McLaren – Page 17 – Syndication Server

McLaren withdraws from Island X Prix II after second roll

NEOM McLaren has confirmed that it is withdrawing from the remainder of the Island X Prix II weekend in Sardinia after a second major incident in as many days. On Friday, Emma Gilmour rolled out of the first free practice session, an incident that …

NEOM McLaren has confirmed that it is withdrawing from the remainder of the Island X Prix II weekend in Sardinia after a second major incident in as many days.

On Friday, Emma Gilmour rolled out of the first free practice session, an incident that destroyed the team’s car and necessitated an overnight stay in hospital for the New Zealander.

On Saturday the team utilized the championship’s spare car, with championship reserve driver Tamara Molinaro stepping in to Gilmour’s spot alongside Tanner Foust – a move that made her the second-ever female to race for McLaren, and the first Italian to do so since Andrea de Cesaris at the 1981 Caesars Palace Grand Prix.

However, during the Redemption Race on Saturday afternoon, Molinaro flipped after contact with JBXE’s Hedda Hosas at the start of the race.

Molinaro emerged from the incident without any significant injury, but the car was heavily damaged. Just before 9 p.m. local time, the team issued a statement confirming their immediate withdrawal from the weekend.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=5858]

“The NEOM McLaren Extreme E Team regrets to confirm that we will not be competing in round eight of the 2023 Extreme E season,” it said.

“Due to damage sustained to the chassis during the Redemption Race earlier [Saturday], it will not be possible to repair the car in time for [Sunday’s] running and we have therefore taken the difficult decision to not participate in round eight.

“As racers, this is not a call we take lightly, especially given the efforts of the team to prepare for and during the event. However, the number one priority is that both Emma and Tamara are alright and in good spirits following their incidents.

“Our full focus will now be on the final two rounds in Chile and ending the season on a high.”

With McLaren sidelined, just nine teams will take part in the second half of the Island X Prix II, round eight of the 10-round season. It will be the first time since the championship’s inaugural campaign in 2021 that fewer than 10 teams have contested a championship round.

O’Ward confirmed for McLaren FP1 run in Abu Dhabi

McLaren has confirmed Pato O’Ward will drive for the team in FP1 at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Each team has to run a rookie on at least two occasions during each season, and Oscar Piastri’s debut weekend in Bahrain counted as the first outing. …

McLaren has confirmed Pato O’Ward will drive for the team in FP1 at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Each team has to run a rookie on at least two occasions during each season, and Oscar Piastri’s debut weekend in Bahrain counted as the first outing. McLaren CEO Zak Brown had previously suggested both Alex Palou and O’Ward (pictured above, with Brown) would get FP1 runs, but after plans to use Palou fell through when the Spaniard opted to remain with Chip Ganassi Racing in IndyCar, McLaren assessed its options and has confirmed O’Ward will now get his opportunity in November.

The Mexican drove in his first FP1 in Abu Dhabi last season and now will repeat the appearance a the final round of the current season, at a track the Arrow McLaren IndyCar star has also driven when taking part in young driver tests. Team principal Andrea Stella has confirmed that O’Ward will get two chances to drive, with a similar test taking place after the race at Yas Marina Circuit.

O’Ward finished fourth in the IndyCar drivers’ standings this season, giving him a total of 34 Super License points from the past three seasons, while he gained an extra point for completing over 100km without penalty in his FP1 appearance last season. But with the FIA appendix allowing a driver to pick results three of their past four seasons due to the impact of COVID, O’Ward can select two fourth places and a third from IndyCar that gives him the 40 required.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1388]

“The situation with Pato is we are actually checking with the FIA — we think he is eligible now for a Super License, so he is qualified to drive a Formula 1 car and be in a position to be one of the reserve drivers,” Stella said.

“In terms of the two main events that would have involved either Alex or Pato, they were one more session of FP1 where we have to have a so-called young driver who hasn’t participated in more than two races, and then the post-Abu Dhabi test.

“Initially these kind of events would have been split between the two, but obviously now in this situation we will have Pato at the wheel in Free Practice 1 in Abu Dhabi and then can confirm that he will also be driving the Tuesday after the race in Abu Dhabi in one of the two cars that teams are able to put on track. So we are looking forward to having Pato in FP1 and at the test.”

Norris excited about biggest McLaren updates since Austria

Lando Norris says McLaren will have new parts at the Singapore Grand Prix that are the team’s biggest upgrades since Austria, but with a specific focus that excites him, McLaren made a major step forward in terms of competitiveness at the Red Bull …

Lando Norris says McLaren will have new parts at the Singapore Grand Prix that are the team’s biggest upgrades since Austria, but with a specific focus that excites him,

McLaren made a major step forward in terms of competitiveness at the Red Bull Ring back in July, with Norris finishing fourth and then following that with back-to-back second places at Silverstone and the Hungaroring. With a further set of upgrades being introduced over the next two weekends, Norris says it has the potential to give the team another step.

“Yes, on my car,” Norris said. “A couple of them on the rear wing that we had in Zandvoort, with which we ended up not using then, and saving for here. And then some small things that you’ll probably quite easily see on the rest of the car. So yeah, probably since Austria, it’s the thing that we believe will kind of help us move forward the most since then.

“That has been good, but obviously, we’re not running on the track yet. So we have kind of (decided) don’t say too much until we’ve actually got it to work properly. But a good step — the team have worked hard to get (the parts) to this one, for one of the cars here and then Oscar (Piastri) will have the rest in Japan too. So an exciting couple of weekends for us.”

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1388]

Norris is particularly excited about the upgrades given the positive impact the Austria package had, but also because the Singapore parts are specifically targeted at a McLaren weakness.

“Definitely more (excited) than those of the last few years — sometimes you put stuff on, and it’s not really delivered what we wanted or what it should have done,” he acknowledged. “So definitely after Austria and how much we progressed since then, it gives me more hope.

“But it’s also a bit more slower-speed biased, which is a bit different to what we had in Austria. So I think that’s probably why we’re being a little bit more cautious on saying how big of a step or how much it’s going to help. Because it’s been a bit easier for us to add load in the kind of medium- to high-speed corners, and less so in very slow speed. But this is our first time we’ve been able to really try to target that a bit more. So we’ll see tomorrow.

“Since we’ve had a bit of a restructure and everything, the first opportunity to show something was Austria. Now, that was just kind of just put load on the car. Now it’s a bit more trying to target a few more specific areas, which is gonna be the first time we’ve probably done that a little bit more. So yeah, I’m interested.

“I think it’s not going to help in exactly the places where from a driving style point of view, I would probably want it but it should just help a little bit of overall load, the cornering speeds and just kind of consistency — tire wear, traction, things like that. But maybe not so much specifically with allowing me to kind of drive the car a bit more in a way that I want.

“It is just a performance enhancement — it’s not like something to make me feel better in the car. But we’ll find out the rest of it tomorrow.”

McLaren getting ‘massive advantage’ from new wind tunnel

Team principal Andrea Stella says McLaren is seeing a “massive advantage” from being able to develop its 2024 car in its own wind tunnel from both a logistical and cost cap perspective. McLaren had been using the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, …

Team principal Andrea Stella says McLaren is seeing a “massive advantage” from being able to develop its 2024 car in its own wind tunnel from both a logistical and cost cap perspective.

McLaren had been using the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany, but built its own state of the art tunnel at its Woking, UK headquarters that came online this summer. Stella says the transition between the two facilities has been almost seamless and the significant benefits are already being felt.

“We started working and developing the 2024 car in the new wind tunnel,” Stella said. “This process has been very smooth, to be honest. We were ready to face some anomalies and scratch our heads, but in reality there has been really good continuity between the work we were doing at Toyota and the work we are doing at the MTC wind tunnel, obviously with a massive advantage from a logistical point of view and from a financial savings point of view.”

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1388]

It is important McLaren gets as much time as possible in its new wind tunnel, having found that the step it made in performance this year actually opened up further developments that need exploring for the 2024 car.

“Thanks to the understanding and the knowledge we generated at the start of the season once we started to work on the upgrades, we realized we do need to evolve the chassis and other aspects of car layout in order to further exploit aerodynamics,” Stella explained. “The more you know, the more you know you can do further, while after year one most of the elements of layout were in continuity from year one to year two, potentially because we didn’t know enough about what is possible. Now we are more knowledgable, and therefore we are actually adding work — because we know more — to modify the layout of the car for next year and cash in more aerodynamic benefit.”

On top of next year’s car, Stella says there could be some upgrades that are brought later this season that will improve performance based on the work being done for 2024.

“There are some areas that you can develop on next year’s car and, if they are successful, think about should we release them for this year’s car,” he said. “I don’t want to say which areas, but definitely there’s a couple of areas where we have this approach towards the development. In this case we will have to look at if we can afford that, because if we go beyond from a budget point of view, it will depend on the cost and the project being mature enough.”

McLaren drivers ‘respect each other’ despite Monza clash

Lando Norris says there is a good level of respect between himself and Oscar Piastri after the pair made contact in the Italian Grand Prix. Piastri was emerging from the pits with Norris at full speed on the outside on the run to Turn 1, and tried …

Lando Norris says there is a good level of respect between himself and Oscar Piastri after the pair made contact in the Italian Grand Prix.

Piastri was emerging from the pits with Norris at full speed on the outside on the run to Turn 1, and tried to hold his position having been ahead of his teammate before the pit stops. But Norris was just ahead at the first chicane and Piastri made contact with the right rear of the lead McLaren, although both were able to continue unscathed as the stewards opted to take no further action.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1388]

“I guess he was just on cold tires, had a little bit of understeer,” Norris said. “I tried to leave enough of a gap… It’s very difficult to see in the mirror. I left a good gap, but just hard and cold tires, it’s not a nice combination, and I guess he just ran into my rear tire.

“No (not ideal), but I think we respect each other, we give each other space, and fortunately nothing happened, so it’s all OK.”

Norris ended up eighth after a race spent behind Alex Albon throughout, and he says the end result doesn’t necessarily reflect the car’s performance, which he says is a clear improvement from McLaren’s struggles at Spa-Francorchamps.

“I think the pace was strong. It was just very difficult to overtake, as usual, but when we didn’t have to overtake, the pace was good. We could pressure Alex the whole race, but he did a very good job, so hats off to him and Williams, they were quick this weekend and managed to stay ahead.

“I think it was the best we could have done, so happy with that. Big thanks go to the team, both at track and at the factory, for reacting after Spa and giving us a more competitive package.”

Arrow McLaren drivers set for vintage McLarens at Velocity Invitational

Arrow McLaren IndyCar drivers Pato O’Ward, Alexander Rossi, and Tony Kanaan will join the brand’s 60th anniversary celebrations at this year’s Velocity Invitational event at Sonoma Raceway, November 10-12. The trio, along with McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown and other drivers that will be announced at a later date, will take to the 2.52-mile California road course in a selection of historic McLaren cars ranging across open-wheel and sports car racing.

“Velocity Invitational is a spectacle of some of the world’s most unique and special cars, and to see our McLaren drivers get behind the wheel of our heritage collection at Sonoma Raceway and bring those cars to life again is an experience you cannot get anywhere else,” said Brown. “We’re excited to be part of it this year, celebrating our 60 years as a racing team.”

Velocity Invitational, which is now in its fourth year, has become a staple event for McLaren. The 2021 edition of the event featured O’Ward driving Mika Hakkinen’s 1998 championship-winning MP4/13, while last year Mario Andretti got behind the wheel of a 2013 McLaren MP4-28, with McLaren’s Extreme E driver Tanner Foust driving a McLaren F1 GTR, while a 1990 MP4/5B and a 1985 MP4/2B were shared between Hakkinen, Foust, and O’Ward over the weekend.

This year, as part of McLaren’s 60th anniversary celebrations, the company is sending “the largest collection of heritage cars that the team has run in the event, and many of these cars are rarely seen in North America” to Velocity. It follows a similar appearance at the Goodwood Festival of Speed where the team showcased a number historic cars, including Hakkinen’s 1999 championship-winning MP4/14A, Lewis Hamilton’s 2008 championship-winning MP4/14A MP4/23A, the 1970 Can-Am M8D-01, Emerson Fittipaldi’s 1974 M23-05 and an MP4/2B-03 previously driven by Alain Prost and Niki Lauda.

‘It’s clear we made the wrong decision’ – Norris

Lando Norris says the Dutch Grand Prix was another example of McLaren making bad decisions that cost the team points, something he feels has happened too often this season. McLaren kept both drivers out on slick tires early in the race when rain was …

Lando Norris says the Dutch Grand Prix was another example of McLaren making bad decisions that cost the team points, something he feels has happened too often this season.

McLaren kept both drivers out on slick tires early in the race when rain was falling at Zandvoort, with Norris dropping as low as 15th when he came in on Lap 3. Having started second, that left the British driver with a mountain to climb throughout the rest of the race and he didn’t view the recovery to seventh at the checkered flag as negating the initial call.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1388]

“I’m not going to talk too much otherwise I’ll create a headline and I’m really bad at that,” Norris said. “It’s clear we made the wrong decision, we made a bad decision, it’s something we’ll talk about and review, we’ve made a couple this season, we’ve lost too many positions and too many points with a couple of these things.

“The second part of the race we made the right decisions, one of the first to box, gained some time, a position on George (Russell), but the first one was… not great.”

However, Norris doesn’t believe strategic decisions are necessarily a weakness of McLaren’s, saying it’s just that the bad calls stick out compared to the good ones.

“It changes, I think there’s been plenty of times we made the right decision and the good decisions, and we’ve gained, but generally you remember more the ones that you lose on than you gain on, so I don’t think it’s really the same thing. I think they’re quite different, and we’ve made some good progress with a lot of it, but days like (Sunday) were evident we were a long way from where we needed to be.”

Norris survived a late scare when contact with Russell was noted by the stewards, but no further action was taken despite the Mercedes driver picking up a puncture after the light touch.

“Yeah just the cars are so sharp nowadays you touch a bit and you have four punctures all of a sudden, so, it was just good racing, we were close, wheel to wheel, I feel bad he came off that way but nothing I could have done differently.”

Palou missing chance to prove he has F1 mentality – Brown

Alex Palou’s decision to not honor his McLaren contract in 2024 means the IndyCar championship leader is missing his chance to prove if he had “the mental ability” to handle Formula 1, according to Zak Brown. Legal proceedings have begun against …

Legal proceedings have begun against Palou after McLaren stated it has a valid contract with him for next season that would have involved an IndyCar race seat and F1 opportunities, with the Spaniard set to remain with Ganassi. Brown believes Palou still hadn’t proven he could make it in F1 and points to Daniel Ricciardo’s hand injury as proof that a chance could have arisen at any stage.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1388]

“Alex is obviously a very talented driver, we had him in our car a handful,” Brown said. “I think whether it’s Alex or any other driver, to be a Formula 1 driver, you have to have the pace, but you also have to have the mental ability, if you like, in Formula 1 – there’s so much you have to do as a driver to be a complete driver.

“I have no idea what’s going through his mind because I’ve not spoken with him. But things move fast in Formula 1. Drivers can break their wrist in an instant so I think if you want to do F1 you need to kind of hang around the hoop and see what opportunities provide.

“Like Nyck (de Vries) wasn’t on anyone’s radar, does one race, got a Formula 1 seat. I don’t know what’s in his mind, but hanging around the hoop, and being in an F1 environment, to me, seems to give you the best opportunity to become a Formula 1 driver in whatever team that might be.”

RACER understands AlphaTauri had been showing interest in Palou, although he was not in the frame to replace Ricciardo as Red Bull chose reserve driver Liam Lawson over de Vries.

One of Brown’s biggest annoyances is the way Palou has handled the contract situation, saying there has been no direct contact on a personal level.

“It’s very disappointing, we had a very good relationship. He hasn’t personally communicated with me about it, which is rather disappointing, given all that we’ve done for him and the opportunities that we have provided. I don’t think his decision has anything to do with McLaren per se, our relationship was very strong, it’s disappointing how it’s been handled on a personal level.

“I think all our relationships with our drivers are something McLaren takes very seriously, I think we do a good job of creating a family environment for our drivers, so to be let down, especially in that manner, is pretty disappointing.”

Norris optimistic McLaren can maintain strong Friday form

Lando Norris says McLaren can definitely remain competitive for the top positions at the Dutch Grand Prix as long as it doesn’t make any mistakes. An interrupted FP2 saw Norris set the pace, beating Red Bull’s Max Verstappen by just 0.023s on the …

Lando Norris says McLaren can definitely remain competitive for the top positions at the Dutch Grand Prix as long as it doesn’t make any mistakes.

An interrupted FP2 saw Norris set the pace, beating Red Bull’s Max Verstappen by just 0.023s on the qualifying simulations in the second session. That came after teammate Oscar Piastri had crashed earlier on, but Norris doesn’t believe that clouded the competitive picture too much and says multiple teams will be targeting high grid positions on Saturday.

“I think it’s going to be very close come tomorrow,” Norris said. “It’s a short track — it’s going to be very tight, between many people… You have the Williams there, Alpine are there, AlphaTauris are there, so it’s just going to be a scrap, a lot of people fighting for the top spot.

“It’s going to make it easy to do both things — not easy to get to the top but easy to get knocked out early on, and reward you well if you do a good job. It’s going to be tough. We can stay there, just no mistakes.”

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1388]

Norris says McLaren knew it wouldn’t show any relative performance until FP2, having prioritized data gathering in first practice on Friday.

“It’s good to be back in the car. (I was) feeling a little bit rusty, I will say, (but) a few laps and you’re back in it. But a good day for us.

“We sacrificed quite a bit of FP1 to do a lot of aero running so we were a little bit behind on learning and trying and testing some things, but valuable stuff for the future. I think to end up how we did today was encouraging and makes us look forward to tomorrow.”

There was also some words of comfort for Piastri, as Norris praised his performances up to this point and expects the rookie to shake off his crash.

“He can do it himself. It’s not up to me — I’m not the one driving his car. He’ll be all right, he’s done a good job so far. It happens, that’s it — he’s cool.”

Norris upstages Verstappen in second Dutch GP practice

Lando Norris set the pace in second practice for the Dutch Grand Prix but it was a session that was interrupted by a pair of crashes for Oscar Piastri and Daniel Ricciardo that left the latter with a potential injury. There had already been a close …

There had already been a close call between Nico Hulkenberg and Max Verstappen at the start of the session when it was red flagged after just nine minutes due to two drivers crashing at the same corner within seconds of each other.

Piastri was first to go off at Turn 3, losing the rear on hard tires and sliding into the wall with the right-hand side of his car, sustaining significant damage. With the McLaren prone on the outside of the banking — partly on the racing line due to the proximity of the barrier at that corner — Ricciardo was next on the scene and locked up as he appeared to react to the crash, going straight into the barrier himself.

Piastri’s car was the more heavily damaged of the two but Ricciardo suggested he had hurt his hand in the incident when asked if he was OK by his team over the radio. The Australian was then pictured leaving the medical centre with his arm in a sling during the session and taken to a local hospital for checks.

🚩 RED FLAG 🚩

Piastri and Ricciardo are stopped by the barriers on the banking! #DutchGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/ZO4e6ntCM5

— Formula 1 (@F1) August 25, 2023

The interruption meant there was under 40 minutes remaining in the session when it resumed, and Norris at least brought some cheer to the other side of the McLaren garage by setting the pace with a 1m11.330s. Verstappen was second after being more than 0.2s off on his first run, closing the gap to 0.023s having suggested his car was doing “weird things” in medium-speed corners.

Third quickest was Alex Albon as Williams’ strong start to the weekend continued, ending up 0.269s off Norris’ time and ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Yuki Tsunoda.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1388]

Pierre Gasly, Sergio Perez, Lance Stroll, Valtteri Bottas and Fernando Alonso completed the top 10, with both Ferrari drivers in the bottom half of the standings during an extremely close session.

While Charles Leclerc was 11th and within 0.6s of the fastest time, Carlos Sainz had a trip through the gravel at Turn 11 and then another at the penultimate corner as he took part in his first session of the weekend having stepped aside for Robert Shwartzman in FP1. Sainz was still just 0.763s off the pace in 16th, with the Haas pair of Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg the slowest of those to complete the session, both over a second adrift.