Yesterday saw the McLaren Formula One team win the Miami Grand Prix which was a great achievement considering last year their car was 1.5 seconds off the race pace. Lando Norris romped home with a healthy 7 second lead over race favorites Red Bull.
What is more interesting to note besides the win is this was the weekend the team added 10 upgrades to the car. These upgrades are designed to raise the performance levels of each part that is being upgraded finding milliseconds wherever possible fine tuning the car to meet it's full potential. What is also interesting is the cars performance has been steadily improving race after race and this was no fluke result.
10 Upgrades
Front wing increase downforce. New Front suspension to help airflow over front wing. Front brake ducts upgraded due to needing more air flow. Total new flooring and side pod inlets. his is about changing the airflow moving it into areas where it can enhance the down force. New rear suspension improving load generation. revised rear brake ducts also again downforce. The list is endless and these are all significant parts of the car and the great thing is they all worked as they should. Sometimes adding too much can take away from other areas so the gains may only seem marginal but not in this case which tells you their systems are all working in synchronization.
These are serious upgrades and has raised the cars performance level beyond what anyone would have expected. All of these upgrades have to be checked by the FIA making sure they comply with regulation first so these don't just happen overnight and take weeks if not months to bring from the virtual world into reality.
The upgrades are a created via a data driven technology that is developed via a virtual garage which is then applied to the virtual car in the simulator. This is what the engineers are constantly working on and only when they see a benefit through an increased performance level will they consider making the new parts.
The teams all work to strict budgets with a spending cap that they cannot breach so every upgrade has to do what it says before being signed off. Normally when we see upgrades happening the net results are marginal which compound over months of work along with other upgrades to skim off maybe 1-2 seconds over an entire season. The teams all become faster over the course of the year as the data from all the racing feeds them the information.
What has got the McLaren team so excited is the fact these upgrades boosted the performance meaning their real world race car is mimicking the data from the virtual garage and simulator. Basically it is doing exactly what it says on the tin and that is seriously big news. Having an online and real world car in sync is actually a scary thought for all the other competitors because we can expect to see far more upgrades coming thick and fast.
Mercedes were the first to use this technology and why they had such a dominating period in the sport which eventually saw the others follow suit and close the technology gap. Red Bull have been the team of late to benefit from rule changes when it came to down force regulations putting them firmly in the dominant driving seat so this new twist revealing that McLaren have now honed in on their sweet spot is telling.
The next race is in Imola in 2 weeks time which is good news for McLaren giving them enough time to play around with the online tools making sure the car is set up for the new track. Every track is different and requires different performance levels due to the number of bends, breaking points or whether top speed is preferred over less downforce. This may be too soon to expect another McLaren win, but they are on to something that is so rare it is like finding the Holy Grail when it comes to unlocking performance.
This could be the year of the McLaren team and just what the Formula One fans wanted to see because having one team dominate every race is not entertainment. Sometimes once you reach the top it is hard to stay there and why teams last a few years before being replaced by another team. Once you set the benchmark you need to maintain those levels hoping it is enough and it never will be because someone will eventually find a way to better what you have.