McLaren confident: 'There are areas to improve on the current car without hurting ourselves for 2027'
Photo: Race Pictures
12:02, 06 Aug
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Kada Sárközi joined GPblog as an editor ahead of the 2023 Formula 1 season. He graduated with a BA in Sports Journalism in the UK and has covered Grands Prix and other F1 events live.
McLaren has yet to decide when the best time will be to switch its focus from developing the 2026 car to the 2027 season. Still, the team believes there is possibly room for further updates after its next major package for Baku.
As the second half of the Formula 1 season gets underway, teams will soon have to decide whether to continue developing their 2026 cars or shift their focus to 2027.
McLaren's Technical Director of Applied Engineering, Neil Houldey, also explained how McLaren plans to approach the period after the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
In McLaren's Q&A, he shared: "After that, it really will depend on whether we find something substantial in aero after the summer break, and whether we think there’s value in doing an end-of-season package or fully switch to next year’s car.
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"It’s an open point at the moment. We’ll be looking at where we are, where our competitors are, and where we see the opportunities. I think there’s a good chance we’ll have upgrades beyond Baku that can dig more performance out of this car, without impacting 2027.
"It’ll be things like I just mentioned, that can be bolted-on, or bonded-on, rather than the big, wholesale bodywork upgrades, but still areas in which there’s good performance opportunities there for the taking."
Lando Norris after winning the Hungarian Grand Prix - Photo: Race Pictures
Mekies delivers verdict Verstappen won't want to hear on Red Bull upgrades
A similar question also looms at Red Bull Racing. Answering GPblog's question at the Hungaroring, the Laurent Mekies said about this matter: "At some stage we'll need to make a call on the balance between this year and next year. And I expect that to happen earlier than what we have done last year, especially as the regulations are how they are. So we will decide."
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The Frenchman added: "As far as we are concerned, we have brought a huge amount of development to the car between race one and here in order to try to correct as soon as possible the large deficit we had initially.
"It’s difficult to imagine that we will continue at that rhythm, but we nonetheless need to see what is the best way to try and close these last three tenths."
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