As Honda’s woes continue it is important that McLaren’s development rate on the chassis side remains high.
The MCL32 has had a variety of aerodynamic and mechanical upgrades successfully bolted on over the past three races, including two new diffusers of incredible complexity.
For Canada, the team trialled a much simpler, but nonetheless influential, new part – a curved mirror mount.
The new mounts are still fairly slender but far shorter than the huge stalks that the car has had since launch, branching up and arching outwards slightly in a similar fashion to those on the Williams and the Ferrari (although not quite as extreme).
While the stalks themselves can have a desirable impact on the airflow over the sidepod, altering their geometry is primarily focused on repositioning the mirror pod and managing the wake it produces. Although McLaren has remained fairly static in this area for many years, teams continue to experiment with different mirror pod shapes to control the air around the bluff body as best as possible.
It just shows Formula 1 is all about the details, no matter how small the resultant gain might be.
