2017 Mclaren 570 on 2040-cars

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What McLaren's new boss has to say about the F1 team he just took over

You might have read recently that American Zak Brown will take over the reins of McLaren from Ron Dennis. That means Brown, a former pro racer with long-time ties to Formula 1, will also run the road-car business. But while that's important, his passion and more immediate focus is the F1 team, which has had some trouble taking on Mercedes-AMG Petronas recently. If you follow F1 and are keen to know what Brown plans to do to take the fight to Mercedes, you're in luck. Our friend and veteran motorsport journalist Marshall Pruett got Brown for a one-on-one interview, and it's insightful if you're a big McLaren fan, perhaps inspirational. Take a listen below, and if you like what you hear you can find more of Pruett's podcasts right here. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Related Video: Hirings/Firings/Layoffs Motorsports McLaren Racing Vehicles

McLaren's novel MP4-31 suspension revealed

Giorgio Piola and Matt Somerfield analyze the innovative suspension design on McLaren's new MP4-21 Formula 1 car. McLaren has openly talked about there being some 'innovation' on its 2016 Formula 1 car when the first images of the Honda-powered machine emerged on Sunday. And while there were already hints from the launch pictures about an aggressive suspension solution, it was only when the new car hit the track at Barcelona on Monday that such concepts have been confirmed. As Giorgio Piola's exclusive photograph below shows, McLaren has been very bold with its front suspension design - with the upper rear arm much lower than is normal. McLaren MP4-31 detail Photo by: Giorgio Piola It was interesting too that the team had fitted additional sensors on both of the rear arms of the wishbones to help monitor data from this area during the first day of testing. Suspension thinking Rather than an assimilation of the conjoined lower wishbone (see below), pioneered by Mercedes in 2014 and adopted elsewhere, we can see that McLaren is thinking independently. Mercedes AMG F1 Team W07 detail Photo by: Giorgio Piola The front suspension can have a marked effect on how the airflow moves down and around the rest of the car and so the teams have to carefully plan its layout, as it is exceptionally difficult to change once designed. McLaren is clearly searching for previously untapped aerodynamic performance, with the rear profile of each of the wishbone arms placed virtually on top of one another. The upper of the two is slung lower than usual, meaning it should work in unison to pull the airflow down and around the sidepod, rather into or over it. These early tests, with the sensors placed on the wishbones, are used to correlate the on track data with what the team expected when the car was tested both kinematically and aerodynamically in CFD, the wind tunnel and on the seven-post shaker rig. Red Bull push The pitlane launch of the 2016 Red Bull challenger, amongst a frenzy of other machines, means a more detailed analysis of it will follow later. However, one area of interest, like the McLaren, is the front suspension. It has converged on the idea of conjoining the lower wishbone element but, as is usual for Red Bull, it has taken it to extremes, with only a small opening now available at the inboard sections. Of course this is done for its aerodynamic purposes with the large surface area allowing a smoother transition of the airflow.

Touring the Boulevard at the McLaren Technology Centre

Ask anyone where the supercar capital of the world is and they'll likely point you towards Italy. But that's not the only place where supercars are born. Nor is it – despite the best efforts of Ferrari – home to the bulk of grand prix victories and world championships. Those bragging rights belong to a section of England we call Carbon Fiber Valley. It's where you'll find the majority of Formula One teams and suppliers, and at its heart lies the sleepy town of Woking. With a little over 60,000 inhabitants, Woking wouldn't register on most radars. But it blips big on ours thanks to the McLaren Technology Centre, home to one of the most successful teams in F1 history and a supercar manufacturer to rival Italy's best. It's one of the great gearhead meccas of the world. So on our last visit to the UK we took a stroll along the boulevard of McLaren history. Hidden on more than a hundred green acres at the outskirts of Woking lies a space-age complex designed by Norman Foster, one of Britain's preeminent architects. Both inside and out, it could double as a super-villain's lair in most any fantastical action movie. The McLaren Technology Centre (MTC) opened in 2003. The campus grew with the addition of the McLaren Production Centre (MPC) in 2011, and other facilities that are in the works. MTC hugs one of four artificial lakes that help cool the building and the adjoining wind tunnel. The entire building is pristine, everything above ground in glass and metal, everything below well-lit and lined with white panels. It's an embodiment of the McLaren ethos and the manifestation of chairman Ron Dennis' notorious obsession with detail. The cafeteria, for example, has lower air pressure than the rest of the building, so that smells don't escape into the hallway. Walking around, you get the feeling the entire structure could at any moment rise from the ground and rocket off into space. The story is just as impressive at the adjacent MPC where technicians assemble the 650S, P1, and the forthcoming Sports Series. If things were any cleaner, less cluttered, or more spotlessly sterile, you'd think you were in an operating room. Unfortunately, photography of the assembly facility is prohibited, but that's just as well, because what we really came to see was the Boulevard. While most F1 teams sell or scrap their used cars, McLaren keeps the vast majority of its own.