McLaren keeps wheelbase options open

McLaren is leaving its options open about whether or not it will use its new shorter wheelbase chassis at Spa-Francorchamps, ahead of a weekend in which the team aims to test its improved car’s performance in fast corners.

In the latest step of the team’s recent aggressive development push, Lewis Hamilton ran with his MP4-24 in a shorter wheelbase configuration on his way to second place in Valencia last weekend – the team making the change partly as a means of moving the car's weight distribution further forwards.

Team managing director Jonathan Neale confirmed on Wednesday that Heikki Kovalainen would also have access to the short wheelbase car in Belgium – but said both drivers’ crews would wait until the first day of running on Friday before making a decision on which configuration to use.

Otherwise the MP4-24 will feature what Neale describes as an “evolutionary” package, with a new front wing introduced principality to cater for the characteristics of Spa’s lower downforce layout.

“In terms of the package for this weekend, I’d say it was evolution rather then revolution,” Neale said in a Vodafone McLaren Mercedes media ‘Phone-In’.

“Spa requires a different downforce level to the circuit that we have been running recently, so we do have new wings for the car, available of course for both drivers, but that is more a rebalancing of the car for the circuit rather than an outright performance gain itself. I think most of the teams will be doing something very similar.

“For the wheelbase we have the short wheelbase available to both drivers, or both engineering teams, and when I spoke to [McLaren chief engineer] Pat Fry last night going through the analysis, I would say it was one of the options that we have for this weekend.

“Depending on how the circuit is on Friday morning, we can go either way, so we are not committed one direction or another on either car at the moment, it is available for both.”

Although its stunning recent transformation in pace saw Lewis Hamilton win in Hungary and then finish second after heading an all-McLaren row in Valencia, the world champion has played down the team’s chances of repeating those results at the more aerodynamically-demanding Spa.

Neale, while confident the MP4-24 will be much better in fast corners that it was earlier in the season when it was well off the pace at Barcelona, Turkey and Silverstone, concedes the title protagonists are still likely to be faster.

“The car that we have started to develop from Germany is very different to the car that we had in the proceeding races, but it’s true to say that the circuit characteristics [that have suited our car have been] in the slower average speed which tend to be your Monaco, Hungary and Valencia [which] were always likely to suit a car with those inherent performance characteristics,” he said.

“The real answer is that we don’t know what’s going to happen at Spa.

“If it was based on the first sort of few races, then we really struggled in the high-speed turns during the first four or five races. The drivers reported that the car was unstable, particularly at the rear, and they didn’t know where the car was.

“Thankfully the car is [now] more stable, it is much more planted at the rear-end and the aggressive shadow diffuser that we have put on the car and continued to develop does lock the car down and make it more stable.

“So for us, on a relative basis, I expect us to perform, compared to what we could have done, much better on a circuit like Spa.

“I think Red Bull should be very strong.

“If Brawn have got over whatever was going on with their ability to heat the tyres up, they will be strong, if not then I think we can see Red Bull pushing them further back.”

He added that the team was also expecting the Ardennes region’s notoriously fickle climate to be a factor once again.

“Watching the re-runs of Spa last year reminded me that whatever team kit you’ve got you wear everything because it’s going to be cold and miserable probably!” he said.

“I think rain, or rain showers, is currently a probabability, but we expect changeable conditions.”

Source: ITV