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How Did McLaren Get the New F1 Regulations Right?

Porpoising was a big talking point in the Barcelona tests, with everyone affected by it to a greater or lesser extent. But McLaren was the least concerned about this situation. Could that mean they are the favorite for this year's championship?
McLaren testing 12 photos
Photo: McLaren Racing
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After spectacular footage, thanks to Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc bouncing down the main straight due to porpoising problems, it was smooth sailing compared to the rest of the grid for McLaren. You may ask. how McLaren did it and if the other teams will copycat their design.

First of all, we need to understand this phenomenon that we are talking about so much. A few days ago, we said that porpoising occurs when the car gets sucked so close to the ground by the underfloor arrow that the diffuser stalls. This phenomenon leads to the rear end rising as the load is reduced, then dropping back as the load builds up.

The frequency of this oscillation that can lead to floor damage represents the real problem. Teams need to find a fine line to repair this problem without dropping performance. Another difficulty is that simulating this problem is complicated without on-track running, given the impossibility of running at ultra-low ride heights in the wind tunnel.

If everything is clear, we can move on. Sure, you may say increase the ride height and voila, problem resolved. That's exactly what the teams adopted, including McLaren. The difference is McLaren saw this upcoming issue way back, and they created a car that is less dependent on running ultra-low ride heights. It appears to have eliminated the problem thanks to the power of the vortices running down the side of the underfloor. The vortices could have been observed by the spray in the wet running, making the floor less prone to stalling.

McLaren testing\-1
Photo: McLaren Racing
The team owned by Zak Brown knew about Formula One history and their porpoising problems in the '80s, so they took that knowledge and airflow control to create these "virtual skirts." Porpoising is reduced by having that air cushion between the sides of the floor and the track surface.This advantage is clearly seen when we compare McLaren with the competition. For example, the defending world champion Mercedes does not have vortices as powerful as the British team.

This means the Mercedes W13 has to run closer to the ground. When the floor touches the ground, the diffuser stalls, reducing the load and allowing the car to rise. Then the car starts to bounce like a '64 Impala from a Dr. Dre music video. On the other hand, Red Bull can give McLaren a run for their money because they have excellent control over the vortices at the front end, but in the back end, they are not as powerful. Red Bull, like Mercedes, is trying to seal the underfloor mechanically to extract the best performance.

Ferrari has a different and creative approach to these new regulations. They believe that the power of the flow being pulled in the backside by the turning vanes attached inside the rear brake ducts represents an advantage. At the same time, to reduce the problematic phenomenon, Ferrari introduced a modified floor to minimize the flat area near the ground.

McLaren F1 driver Lando Norris
Photo: McLarenF1 / Twitter
For the rest of the grid, creating vortices as McLaren did will not resolve their problems. By doing so, integrating the vortices with the rest of the airflow structures of the car will represent a far more significant challenge. "Like many teams, we undertook initial runs with aero rakes on the car this morning which provided some useful initial correlation data," said James Key,Technical Director of McLaren F1 Team. "Aerodynamics is the biggest change with the '22 cars so it is important to take some basic initial measurements at an early stage. Through the rest of the day, we did a fair amount of set-up and exploratory work, beginning to understand the car and the tires a step at a time."

Don't get the wrong idea. McLaren is still third after the three days in Spain. That said, with all the other teams having to consume their energy for resolving the porpoising problem, the British team can concentrate on other aspects to maximize potential in Bahrain.

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About the author: Silvian Irimia
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Silvian may be the youngest member of our team, being born in the 2000s, but you won't find someone more passionate than him when it comes to motorsport. An automotive engineer by trade, Silvian considers the Ferrari F50 his favorite car, with the original Lamborghini Countach a close second.
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