McLaren is back to developing, presenting itself in Hungary with an important package of updates, the first since the Canadian Grand Prix. In the Hungaroring pits, the new floor has already been glimpsed on the MCL40, whose setup recalls that of Ferrari even more markedly than the previous one. At the rear, however, the inverted movable wing makes its appearance, also inspired by the Prancing Horse’s Macarena, whose race debut, however, will take place later.
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Here is the new floor
In Hungary, McLaren introduces a new floor, which represents an evolution of the Miami version. Despite the necessary differences, the Woking team is the one that is most following the path traced by Ferrari, with a single horizontal bridge connecting the five vertical elements, almost outlining a double entry section. In Barcelona, the Maranello team had extended the horizontal structure forward, which is now more pronounced on the MCL40 as well. The papaya formation, however, did not limit itself to a simple copy and paste, reinterpreting the Prancing Horse’s floor setup in its own way.
McLaren has already scheduled extensive data analysis and verification work on the updates during free practice, partly entrusted to Leonardo Fornaroli, who will take to the track with Piastri’s car equipped with the new features. Previously, Andrea Stella had defined the developments underway as correctives to the basic concept of the MCL40. The world champions have revised the flow structure under the floor, building a different platform from which to try to extract even more performance with subsequent packages.
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The McLaren Macarena arrives
The updated floor is not the only new feature on the MCL40 in Hungary. In the Hungaroring pits, Piastri’s car also features a new rear wing actuator, with a single lever that engages at the beginning of the upper profile instead of the two arms of the traditional system. This is the kinematics that allows the movable elements to flip, taking inspiration from Ferrari’s Macarena. Unlike the Prancing Horse, however, McLaren has kept the central actuator, opting not to integrate it into the outer endplate. Furthermore, the impression is that the profiles rotate backward as on the Red Bull, while on the SF-26 the wing flips in the opposite direction.
The Woking team will test the inverted movable wing during free practice, but has already stated that the wing will need several tests before being cleared for race use. Having an inverted wing would be of great help to McLaren, which currently suffers from a significant straight-line speed deficit compared to Mercedes with the same power unit. Andrea Stella, however, explained that the Macarena project should not distract attention from the team’s primary objective, which is to improve the basic performance of the MCL40.
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