The engineering room – in partnership with Google Chrome
Adrian Goodwin explains the trackside topics for this weekend’s Australian Grand Prix
With 23 circuits, there can be a lot to take in, so in partnership with Google Chrome, we’ve organised for you to join us in Lando and Oscar’s engineering briefings, where we’ll walk you through this weekend’s key trackside topics so that you can enjoy the Australian Grand Prix to its fullest.
Adrian Goodwin is leading this weekend’s engineering briefing. There were changes to the Albert Park Circuit ahead of 2022, aimed at making the street circuit quicker and easier to overtake on. Adrian will explore the effect of those changes, as well as the addition of a fourth DRS zone for 2023. We’ll also look into the work being undertaken to prepare Oscar for his first race at the Albert Park Circuit.
Time to begin. Grab a coffee and follow us through the glass doors and into the Paddock Performance Centre. Take notes if you need them, but please keep them to yourself.
Engineer: Adrian Goodwin
Event: Australian Grand Prix
Circuit: Albert Park Circuit
Background
As is often the case, understanding things that have changed features heavily in our practice programme, and the 2023 Australian Grand Prix has quite a few things that are different to 2022.
Last year, we had a very good race here despite being bottom of the speed traps, because we qualified well, had a good first lap and we didn’t have to worry because overtaking was difficult. It’s interesting that many drivers have been saying overtaking is more difficult now, as teams have added more performance. It needs careful consideration.
Oscar is getting used to being the centre of attention – but it’s worth noting that, despite this being his home race in his home city, unlike Bahrain and Jeddah, he’s racing at Albert Park for the first time. He says he’s driven around the circuit in his Mum’s car on a shopping trip – but that’s it!
Tyre allocation
The first thing is the tyre allocation. Last year, Pirelli experimented with bridging a compound, bringing the C2, C3 and C5 to Albert Park. The race was run exclusively on the C2 and C3, because the C5 presented some difficulties with graining. It isn’t here this year, and instead we have the C2, C3 and C4.
Graining will still be a concern with the C4 – but we will have to study its potential. One point of interest is that this year’s calendar mirrors 2022. Last year, graining was a factor in Jeddah, this year it was not. Interesting to see if the same is true here. A large part of Friday’s programme will be about understanding tyres.
A fourth DRS zone
Another difference – partially – this year is that we’ll have four DRS zones, rather than three. This was planned for last year but removed after Friday practice when drivers raised safety concerns. Strictly speaking, this encourages you to add a little bit more wing, the extra drag will be less of a penalty – but it’s a question mark.
Particularly so for us, because our End of Straight [EOS] speed was a concern in Jeddah. We spent a large part of the race stuck behind a Williams, which had very good EOS speed. This was frustrating for the drivers – but reducing the rear wing level and being faster at EOS doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to be any better off.
Rear wings and ride height
The other factor to consider in choosing how much wing to run is what the weather is going to do. The forecast for this weekend is changeable, and we’ll be paying it very close attention at the time we have to make a final decision on specification. In general, the more likely a wet race or wet qualifying session is, the less likely we’ll be to take wing off.
The set-up in the current era has become relatively simple, built around how much you can push ride-heights for the bottoming. Since Albert Park has been resurfaced, it’s become very smooth. You can run the car very stiff and don’t use the kerbs much – so it isn’t something we’ll be too worried about – though there are a couple of bumps to avoid.
Oscar’s first experience of Albert Park
Our job is to maximise the amount of track time we can give him, to get him up to speed with the unfamiliar circuit as quickly as possible. In the past, on a street circuit, we might have given a rookie driver a ‘safe’ set-up to start with, gradually adding performance. It doesn’t really work that way now. We’ll go in with what we think is the theoretical optimum and work from there. There’s more advantage in having both cars in a similar state and being able to reference across.
Fine tuning
We’re also at a point where data from the first two races has been studied and is generating test items for practice. We’ll be doing a few correlation exercises and sanity checks, based on things that have been seen in Bahrain and Jeddah. There will be aero rakes on display and a few test items. Nothing intended to race here – but all part of the bigger picture.
Briefing complete. Time for Lando and Oscar to head out onto the track so we can collect some data and put our hard work to the test.
They come from the land Down Under
A closer look at drivers from the other side of the world who have made their mark at McLaren
Your guide to the Australian Grand Prix – presented by OKX
“We’re determined to improve the car and unlock as much performance as possible”
How well do you know Oscar Piastri?
How clued up are you on our awesome Aussie ahead of his first home race for McLaren?
Alex Palou's flying visit
Find out what our 2023 F1 Reserve Driver got up to during a busy 24-hour visit to the MTC