Live from the MTC: McLaren’s MP4-27

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Wednesday, 01 February 2012 15:00

No matter what happens on track this season, at least one of 2012’s 12 Formula 1 cars will have looked good at its launch.

McLaren unveiled its 2012 challenger at the McLaren Technology Centre this morning, and the MP4-27 has escaped the curse of the platypus nose. For now, at least – anyone who thinks that a launch car will pop up utterly unchanged on the grid in Melbourne has got another think coming.

So what do you need to know about the MP4-27? You’re best off hearing it in the drivers’ own words, but the overall impression is shiny. So shiny that it runs a real risk of blinding people when it reflects sunlight.

You want more than shiny? Then it’s a slim-bodied racer with a low-rise chassis that enables the team to stick within the 55cm nose height regulation without going down the dreaded platypus route. The exhausts look to be as low as humanly possible while still within the rules, and the wing configuration used at launch had a definite whiff of 2011 leftovers about them.

Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button are far better at explaining the design, which McLaren say is an evolution, not a revolution. Now where have we heard that one before?

“Yes, obviously we've changed the sidepods; we had the L-shaped sidepods last year,” Hamilton explained. “The front of the car is generally the same. Obviously the nose dips down a little bit different to last year; we've changed our wing mirrors a little bit, so hopefully we'll be able to see a lot better, which is something that I was pushing hard for. Felipe will be very happy with that.

“Then particularly the back of the car is a lot neater than it was last year,” he continued. “It's much, much tighter. So they've focused very much on making it as snug as possible at the back to improve aerodynamics, and, yes, it's just fully – it’s just completely refined. Obviously the wing is a little bit better in terms of dropping drag, and we've tried our best to improve the rear floor, especially with no blown diffuser this year it's going to be very tricky for us.”

One concern affecting all of the front running teams is the loss of downforce that is an inevitable consequence of the ban on exhaust-blown diffusers. McLaren have done their best to minimise that lost downforce, but there are limits as to what can be achieved.

“We'll lose a lot of downforce without the blown diffuser,” Hamilton said. “When we were on power last year, and when we were off power, we had an incredible amount of downforce just coming from the back floor with the exhaust blowing just by the spat and we don't have that this year, so that's really the biggest loss for us, and we are trying to regain it in all other ways. But I think the guys have done a fantastic job, and it’s a lot trickier to drive the way it is right now, but as we get into the season I think we'll slowly begin to improve and find out where that downforce can come from.”

Button turned his attention to those design changes demanded by the 2012 technical regulations.

“Well, there obviously are a couple,” he said. “I mean, the change in the regulations with the blowing of the diffuser, which can be quite big, there's quite a lot of lap time there, but also there's a change in the front – of the nose of the car, of the height of the nose of the car, so there are a few changes that are going to make a difference.

“And also the difference to the look of the car,” Button added. “As you can see, this is a beautiful car. Many of them that you see will not be! So that's something that we definitely have. And for me that's important.

“So there are some good rule changes that I think are giving the engineers and aerodynamicists something to really think about this year. But everything seems
good, everyone seems positive, yes, so we'll see what it feels like when we get out onto the circuit and that first test in Jerez,” he concluded.

While car launches are a time of optimism, when everything’s a winner, there’s no denying that McLaren are concerned by the loss of downforce mandated by the latest raft of technical regulations. But McLaren aren’t alone in that – everyone’s worried.

Asked to comment specifically on the loss of downforce, Button replied: “Well, it’s a lot of down force, obviously, and you would say it's more at one end than the other, but you would always try and balance that. So the feeling that you have in the car is good, it's just a different way of working with the aerodynamics. There's a lot more basic aerodynamics on the car compared to probably what there was in 2011.”

Hamilton posited that he and Jenson might need to readjust their driving styles to best manage the characteristics of the new car.

“It is about finding the balance,” he said, “and last year we obviously had a lot of weight and a lot of down force coming from the rear of the car, and we were always trying to balance it and struggling to balance it with trying to get enough front in. But I think this year it will be the other way round, we'll probably have too much front and trying to find more rear. I think in terms of driving we have yet to really put it to the test how much we have to change our driving style for the tyres, and I'm sure it's going to be a real challenge this year.”

TECHNICAL Q&A

Q&A with technical director Paddy Lowe and director of engineering Tim Goss

After a successful 2011 season, what were your main aims with the development of the MP4-27?
Paddy: “Our main objectives for the 2012 season were to optimise downforce despite the changes to the blown floor, and to improve our understanding and utilisation of the Pirelli tyres, which were new to us last year.

Tim: “Although you can’t see it, there’s a lot on this car that’s changed. However, this year has seen more of an evolutionary set of rules, so there’s less of the unpredictability that comes from balancing resources between seasons during a time of greater regulatory change.”

Paddy: “Every year, we sit down and want to design a race-winning car. We didn’t have the quickest car at the start of last season, but we’re doing everything possible to build the quickest car possible.”

What are the key visual differences between the 2011 and 2012 cars?
Tim: “I think the most obvious change is the loss of the U-shaped sidepod, which we pioneered on last year’s car. We reverted to a more conventional sidepod shape for this season because the U-shape was less suited to the new exhaust geometry restrictions. For 2012, the exhaust tailpipes now have to exit along the U-channel – so that particular feature was no longer really viable due to the new geometry restrictions. As a result, we decided to adopt a different approach to the way we feed the rear of the car. We have cleaned up the roll-hoop area and now have much tighter rear bodywork.”

Were there any particular challenges in adapting to the new 2012 regulations?
Tim: “The regulations around the exhausts are very prescriptive: the exhausts must now exit within a very tight space at the rear of the car in order to minimise their aerodynamic influence. The final 100mm of the exhausts must be cylindrical – so they can no longer be oval, or flattened – and must be sited at a particular vertical and horizontal angle – between 10 and 30 degrees upwards. That's to direct the exhaust exit away from the floor.”

Paddy: “One of the more satisfying challenges was being able to develop and expand our knowledge of the Pirelli tyres. It’s our second season with Pirelli – 2011 was very much a learning year. We have used our experience from the past 12 months to design the car’s layout, aerodynamics and vehicle dynamics around improved tyre utilisation.”

Have there been knock-on effects to the design of the car due to the exhaust restrictions?
Tim: “They have the inevitable impact on the flow-fields around the rear of the car, yes. In previous years, the exhausts exited directly into the rear corner of the floor; we can’t do that any more so, as you’d expect, that changes the flow characteristics at the rear of the car. The knock-on effect is that all of the aerodynamic devices at the rear of the car have had to be re-designed.”

There have been a few departures from the technical team over the winter – are you comfortable with that?
Paddy: “I always say this, but Vodafone McLaren Mercedes is an extremely broad organisation. Bear in mind that we have 200 engineers working here – and, if those people all stayed in their job for 10 years, then we’d lose 20 engineers a year.

“Actually, we lose far fewer than that. It’s easy to focus on those leaving, but we have just as many people arriving here. Also, we pride ourselves on bringing on new, young and clever guys, helping them get into the business. Inevitably, at some point, a few of those feel the need to fly the nest and join the competition – it’s not something you can avoid. But we’ve got a very strong group of fantastically committed individuals here and we’re proud of the work we’ve all done on MP4-27.” Kate Walker

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