McLaren has brought an upgrade to its cars for this weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix as it continues its speed war with Red Bull . A year ago, McLaren launched a major upgrade package that helped the team escape the bottom of the rankings after a poor start, despite predicting before the season because they knew they were behind their development progress.
Twelve months later, McLaren are now neck-and-neck with champions Red Bull in terms of performance, although Max Verstappen continues to differentiate himself for the team in his clash with Lando Norris.
For the sprint race at the Red Bull Ring, McLaren drivers Norris and Oscar Piastri fitted new front wings and front suspension to ‘improve airflow…helping improve air loading kinematics’.
This event can change the face of racing in Austria because the race is quite short and there are many more points in the sprint content.
Red Bull reported in the car presentation documents to the FIA that no upgrades were visible on their car. So do Aston Martin, Alpine, Williams and Haas.
Mercedes has introduced a new beam wing on the W15 to aid performance and reduce drag. Specifically, there is a reduction in camber of the beam flange element that reduces the load, both locally and on the floor, resulting in less downforce and drag. Ferrari’s SF24s now have circuit-specific cooling doors to guard against high ambient temperatures at the Spielberg circuit.
On the RB, the car introduced a series of major upgrades for the most recent race in Spain but had difficulty optimizing the upgrade package, the car has updated the rear corner, notably the configuration small blades on the rear brake drum face to help load and manage airflow at the rear of the vehicle, thereby improving the overall performance of the airflow components. At the Stake, for the first time this season, the cars have a new lower rear wing that reduces drag slightly to improve the aerodynamic efficiency of the entire car, meeting the requirements of the Austrian circuit and the Other similar tracks.