© Sebastian Kawka for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix ltd.
Toto Wolff says McLaren’s progress is a result of “good engineering, good decisions put well together on the right track”, and shows you can “come with upgrades that completely change the performance of the car”.
McLaren obviously showed tremendous progress at the British Grand Prix, and Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff says there are lessons his team can learn from that.
“Why it is exciting to see the McLaren bounce back is that you can, within a season… OK, fair enough, they had much more wind tunnel time, [but] in any case, [you can] come with upgrades that completely change the performance of the car,” Wolff said after the race.
“We’re not speaking about two-tenths up and down, but we’re speaking a second and that’s good for the sport that you can do the right things, you put one and one together, and then, we’ve seen it with the Aston Martin from year to year, we’ve seen it in with the McLaren now during the year. I like it.”
However, Wolff warns that Mercedes has less aero testing time available to them than McLaren, which makes such a leap more difficult to achieve.
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“I think we are restricted by the cost cap and the relative less amount in wind tunnel and CFD time that McLaren was able to have.
“They finished further back in the championship, they were fifth or sixth mid-year, so they carry over that more wind tunnel time allocation. That’s why it’s kind of difficult.
“Do I believe that we have upgrades in there that fundamentally change the car? I don’t believe so.
“But we have a few small steps that are to come and you can see that, if you find a tenth or two or three, it puts you in a different position on the grid.
“I think if we would have not been stuck behind [Charles] Leclerc [in the early stages of the race], who knows where we would have been on the medium? But yeah, I think we can do that step.”
Asked in extra aero testing time is the main reason for McLaren’s progress, Toto said:
“I didn’t want to refer at all that the reasons for performance is in the more wind tunnel time, I think it’s just good engineering, good decisions put well together on the right track.
“We need to see whether they can repeat that performance in Budapest, which is obviously the opposite in what you need. But this sport is about marginal gains.
“If you have 20% more wind tunnel time allocation, we gain two seconds over a year, which means four-tenths.
“So, if you have that four-tenths or five-tenths in additional performance, that’s always going to help.
“But still, you need to have the right innovation, design and put it on the car and it needs to correlate with the tunnel and the simulation.
“So, you know, chapeau!” Wolff concluded.
