F1 expert ‘would question’ McLaren for ‘surprising’ 2024 car decision after MCL38 launch

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Formula 1 design expert Gary Anderson ‘would question’ McLaren for one concept the Woking team have adopted with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri’s MCL38 car for 2024.

Sakhir is eagerly waiting on F1’s return to the Bahrain International Circuit later this month for pre-season testing. But McLaren took the covers off the MCL38 this Wednesday as Norris and Piastri put their new challenger through its paces in a shakedown session at Silverstone.

McLaren will hope the MCL38 picks up where the MCL60 left off last season after becoming consistent front runners. Norris sealed seven podiums – including six second-place finishes – following their first set of big upgrades at the Austrian GP. Piastri also sealed two podiums.

McLaren unveiled the MCL38 at a shakedown at Silverstone

Piastri was the first rookie Formula 1 driver since Lewis Hamilton with McLaren during 2007 to enjoy multiple podiums. The 22-year-old even won the Sprint event at the Qatar GP from pole position. Piastri finished third at the Japanese GP before taking second in the Qatar GP.

Norris, meanwhile, only finished off the podium – when he saw the chequered flag – at the Mexico City GP and Abu Dhabi GP after McLaren brought further upgrades to the Singapore GP in 2023. He took second at Marina Bay, Suzuka, COTA and Interlagos, plus third at Lusail.

Gary Anderson finds McLaren’s new radiator inlet ‘surprising’

But former Jordan designer and technical director Anderson feels the MCL38 is by and large ‘fairly similar’ to the MCL60. The only glaring aerodynamical difference between McLaren’s 2023 and 2024 cars is a ‘surprising’ radiator inlet duct with Norris and Piastri’s car this year.

“One area that is a little surprising, to me, is the change in the radiator inlet duct,” Anderson has told The Race.

“McLaren have gone off at a tangent to all the other cars we’ve seen so far this year by switching from a Red Bull ‘duckbill’-style inlet – also a McLaren development in 2023 – to a more forward-facing inlet.”

He added: “From what I can see aerodynamically, other than the radiator inlet change – which I would question – it is all fairly similar to what McLaren finished with last season.”

The radiator inlet on the MCL60 had an extended lower edge to funnel the airflow over the top of the sidepods. But the MCL38’s radiator inlet will let the air go under the sidepod and along the floor edge. McLaren will see how it works in anger at the Bahrain GP on March 2.