F1 News
McLaren very happy with Mercedes cooperation after late start
- GPblog.com
McLaren will be starting with Mercedes engines next season. Quite a change in a season that is considered by the other teams as a gap year. McLaren therefore has a little catching up to do, but according to technical director James Key, this is going in the right direction.
Not least because of their excellent cooperation with Mercedes, Key says in the F1 Nation podcast: "Obviously we didn't start as early as we would have liked... but I think we've caught up well. The interaction with Mercedes has been fantastic; they were very supportive and recognised the fact that we had a short time frame. We have worked very effectively with them over the last few months."
2021 rule changes bigger than expected
Thanks to that effort, the team is now about as far along in their preparations for 2021 as they would normally be. Originally, a slight delay would not have been a problem at all, but the FIA announced rule changes at a rather late stage.
This is because cutting away part of the floor has quite an impact on the car's aerodynamics and the teams are now in a race against time to regain the lost downforce. "It was a reasonable hit, but we are trying to win it back as best we can. We are making progress every week, but there is still more to do."