style work there's also likely a more aggressive shift in the aerocentre of pressure rearward as the driver comes off the brakes which also appears to be creating a limitation for ricardo in the corner entry phase it's also a style that is close to norris's default approach although it's important to note that he's put a huge amount of effort into evolving his driving style in recent years at the end of 2019 he spoke about experimenting with his style in the abu dhabi test and given he and science struggled in different ways the pair were able to learn from each other the result of that was a tricky car but one that both could make work and that has created a driving challenge that surprised ricardo mclaren is uncertain how long this characteristic has been in the dna of its cars although it appears to have been for some time after all progressing along development paths often augment such characteristics over time but it's certainly true that the 2020 and 2019 cars had similar characteristics and therefore it is a result of the methodologies used by mclaren to develop the car aerodynamically what's crucial is the interaction of the mechanical platform and the aero as well as the all-important aero performance of the floor this is not just about how the car is loaded up front to rear but also in other directions it's a hugely complex equation to capture these interactions through all phases of the corner and this is where the understanding of the characteristics will lie it's why mclaren is largely stuck with the characteristics for the rest of the season and it's down to the driver to effectively be the center point that balances up all these competing inputs you might assume that these characteristics will be eliminated next year given the comprehensive change in regulations but it is possible that the same design methodologies that have led mclaren down this path before will do so again even with a completely different car after all if it's a product of the underlying science then it's possible the characteristics could carry over this is why ricardo can't simply ride out the season then start anew in 2022 what's more given it has produced a competitive car it's not the case that mclaren has got things wrong it's simply the way the car works and the results norris has been getting proves it's a perfectly valid direction so it's down to ricardo to adapt all f1 cars have what is called limit behavior particularly when it comes to corner entry some aspects will always give up first and it's simply that the mclaren is a more extreme example of the trade-offs present in most cars the mclaren is a strong car on the straights which is related to its aerodynamic efficiency but this comes with disadvantages stellar describes such trade-offs as quite typical but he does stress that the mclaren is at the more extreme end of the spectrum it won't be clear until the cars hit the track next season whether or not the 2022 mclaren retains these characteristics if so then ricardo could face another battle unless of course his work to reprogram his driving style proves more successful over the second half of the season let us know in the comments if you think mclaren can eliminate its problems next year and whether ricardo's move will be a success and if you enjoyed this look at the mcl35m's unusual characteristics make sure you like and subscribe you

Channel: THE RACE

Views: 801,684

Keywords: f1, formula 1, formula one, F1 2021, F1 news, F1 latest, F1 updates, F1 explained, The Race, the-race.com, grand prix, mclaren, daniel ricciardo, lando norris, carlos sainz, Edd Straw

Id: 1KNh7uMx6_c

Length: 9min 28sec (568 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 18 2021