It’s a whole new era of Formula 1 for McLaren who are now called McLaren Honda, with Honda back into the sport after a 22 year absence. They will be producing the 2015 Power unit for McLaren.
On the front of the car they have the slopping nose. This is mainly for aerodynamic reasons, it is one case to house all the crash structure within it. This is the same approach Ferrari went to also. The top of the chassis has the vanity panel which is blended into the nose cone likewise a lot of the other teams have gone for.
This nose gives the rest of the car a very subtle airflow to the rear of the car especially the rear wing and y100 winglet. The long nose also has major involvement on the production of the vortex in the Y250 along the centerline of the MP4-30. There is now more control of the airflow that passes beneath the mainplane of the front wing, making the vortex stronger and more manageable for the engineers.
The TV cameras have been positioned low on the McLaren nose, right in front of the upper wishbone. This again doesn’t disturb much of the airflow as it passes by. Conventional pushrod front suspension remains for 2015 for McLaren with the blown wheel hubs also on show on the front axle.
Moving onto the central section of the car we can see how well packaged the car is, forming a very narrow coke bottle architecture. Looking onto the top of the sidepod it is lined with a pair of vortex generators to improve downwash over the bodywork while a very simple vertical vanes flanks (vertical turning vanes) line the car each side to deflect front tyre wake away.
Looking at the airbox that looks quite large. With the central inlet for engine combustion and the top inlet for water and oil cooling. Two smaller inlets have also been made into the chassis beneath the airbox, possibly to help cool the ERS battery which lies in close proximity to the driver in the survival cell.
At the rear of the engine cover its heating louvres are now gone as well as the cooling outlets McLaren ran last year. This tells us that McLaren have a tighter hold on the cooling requirements the Honda power unit needs. This has therefore reduced the rear packaging of the car. It’s very slim compared to the MP4-29 which had very bulky sidepods due to the Mercedes Power unit instillation.
Now we come to the very rear of the car. we can see its upper wishbone had fins or is blended outwards for aerodynamic reasons. This is the new idea McLaren have to replace its fairings (mushroom blockers) they ran last year. This is all to gain rear downforce on the car as it hits the wishbone and pushes the rear especially in to the asphalt. This is all to re-gain lost downforce after the rear beam wing was banned in 2014.
Onto the rear wing and McLaren have its tubercles rear wing from last year which is paired to a set of new endplates for 2015. The top mainplane features the tubercles. The new endplates feature vortex flow gaps as well as its top louvres for less drag in the high speed corners. Something McLaren tried late last year.
Overall the MP4-30 is a very nice package. But the tight rear could end up with electrical or cooling issues for McLaren. There is no doubt that if the Honda power unit works well they will give Mercedes a fight, as we saw both Alonso and Button fight the roar torque that engine has on offer, which tells us it has a lot of power and therefore speed. It should be a interesting comeback for McLaren Honda.
