Ferrari refuses to credit McLaren’s new wind-tunnel for turnaround in F1 fortune
The Ferrari performance engineer Jock Clear believed that McLaren's newfound pace improvement wasn't because of the new wind tunnel facility.
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Oscar Piastri, Andrea Stella and Lando Norris (via IMAGO), Jock Clear (via Formula 1)
The 2024 season witnessed a massive comeback from McLaren in performance as compared to last year. The Woking-based outfit has already amassed the constructors’ lead amidst Red Bull’s struggles. Ferrari’s indifferent pace has disabled them from dreaming of championship glory.
Several individuals have raised questions about the areas that enabled McLaren to gain such a dominant pace in the MCL38. Ferrari’s performance engineer Jock Clear didn’t have a specific answer for the areas of improvement for Woking. Additionally, he questioned the fidelity of the wind tunnel and the belts and mechanism which had a big impact on performance.
I honestly don’t know the answer to that, but I generally have a reasonably good big picture of what is going on, just because of my experience, That is a big, big picture, like looking at the fidelity of our wind-tunnel and how old the belts and mechanisms are and is that having an impact?
Jock Clear told racingnews365.com
Regardless of the uncertainty, Jock Clear didn’t want to credit all the improvement on the wind tunnel alone. The Ferrari engineer noted that McLaren had done a good job this season in order to attain the championship lead against Red Bull. Hence, the coming few races would continue to witness an upward performance from the team.
Honestly, I have no idea and wouldn’t like to say that that is where McLaren’s performance is coming from, they’ve just done a good job this season.
Jock Clear added
Ferrari has continued to ‘close the gap’ to McLaren in the championship standings
Ferrari is currently behind McLaren in the constructors’ championship by over 75 points. Despite an up-and-down performance from the team, Jock Clear insisted that the Italian constructor was closing the gap to Woking. Regardless, there were still some circuits that favored the Orange Army more than the rest of the teams on the grid.
But actually, we’ve closed the gap to a large extent, there are still circuits which suit them, but certainly, you’ve seen over the past couple of races, we’ve closed the gap again.
Jock Clear noted
McLaren must not relax in the 2024 season after amassing the championship lead. Lando Norris is still hopeful of amassing the drivers’ championship against Max Verstappen in the remaining races. The ongoing campaign has six races to go with both world championships on the table.
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Aditya Pandya
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