"We struggle a little bit" - McLaren team head addresses downforce issues with MCL60

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella recently dove deep into how downforce works while addressing where the MCL60 lacks it.

McLaren has been slower this season, especially when compared to last year, where they were able to challenge Alpine for the midfield crown. Though there are several areas to look at, Stella recently spoke about downforce.

According to RacingNews365, Stella explained how downforce is affected by parameters like yaw angle, ride height, roll angle, and the type of track a car is racing at. He stated that their car has good stability on a straight or in high-speed situations, saying:

"When we talk about downforce, it is very dependent on some parameters like front ride height, rear ride height, roll angle or yaw angle. We should always talk about dynamic maps. Our car delivers good downforce when it is in a straight line and in high speed, in technical terms, straight-line and high-speed conditions are actually very similar."

However, Stella admitted that on medium and low-speed corners, the MCL60 loses downforce due to a wider yaw angle and higher ride height. This drastic difference in downforce is one of the issues McLaren is facing at the moment. He concluded:

"When you go into medium or low-speed, the air comes at a much wider angle, which is the yaw angle, ride heights are much higher as you are further away from the ground, so the downforce you have is much less not only because of the speed but because of this altitude."

"Our car is very good in terms of downforce when in a straight line and in high speed, but when it is medium and low speed, we struggle a little bit."

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McLaren senior's take on F1 cars' drastic performance difference from track to track

McLaren's director of engineering Neil Oatley recently explained why modern F1 cars are so different in performance when they go from one track to another.

Speaking on the Beyond the Grid podcast, Oatley explained how, except for Red Bull and Aston Martin, almost every F1 car suffers from inconsistency. He said:

"I think the two cars you mentioned are fairly neutral cars and they don't have many bad points, whereas I think the rest of us have got small problems with cars being inconsistent from different types of corners to another, different speeds, etc."

Oatley stated that McLaren and many other teams are still trying to figure out how to squeeze maximum performance from their cars. He also addressed how difficult modern Formula 1 cars are to drive and said:

"Modern Formula 1 cars are incredibly difficult to drive. They're very sensitive to steering, ride heights, etc. Some people have got the equation exactly right and others are still struggling a little bit."

F1 and the FIA have also acknowledged the weight and size of these machines and will actively plan to make them lighter and more nimble with future regulations.