McLaren’s short gearing explains its Zandvoort advantage over Mercedes

Two consecutive victories from pole for McLaren’s Lando Norris to bring him within 83 points of Kimi Antonelli’s championship lead with half the season still to go had Mercedes’ Toto Wolff concerned at Zandvoort. The McLaren MCL40 had been heavily updated for both Hungary and Holland as the team’s development programme really kicks on.

“We haven’t got the money to put developments on our account,” Wolff said in reference to the cost cap all teams must comply with. “We are trying to evenly split it through the season based on our calculations of where we can bring the biggest updates for the best optimisation of points. But we can just do what we can do. It’s a development race and if you bring an upgrade each of the top teams will find a couple of tenths at least and that’s what you lose. So it’s a bit tougher than at the start of the year.”

A Mercedes upgrade is expected in Baku but they can only know how close they are to their own cost cap, not how that compares with how much spending headroom their rivals have. “You will see towards the end of the season if they are going to be able to deploy as much stuff on the car as they do now,” continued Wolff. “Someone might have a different strategy in spending more at the beginning and in the middle than towards the end… We’re just continuing to execute the plan and what the financial realities mean for us.”

“We’re clearly not the fastest car on the grid any more,” said Antonelli after being caught and passed by Norris at Zandvoort. Even after he’d made a third stop for new tyres in a vain attempt at re-catching the flying McLaren, Antonelli had been unable to lap any quicker than Norris on rubber which was nine laps older. “We’re probably second or third fastest,” he continued, “as McLaren has taken a huge step.”

McLaren’s Andrea Stella wasn’t necessarily buying Mercedes’ take, saying, “I’m sure that Mercedes, having seen how their rivals have elevated their game, will now cash in on their development… I’m sure the car in the wind tunnel is quite a bit faster than the car they have on track and they will now want to convert some of that potential into upgrades that make it to the real car.”

Wolff and Stella at least seem to agree that what we are seeing is just the offset in the steps of the respective development programmes of each team. But what if it’s not that? Or at least, not all of it. Is there something unusual about the McLaren which made it perfectly suited to the Hungaroring and Zandvoort? Actually, yes there is: its short gearing.

McLaren is the only Mercedes customer to make its own gearbox. The Alpine and Williams use the Mercedes gearbox and so are geared identically to the works car. At the 10,500rpm at which the regulations dictate the fuel flow must begin reducing, they are geared for 190mph in eighth gear. McLaren chose to go shorter and at 10,500rpm its car will be at 179mph. Above 179mph the McLaren will be struggling against a decreasing fuel flow to find more speed, whereas the Mercedes doesn’t reach that point for another 11mph. At any point on the track where the cars exceed 179mph, the McLaren will be losing time to the Mercedes (and others). But the shorter gears give you more accelerative punch out of and through the corners.

Another drawback of the short gearing is that it makes traction out of slower corners difficult as that immense torque is multiplied more before being transferred to the tyres, which obliges you to prioritise getting plenty of downforce on the rear, giving you a more rearwards-biased centre of pressure. Such a car will tend to be more stable in high-speed corners, but a little reluctant in low-speed.

“We’re not the fastest car on the grid any more. We’re second or third fastest”

The sector characteristics of Zandvoort really made it plain just how unusual the McLaren’s performance split is, around a quarter-second slower than the Mercedes through the straight-dominated first sector and 0.3sec quicker through the fast turns of the middle sector. These are huge swings for two cars which set more or less the same lap time and reflect the pros and cons of gearing and associated aero balance perfectly.

This is why Norris is slightly downbeat despite having won two consecutive races from pole: “No one matches us in high-speed, and that’s a good thing. My pace advantage to Mercedes in Turn 7, 8 was crazy, but the advantage that they have to us in slow speed is also crazy. And therefore, I don’t have the confidence to say, ‘Yeah, I can easily fight for a championship for the rest of the season.’ I know I’ve just won two races in a row and had two poles in a row, but at the minute I don’t have the car I need to fight for a championship. And I know that’s quite a big comment, but I think last year I understood what is needed from a car and what was needed for myself.

“And I know the level that I am now and what I know I can perform at, and I know just what I need from the car. And I know what tracks we have coming up where we’re going to certainly struggle more.”