Are McLaren Going To Make Their Own Wind Tunnel?

If there’s a team that is constantly amid the process of developing its current Formula 1 car then it’s McLaren. In fact, it makes little sense to speak of Mercedes and Ferrari in the same breath for these two frontrunners in motorsport’s elitist competition are anyways powered with the design and engineering prowess to field powerful machines.

And given the past few seasons, we’ve seen how dominant has Mercedes followed by Ferrari are in the top-echelons of Formula 1.

But McLaren happen to be a pivotal name among the midfielders on the current grid to be constantly amid the many challenges one has to undergo to develop a strong contender.

And while their cars haven’t really bagged any wins or regular finishes inside the top-five among the pack of 20, it can be said that that the team have shown a drastic improvement vis-a-vis the past seasons.

Just consider a simple statement of fact. Where exactly was this team in the 2015 and 2016 seasons? Today, McLaren, bolstered by the talents of Carlos Sainz Jr. and Lando Norris are among the strongest in the midfield, having made a habit of finishing ahead of the likes of Haas’ and Alfa Romeos, the latter powered by the Scuderia Ferrari engine.

That said, in what appears to be a major step ahead in the (right) direction of car development is the fact that McLaren are to now developing their own wind tunnel, something the strong troika including Red Bull already have.

A leading motorsports journal happened to share the following on the developing story:

Seidl started work at McLaren at the start of May and was asked to identify weaknesses in terms of the team’s set-up in order to direct future investment. The new team principal told McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown that the use of the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne is not ideal, and although there is a facility at the McLaren Technology Centre that is currently not used by the F1 team, a new wind tunnel at the team’s headquarters would be beneficial.

That told, among the leading figures in the McLaren paddock- Siedl- shared the following, laying emphasis on the need to develop their own wind tunnel:

“One of the big deficits we have at the moment is clearly not running our own wind tunnel in Woking. For nearly 10 years, we’ve been developing our car remotely at Toyota in Cologne.