First, we are going to go to one of the obvious things, given that there has already been speculation about the design of the front suspension of the car.
As hinted at in the team’s introduction video, the car features a pull-rod design at the front, which it used in 2013 but abandoned just a year later when the hybrid era began.
Both push-rod and pull-rod systems offer rewards in terms of where the weight of the suspension components is placed on the chassis. The pull-rod is mounted low, but the push rod is considered to be easier for mechanics to work with as the components are better accessible.
The arm’s position among the other suspension components also has some aerodynamic ramifications and is likely to be the primary factor in your decision to use a pull-rod design at the front of the car.
McLaren MCL36 rear suspension
However, the real unknown when it came to suspension was at the rear of the MCL36, where they changed the script and opted for a push-rod design, as shown above.
The images suggest that the team has also opted to replace the raised vertical solution, which is banned this season, with a multi-link arrangement, as the front arm is lower than the rear (red arrow, pictured above).
Details of the front of the McLaren MCL36
Moving on to aerodynamics, the McLaren F1 front wing design follows the direction we’ve seen from others so far, in that the main plane is not connected to the nose body. This allows greater freedom in the position of the element with respect to the ground.
McLaren has opted for a sloping center section (red arrows, pictured above), meaning it doesn’t have to be as aggressive with the design of the entire front end.
The top three elements connect to the nose cone, and the tip of that nose is set slightly back from the edge of the first element.
The adjustable section of the wing is also located further out than the Aston Martin AMR22, and the wing adjuster is located just forward of the front tire.
Interestingly, McLaren have created tight lines between the wings and their junction with the endplate, which will no doubt result in a series of vortices being sheared off and fed through and around the tire (blue arrows).
That attempt to recover some of the outwash effect that the 2022 rules try to avoid will also be aided by the shape of the endplate, as it is tilted away from vertical where it meets the plane in the shape of an airplane (white arrows).
The main body of the nose is not very high, which leaves plenty of room for airflow to be directed towards the center of the car’s floor. To achieve that, there are two distinct transitions as the nose rises to meet the chassis.
Morro del McLaren MCL36
McLaren have also positioned the front brake duct slats slightly away from the tire sidewall, so that airflow is captured between the two surfaces. That will help feed the little brake duct inlet that sticks out on both sides.
The pontoons are reminiscent of the design used by McLaren in recent seasons, although with a new entry to meet the criteria of the new regulations. The upper surface of the pontoon slopes down to meet the entrance, and the lower leading edge is set back.
The sidepod is much narrower than what we’ve seen on other rigs, following the previous design trend of quickly sloping toward the ground to expose it and the Coke bottle region to the most airflow as fast as possible.
The rear end of the sidepods and engine cover are slightly bulged to accommodate the power unit and inboard-mounted exhausts, then feed into a waist-high cooling outlet at the rear of the car.
The floor presents the elevation before the diffuser, as we have seen in other models. However, the team has settled on a single gooseneck-style rear wing mounting pillar that is connected to the DRS actuator pod.
It is not clear without a good view from behind whether the wing beam is made up of one or two elements.
And while there’s no diffuser intake, there’s no reason to suggest the team won’t also use the maximum size available, rather than the more aesthetically appealing solution shown by the FOM show car.
There are also questions about the team’s aerodynamic intent, given the fins seen mounted behind the curved wing mirror mounts and on the vertical halo mounts.
McLaren MCL36 fins
Perhaps most interesting of all, while the team has hidden some of its cards and doesn’t reveal all the design features of its flat background, such as the foils that are allowed, slightly hidden from view, there is a very different with the shape of the entrance to its underground tunnels that we should pay attention to.
As indicated by the red arrows in the image below, it often appears to drop close to the chassis to create a crack that is fed by the bib section and splitter under the chassis.
Not only does this have an impact on the width of the tunnel, but it seems to steal some surface area from the ‘bib’ (notice how the yellow line denoting the tunnel wall is at the top of the bib, which is highlighted with a line white).
Such an arrangement can not only help speed the flow around the front face of the pontoon as it emerges from the crack in the upper ground, it can also increase the size of the tunnel entrance.
Entrance to the tunnel of the McLaren MCL36 and dorsal
