With every F1 team slowly beginning to unveil their 2023 cars, it was McLaren’s turn at the start of this week.
The Woking-based team showed off the MCL60 for the first time on Monday, with their livery changing slightly for the upcoming season.
Like many of the other teams on the grid, some of the colour from last season’s car has been removed and replaced with a smooth carbon fibre black, making that car look sleek and dark.
With regards to the technical aspects of the car, it is difficult to make too many conclusions from the photos released by McLaren, however there are a few noticeable features on the MCL60.
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It appears that the team have kept the pullrod front suspension and pushrod rear suspension, as can be seen by the small detailing in the car.
Some of the main issues surrounding last year’s car involved it struggling to rotate around corners and it appears that the team may have addressed this issue by adding some anti-lift characteristics to the inner top wishbone.
This anti-lift element will help keep the MCL60 low to the ground under braking, helping the car rotate before the ride height then goes back up to prepare for other elements of the racetrack.
Sidepods were a huge point of discussion last season, one which McLaren initially appeared to get wrong at the start of the year.
As the team became more competitive throughout the season, they adopted the Ferrari sidepod model, with a long front corner undercut rather than the no-sidepod model trialled by Mercedes.
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From the photos posted of the MCL60 it seems like McLaren will be sticking with the Ferrari-style radiator inlet, keeping the airflow surrounding the car similar to the end of last year.
McLaren have however said that they are not entirely happy with their new car, hinting that they will be banking on getting upgrades onto the car early into the season to become more competitive.
With major upgrades to the team’s technology coming in the next couple of years, 2023 may be a case of extracting the best performance they possibly can from a slightly underwhelming car, as they did in 2022.