McLaren and Williams will be putting comprehensive upgrade packages through their paces during the Formula 1 Dutch Grand Prix.
The Woking-based McLaren outfit has arguably produced the most competent F1 package this season and the team will be striving to mount continued pressure upon Red Bull with a quintet of changes to the MCL38.
Beyond employing high drag beam and rear wing components in accordance with the demands of the low-speed Zandvoort layout, McLaren has wrought three performance-related changes to its machine.
A revised floor edge and front suspension, along with a new front brake scoop will seek to improve downstream airflow and generate greater aerodynamic load.
“You know, we’ve not really had an upgrade since Miami,” said Lando Norris.
“We’ve added little things to the car, but nothing which is really, I would say, in our terms, in most people’s terms, would be called an upgrade.
“It’s about time. But I think in a good sense we’ve taken our time to try and understand things well and we’ve seen other teams put things on the car, and it didn’t necessarily work. And we wanted to make sure we avoided that.”
McLaren sits just 42 points behind Red Bull in the Constructors’ standings with the Milton Keynes-based outfit not bringing a substantial upgrade package to Zandvoort.
A narrower central cooling exit and reprofiled halo and mirror stay elements are the only changes to the RB20 this weekend, whilst fellow top teams Mercedes and Ferrari see no changes to their respective cars this weekend.
In the midfield, Aston Martin also has no upgrades this weekend with Alpine making just two changes to its car in the form of a reprofiled front suspension leg and rear brake duct furniture.
Williams meanwhile, has also brought a considerable amount of changes to its FW46 machine.
The Grove-based outfit has been moderate with its upgrade delivery throughout the 2024 campaign and thus will hope for great returns from this raft of changes.
A fully updated floor body, a new rear diffuser and new sidepod geometry have been brought to the FW46 as Williams strives to improve its overall performance.
Logan Sargeant has said Williams is “hopeful and optimistic that those [upgrades] are going to you know, elevate us, push us in the right direction, potentially, you know, make us more competitive.”
In addition to these changes, Williams has revised its roll-hoop structure with a lighter design, in accordance with its weight-loss strategy – an important step given the team’s car has been overweight since the start of the campaign.
Haas has also made multiple changes to its car, with four revisions being made to the VF-24 ahead of the DutchGP.
Changes to the front wing, nose, front suspension and vertical deflector at the front corners are all designed to improve the airflow at the front of Haas’ F1 challenger.
At RB, there is a single change, coming at the rear corner of the VCARB 01.
Lower brake cooling requirements have prompted the Faenza-based outfit to reduce the duct area, in turn allowing for larger aerodynamic winglets in that region of the car.
Sauber, the only team in the field yet to score a point this campaign, has brought no changes to the C44 for the Dutch GP.
