McLaren may finally get to work on new wind tunnel soon
F1 News
- GPblog.com
McLaren will soon start using the new wind tunnel. Andrea Stella has been in Bahrain, according to Motorsport.com letting us know when it could come into use.
The 2023 Formula 1 season got off to a disastrous start for McLaren. The MCL60 is not running well at all, Oscar Piastri dropped out with a problem and Lando Norris crossed the line last. Not the result the Woking-based team had hoped for, but there is light at the end of the tunnel.
New wind tunnel for McLaren
Indeed, McLaren's new wind tunnel has been completed and could soon be in use. McLaren's new team boss revealed that there is still some fine-tuning and installation to be done before the wind tunnel can be put into use, but by June the car should be able to sit in the tunnel.
By then, it is likely to be the car for 2024. That's the year McLaren is aiming for to really step up to the top again. While Stella does not want to use the lack of its own wind tunnel as an excuse for its current performance, it is clear that its own wind tunnel will be a big step forward.
Currently, McLaren still uses Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. This means that if McLaren wants to test parts in the wind tunnel, they must first be transported from England to Germany. This costs a lot of time and money, in a world where right every second (and every euro since the budget cap) counts. A wind tunnel in Woking should soon speed up that process considerably.