But of course, that's the same for every team." "It's going to be a challenging year with the cost cup being in place, in all respects, to try and run these two cars together. "It will just probably slightly change what we would have done had we been seventh or eighth, and had noticeably more runs, where we could perhaps make that split slightly differently. I think we'll do the similar sort of programme and timing and the number of weeks on each car as we originally planned. But it's not going to govern how we go about that. "I suppose it could have a minor effect on how we split '21 and '22. "I think we will accept that if you if you finish high up, then you're going to get a little bit penalised for wind tunnel time in the future, it's part of the game now," says Key. In other words, a good championship result in 2021 will lead to a loss of development potential in 2022. With 20 programmes operating in parallel, every tunnel run is valuable, and the ATR rules will be even more significant next year, when the gap between team positions is doubled. Having finished third in 2020, McLaren gains a little wind tunnel time and CFD usage relative to Mercedes and Red Bull, but it loses out to Aston, Alpine and especially to Ferrari, at least until the re-set based on current championship positions as of June 30. The new aero testing restrictions provide an extra challenge. The usual year-on-year aero development has been impacted by the significant downforce cuts imposed by the FIA, while as of January 1 teams could take their first steps with 2022 aero work – and have thus had to decide how to split their limited resources. The freeze on mechanical elements took a little pressure off, but in McLaren's case the switch of engine suppliers created a lot of extra work, and all changes had to be made within the confines of what was allowed by the FIA's token system. This has been a hugely challenging winter for all the F1 teams. These steps are key in order to get back to the front again at some point in the future." "We want to get closer again to Mercedes and Red Bull. "At the same time, I think we can still make steps even in the current circumstances, in the current situation, as a team. ![]() ![]() And until then we simply have limitations. "The biggest topic is obviously the wind tunnel, this will still take around two years until we can actually see the first benefits of this new wind tunnel, which is crucial on the development side of the race car. "Of course, in terms of driver line-up, we will have, again, one of the strongest in the paddock, and we will have the championship winning power unit at the back of our car. "There's a lot of positive energy within the team regarding going into this season," he says. Seidl stresses that the team is still in the rebuilding phase after losing its way in the early years of the hybrid era. The cap will close the financial gap, but McLaren still has to catch up in other areas. And I'm confident that cap will achieve for the sport what we hoped it will achieve." "So clearly, spending at the cap, focussed on total performance, is the goal. What's most important is that Andreas and James and the team have the full resources to run at the cap. "I think there'll be learnings this year, but I think the discrepancies will be pretty nominal. So we've had to make some adjustments to come down to the cap. We were spending beyond the cap previously. "And I think it will achieve what we're hoping to achieve, which is a more level playing field. "I think it would be naive to underestimate any of the competition. "Well, we're going to keep our eyes on all the competition," says Brown. Many see Aston Martin as the obvious benchmark for McLaren, given their proximity in last year's championship and shared power unit supplier. Given that the plan is to return to contention for race wins and titles, looking ahead rather than sideways – or even backwards – is a logical approach. The influences of Mercedes on McLaren's 2021 challengerĬEO Zak Brown agrees that the focus is not so much on championship positions as closing the performance gap to Mercedes and Red Bull. ![]()
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