The McLaren Formula 1 team is to build an all-new windtunnel at its Woking factory.
Although McLaren has made significant progress in 2019 its car still lacks fundamental downforce and, after new team principal Andreas Seidl analysed what improvements need to be made, McLaren’s board has signed off the construction of a new windtunnel.
The facility will replace McLaren’s current tunnel, which will be removed, and once that is functional McLaren will stop using Toyota’s facility in Cologne.
Speaking after qualifying at the French Grand Prix, Seidl said: “The 1.5 seconds we are missing to the top cars or even more depending on the race track is simply aero load.
“This is what we are working on, day and night back home in the factory, trying also to set up the car in the right window to use the downforce we developed in the windtunnel. I think that’s the main area we are working on.
“One of the biggest tasks I have at the moment from Zak [Brown, McLaren Racing CEO] and the shareholders – Sheikh Mohammad and Mansour [Ojjeh] is to point out the key deficits and weaknesses of the infrastructure, the structure at home, and the structure of working out here at the track.
“One of the big deficits we have clearly is not running our own windtunnel at Woking, so for almost 10 years we’ve developed it remotely at Toyota Motorsport in Cologne.
“So we’re very happy that the decision has been made that we install a new windtunnel in Woking.”
Seidl estimated that construction of the new windtunnel would take around two years.
F1’s 2021 regulations are likely to result in tighter restrictions on the usage of such facilities, but Seidl said the windtunnel would be used by other parts of the McLaren business as well.
“It’s important to have this windtunnel at home under your own control, because even with the restrictions that are coming, the more restrictions you have the more important it is to use it in the most efficient way and the most accurate way,” he said.