(Motorsports news) The complete package of modifications installed on Lando Norris’s McLaren car had virtually no aerodynamic surface left untouched, as the official filing to the FIA about its improvements disclosed.

Although the Woking-based team had hinted before that the changes were a part of an attempt to fix a low speed vulnerability, the real reason for these most recent enhancements was clear: pure downforce.

However, not all downforce is created equal in Formula One (F1), and providing it as effectively as possible is essential to true success.

Depending on how you look at it, efficiency is the result of either too little or too much drag at a certain wing level.

It is simple to use a barn door rear wing to assist you accelerate quickly around corners, but as soon as a car starts to extend its legs on the straights, that is useless.

The key to understanding McLaren’s Miami modifications is that they provided a double whammy of benefits: they allowed it to run less wing, which increased speed on the straightaways, and also increased clean downforce to be quicker in corners. It felt a lot like having your cake and eating it.

The goal of the team’s efforts, according to McLaren team manager Andrea Stella, was to provide effective downforce without increasing drag, which allowed them to cut things off in other areas.

It did not go unnoticed that it was now more competitive against its opponents, following a recent history of being somewhat behind on the straights.

Stella said, “We had good top speed here.” “One of the reasons is that we intentionally chose to have a rear wing that is relatively light.”

We were able to accomplish that because we increased downforce through the package, which required us to be less exacting from the perspective of the rear wing, which is never too effective.

“It’s always more efficient to upgrade a car with floors and sidepods than to add a rear wing for downforce.”

The package’s general advantages were further enhanced by its slightly different setup from what would be anticipated.

Therefore, it changed its emphasis to be better suited for the slower sections rather than focusing on using its edge over competitors in high-speed turns.

Stella clarified, saying, “We deliberately chose to configure the vehicle to optimize low-speed performance.”

The package’s features alone did not account for our respectable low-speed performance; we also made deliberate choices on how to configure the cars to be as powerful as feasible in these conditions.

“We lost a lot of time in the high-speed section in qualifying, but this was kind of a planned setup decision,” the driver said.

Miami was only the beginning; more is yet to come. Stella said that the pipeline’s improvements will aid in addressing the issues with poor speed it has encountered.

When asked how much the renovations had addressed this area of weakness, Stella replied, “Not to the extent that we would have wished.” We still need to complete a few more specialized tasks and improvements in order to specifically address low-speed.

Before the strategically placed safety car assisted Norris in winning, it was easy to see the potential of the new McLaren improvement.

With that rough lap in SQ3 and a Turn 1 exit in the sprint, it hadn’t been evident, but Norris was really flying in the race once he found open air.

After the race, the British competitor commented, “I said already on Friday, it felt good.” On Friday, I felt confident, and I felt like I had that sensation a lot today. It was excellent. Recently, Sundays have been strong on many occasions. We were able to elevate it and make it much better just now.

The question now will be if McLaren’s improvements signal that the team is a real threat to Red Bull in Imola, or if Norris’ victory in Miami was just a result of luck.

When asked if he believed he could have won without the safety car, runner-up Max Verstappen responded as follows: “I mean, it’s always if, if, if, right? My mother would be my father if she had balls.

That’s the way it works in racing. It doesn’t always work out for you, but occasionally it does.

Currently, McLaren’s task is to increase the sometimes to more times.

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