Got your pass? Check. McLaren kit? Check. Okay good, now switch off your phone and follow us through the glass doors and into the Paddock Performance Centre. Grab a coffee on your way in and we’ll get started with our engineering briefing for the Belgian Grand Prix.

Jose Manuel López is leading this weekend’s briefing and there’s plenty on the agenda. After a solid rest during the summer shutdown, the team are well rested and refreshed ahead of this week's engineering briefing. 

We're at the iconic Spa-Francorchamps circuit in the Ardennes Forest, an absolute classic of the Formula 1 calendar. The track features long straights, quick corners, and the potential for rain. There's also the age-old downforce vs drag discussion, so we've lots to go through.

Take notes if you need them, but please keep them to yourself.

Engineer: Jose Manuel López
Event: Belgian Grand Prix
Circuit: Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps

Background

The very first thing that affects practice is that it’s the longest circuit of the year. Working with a 7km track impacts run plans in ways that we could not consider last time out on a 4.4km circuit in Hungary. 

Next thing to note about Spa is that it’s a circuit with very different sectors in terms of drag and downforce demands. Sectors One and Three are very high-speed with long, flat-out sections. Sector Two is purely about high downforce.

Challenges

We go into practice sessions very conscious that we need to exploit every lap in the programme because there’s much less flexibility to abort a lap and go again. We’re conscious of how long each lap takes and also the mileage we accumulate across Friday.  Spa isn’t somewhere that the drivers will often be allowed to add in an extra lap. It’s not an option.

One of the key things we need to understand this weekend is the trade between downforce and drag. The Belgian Grand Prix is a race where we often see two different approaches at work, with each team – or each side of a garage – making their own decisions. There’s also the potential to compromise and set the car up somewhere in the middle.

Most likely you’ll see teammates doing a towing-sim during practice. It’s something that a team needs to work at to develop a good level of coordination between the two sides of the garage.

1 | Downforce vs drag

Do we want to optimise lap-time, in which case there’s a certain level of downforce required, or do we want to be fast on the straights to either overtake or defend a position? You may even see teams achieving very similar lap-times in very different ways: fast in Sector One and Sector Three with a low drag level but slow in Sector Two, or vice versa.

Particularly for anyone running at higher downforce, positioning the car well for a timed lap in qualifying becomes very important, to take advantage of a tow all the way up the Kemmel Straight to the top of the hill, getting a drag reduction benefit that way, without paying the penalty in Sector Two.

2 | Examining new parts

Drag is a factor that’s discussed a great deal at Spa, and the team has been working hard all year reducing drag on the MCL36, with minor upgrades at most races. As usual, we’ve got a few new bits on the car this weekend that need to be studied during FP1.

More noticeable will be a new, low-drag rear wing. We’ll be testing this during practice, comparing it to the wing we’ve used at medium and medium-low downforce circuits earlier this season.

Traditionally for aero tests, we either compare the parts across the two cars or on one car across runs. At Spa, with a limited number of laps and a lot to learn, we’ll be doing both: some things we’ll be looking at across the two cars, other experiments will be on a single car across several runs.

3 | Track changes

Something else to study is the circuit itself. The new and reintroduced gravel traps don’t change the layout, but we also have sections of re-laid tarmac and kerbs to understand.

Smooth, new tarmac adds extra interest to Eau Rouge and Raidillon, which we were going to be very interesting anyway.

In the past, we’ve seen the cars bottoming in the compression at Eau Rouge, just before starting up the hill into Raidillon. This year’s ground effect cars are running even lower than the previous generation, so it could be that we see more contact there with the floor than we’ve seen previously. The porpoising effects will be interesting also. 

While the track layout itself hasn’t changed, the new definition of track limits for this year, with the white line being the absolute limit, does impact the racing line here. There were corners at Spa where the driver would use as much of the surface as possible, beyond the line.

We can’t do that now, so the lines will change, the kerb usage will change, and when the driver can get on the power will change. It’s something the drivers will need to learn during practice – but also something for the engineers to consider for the set-up. 

4 | The weather

Finally, we’ll also be looking at the weather radar. The weather at Spa is always variable, and this year is no different. The forecast has been improving the closer we’ve got to the weekend – but there’s still a risk of rain around.

It does make a big difference here, because corners like Eau Rouge and Raidillon suddenly become grip-limited rather than power-limited, which changes your opinions on set-up quite radically. We’ll have to keep an eye on the clouds, stay sharp and factor this into our plans.

Briefing complete. Time for Lando and Daniel to head out onto the track so we can collect some data and put our hard work to the test.

Join the team

McLaren Plus is our free-to-join fan engagement programme, bringing McLaren fans closer to the team with the most inclusive, rewarding and open-to-all fan programmes in motorsport.

Sign up now, or current members can amend their details in the form below if necessary.