McLaren explain "multifaceted" acid test 2022 budget cap

McLaren operations director Piers Thynne has described how the team is overcoming a "multifaceted" acid test provided by F1's new regulations combined with the budget cap.

F1 has radically altered its regulations resulting in a change in aerodynamic aesthetic as it attempts to promote a more exciting racing spectacle.

With such a significant overhaul for teams to prepare for, the design and manufacturing of the new cars have provided the first stern test of the sport's cost cap era.

Thynne stated: "It’s a multifaceted challenge that we’ve been working on for many, many months.

"You must tune the levers which will deliver an outcome. Some of that is ensuring operationally and technically we understand what things cost.

"We now have a live costing tool for many parts that allows everybody to understand cost much better.

"Again, collaboration is key, in this case using experience from across the team to evaluate parts at the concept stage, while they’re still in design, to make sure we’re owning the manufacturability of a part.

"Making sure known issues have been corrected; making sure when we’re using expensive raw materials or difficult and time-consuming processes, it really does need to be done in that way and we can honestly justify it.

"We’re having those positive conversations upstream, during the design phase, rather than when we receive the part in manufacturing."

Explaining how such preparations have assisted at the factory, Thynne added: "It’s helped us gain back some run time on our machine tools, because sometimes the engineers have been able to say ‘It doesn’t have to be done that way. If I can change it, would that be better from a manufacturing perspective?’

"This is new territory for us. There’s a long journey ahead but we already have several success stories.

"And the drive to collaborate, and make sure our parts are as easy to manufacture as they can be without compromising performance, is already entrenched."

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