McLaren target 'late and lean' MCL36 delivery

McLaren Operations Director Piers Thynne has explained the team's 'late and lean' approach to its MCL36 with upgrades targeted for the Bahrain season-opener in March.

F1 will race to an all-new set of aerodynamic regulations this year with teams forced to begin the design process from an almost completely blank sheet.

Explaining this unique challenge, Thynne explained: "Building the MCL36 to the new regulations is a significant burden, but it is perhaps more the cultural change of doing some things in a different way.

"We are very keen to be as late as possible and as lean on stock as we can be, to ensure there is opportunity to deliver upgrades in sync for race one.

"The layout of the programme is fundamentally different for the ’36 compared to previous cars.

"The programme is difficult, and when you factor in the constraint of the cost cap on top of a significant engineering and manufacturing challenge, that’s when you really have to rely on great teamwork, great collaboration and a total laser focus on achieving targets."

Asked if the MCL36 had been "more difficult to deliver" than previous cars, Thynne added: "They’re all tough!

"It’s tricky to compare them because they’re never directly comparable. We look at the burden of work versus a similar week in previous builds, and that’s how we know we’re doing 20% more work this year.

"But comparing them may be a bit subjective and perhaps not really the right way of looking at it."

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