F1 team introductions: McLaren goes into the new season with a new boss and driver. What to expect from the British team in 2023?

The new F1 season is fast approaching and it’s time to introduce all the participating teams. In this article, we take a closer look at McLaren, who will be looking to attack and reclaim fourth place in the Constructors’ Cup. In a year when McLaren is celebrating its 60th anniversary, will the British team be able to do it with a new boss and driver?

A new season with a new boss and driver. For McLaren, 2023 could be a pivotal season in terms of future development. What can we expect from the team in the coming year?

McLaren in 2022

Formula 1 has entered a new era with the strike of the 2022 season, thanks in particular to fundamental changes in both technical and sporting rules. Some teams have coped with this change better, some worse. And it is McLaren that has suffered rather negatively from entering a new era.

The British team missed the concept of the new rules in terms of the aerodynamics of the car and the return of the ground effect, struggled with significant problems with brake cooling, downforce, handling and, last but not least, performance.

The results of last year’s race also speak for this. McLaren scored double-digit points in only four races, with Lando Norris taking the only podium at Imola. And the result of last year’s misery? The Woking-based team ended the 2022 season with 159 points, finishing fifth.

Norris, however, was the best of the rest of the world in the final Drivers’ Championship standings, scoring 122 points to finish seventh. But Daniel Ricciardo’s run ended in disaster as he scored just 37 points and finished 11th. It is not surprising that we will not see the Australian driver on the grid in the upcoming season.

Car design for 2023

Even the countless upgrades didn’t bring McLaren any significant improvement last year, so it’s no surprise that the British team is coming up with a new design. It’s similar to several other teams, and if we were arguing last year about what path the technological concept of the monoposts would take, this is one of them.

You can see at a glance that the MCL60 shares Red Bull’s idea and philosophy. The Woking stable came up with chopped off sidewalls, back in Singapore McLaren installed all-new sidewall inlets. In addition, he also deepened the undercut in the front part of the sidewalls, and then formed a kind of a depression on the top of the sidewalls.

As the Motorsport server describes, the MCL60 takes the technical parameters of the Red Bull and tries to improve them. McLaren was able to reduce the body structure thanks to a redesign of the cooling system, while the car as a whole now looks more compact and slimmer. However, the team seems to have been inspired by last year’s Alpine.

While the cooling gills and the design of the descent ramp have been retained, they should translate into a performance boost thanks to the re-profiling of the upper surface of the side skirts.

“The bulky air-to-air intercooler has been replaced by a water-to-air intercooler, which takes up less space and gives more flexibility in terms of its positioning in the car. This type of compressed air cooling from the turbocharger is used by both Mercedes and Ferrari, including their customer teams,” says Czech news site F1 Sport.

In terms of other aerodynamic changes, the front upper suspension arm was already positioned quite high on the predecessor car. However, it seems that the team has decided to go even further with the MCL60. However, we’ll have to wait for the final shape of the car. And not just for pre-season testing, but also for the first few races.

The livery, the anniversary of the brand

Compared to last year, the colouring of McLaren’s monoposts hasn’t changed much. The more significant change concerns the naming of this year’s car. In fact, the British stable has abandoned the regular numbering to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the team’s founding in 1963 by New Zealander Bruce McLaren.

McLaren’s first race was the 1966 Monaco Grand Prix. McLaren’s first victory came two years later, in the 1968 Belgian Grand Prix. To date, the British team has achieved 182 victories, 155 pole positions, 12 drivers’ championship titles and 9 constructors’ titles.

The new team boss

McLaren’s current team boss Andreas Seidl left the team ahead of the new season to take up a directorship at Sauber. The new driver is Andrea Stella, who is no newcomer to the team.

Stella joined McLaren from Ferrari back in 2015, having worked his way up through a number of roles over seven years. He started as head of racing operations and has been executive director of racing since 2019. At the Italian Maranello-based stable, he served as race engineer to Fernando Alonso and Kimi Räikkönen.

Driver line-up

Norris will be the clear team leader in the new season, with Oscar Piastri as his stablemate. After the disastrous performance of the Australian Ricciardo, this will be a welcome change for McLaren fans and not only for the drivers. Much has been written in the past about the scandal surrounding Piastri’s transfer to the British team.

Moreover, Piastri himself has remarked that this experience will not affect him in his time at McLaren. Thus, alongside Norris, another great driver may grow up to score the coveted points. That, in short, was far from the case for Ricciardo last season.

F1, McLaren Racing, Motorsport, F1 Sport