Thread by @NorthHertsSam

The @McLarenF1 #MCL36 was revealed earlier today at the team’s woking factory, like all 2022 F1 cars the Mercedes powered design is a completely new concept as a result of the new technical regulations. (Tech Thread)

Most strikingly the McLaren is very different to the Aston Martin AMR22 (the only other 2022 F1 car to be launched at the time of writing. Unfortunately McLaren would not let us take any pictures of the real car, meaning that at present only renders are available.

Starting at the front of the car the nose is very interesting, sitting back from the lowermost element of the front wing. Its tip is slightly more sculpted than it seems in these renders.

The front wing protrudes significantly in the centre section, where it also dips significantly (again more than is really evident in these renders) and is reminiscent of a 2008 Honda wing, though not as extreme.

The front wing itself seems quite basic, and has four elements of roughly equal size. McLaren has stressed though that they expect to see some significant updates in this area.

Looking at the front wing end plate, it may be an optical illusion, but the McLaren design seems slightly more elongated than that of the Aston Martin. The single dive plane also differs slightly. Note the spacing of the wing elements.

Unfortunately I didn’t get a good look at the front brake ducts (McLaren literally turned out the lights!) but the designs in the render seem far too small, and I expect that this is one of a number of areas that McLaren wants to keep hidden.

McLaren also wanted to keep the entry to the floor tunnels completely hidden, they were covered on the launch car, and only very vague versions appear on this render.

Something that could not be hidden was the use of pull-rod front suspension, a choice driven by the aerodynamic concept of the car. For more on push vs pull rod - read this other thread:

A quick note on the wing mirrors supports - they are far more curvy than those seen on the Aston Martin or the show cars, they lack any outboard vertical support.

The side pods of the MCL36 are fascinating and are entirely different in concept to either the Aston Martin, Haas renders or any of the show cars. The ducts do not sweep rearward as predicted on the show cars.

The upper edge of the sidepod duct (which likely houses the side impact structure) sits slightly forward of the lower edge. Indeed the leading edge of the bulk of the sidepod seems to sit quite far forward.

Indeed the overall shape of the sidepod is very different to that of the Aston Martin (or indeed the show cars) tightening up almost immediately behind the cockpit. Note how the floor is wider than the sidepods.

Some images shown to media by McLaren featured small cooling gills alongside the cockpit, but these do not feature on the launch car or these renderings. There were no Aston Martin style exit louvres either.

There is a small blister on the widest point of the sidepod, just visible on these renders but quite apparent on the real car. It is not clear what they accommodate, but I suspect it is related to the cooling system.

We got a glimpse of the MCL36’s roll hoop a while before the launch and the concept is very similar to that of the MCL35 (shown here for comparison), and largely follows the concept utilised by all Mercedes powered cars.

There is a small additional cooling aperture below the main roll hoop, behind the small single curved support. Note the small winglet on the Halo.

The MCL36 rear bodywork could not be more different to that of the Mercedes powered Aston Martin, it cuts in tightly and does not overhang the floor at all.

As was the case in 2021, McLaren has shaped the engine cover to avoid the blisters seen on the Aston Martin & Mercedes W11/12, with a wide flattish tail section.

The rear floor on these renders is nothing like the floor on the launch car, the launch spec version has a very interesting folded shape in the mid to rear section, this itself may not be final. Note the low quality image of the launch floor.

Rear suspension is a pull rod layout, McLaren designs and builds its own transmission so has complete freedom of its internal parts, and pickup points.

The rear wing is far from the final version but does differ notably in shape from the version seen on the show car, and is quite different to that of the Aston Martin too. Expect updates here too.

I did try to get a look at the rear end of the MCL36 in Woking but it was very thoroughly covered up, and it does not appear at all in the renders!

So that’s my observations for now, I will probably update this thread soon with a better look at the car when it shakes down in Barcelona.

McLaren has said that they expect to bring a significant upgrade to the Bahrain test so there will be more to come!

There is an error here - I was rushing! Its obviously pushrod!