Formula 1: What has gone wrong at McLaren this season?

A sixth-place finish from Lando Norris at Australian GP is the highest McLaren has managed so far this season.

Ardent fans of motorsports are left wondering why McLaren has considerably fallen behind during the course of the current Formula 1 season. Stranded at 5th in the Constructors' rankings, after failing miserably in the first two races of the season, what's going so wrong at the outfit?

To understand their visible downfall, we need to understand what transpired. Let us unfold the reasons for their misfortunes and shortcomings in a valid order.

1. The rule change that hit hard

F1 manufacturers start to design and implement upgradation to their seasonal cars a year prior, during the course of the previous season. So, during the autumn months, a rule going by the norm of increasing the height of the floor edge of the 2023 seasonal cars by 15mm caught McLaren designers off guard.

The designers realized the deep waters they were already in, unable to make drastic changes to compensate enough to run with their expected benchmarks. MCL60, without proper upgrades, was far from ready at the start of this calendar.

Perplexingly, when the FIA pushed the rule about raising the floor edges to tackle the porpoising issue, McLaren remained supportive. The team knew they'd lose on their performance significantly. Perhaps, they did not expect their implemented floor design would be exposed so soon, which was incompatible with the new, increased height.

These factors culminated first in the Bahrain GP, where Lando Norris finished last, and Oscar Piastri had to retire the car. After the race, McLaren's new team principal, Andrea Stella, admitted that the MCL60 is a midfield car.

2. Lando Norris' comments

Before the Saudi Arabian GP, Lando Norris quickly dismissed the media's narrative of calling McLaren amidst a crisis.

"Everyone makes it sound a lot worse than it is. Calling it a crisis? It's far from that at all, it's nothing close to it. We're confident we can get some good points, I would say, this weekend. Towards the top four teams, it's a very big jump. But I'm confident we can be in that fight. I don't think we're that far away. It was made very clear and very early on that we're far from where we want to be."

The British driver unintentionally directed the fans to ponder if the tweaks and upgrades to resolve their issues were in order. The team's duty is to salvage the maximum possible points to save the season. It is a tough challenge the new technical team has to sort out quickly.

3. Changes in technical order

McLaren CEO Zak Brown did not sugarcoat that his team wanted to try out the quick road to success and emerge as the frontrunners like in old times. The exit of technical director James Key and the appointment of a new technical executive team provided a fresh atmosphere around the camp. Andrea Stella took over from Andreas Seidl following his move to Sauber.

It alluded that the new seasonal inconvenience was a byproduct of the lack of progress McLaren had since 2021. The inherent problems got blamed on the management's direction, and the newly developed machinery only added further validation to this theory.

After the first two miserable races, McLaren bounced back by scoring crucial 12 points at Melbourne. Their first set of upgrade packages arrives for the next race in Azerbaijan. The upgrades for Baku have been common knowledge around the paddock. The design team has been working on it for months. Their primary aim is to reduce the aerodynamical issues emerging from floor edges.

Stela has also revealed that a much more significant car upgrade is due before the summer break towards the end of July. It will likely address other areas of the car as there will be plenty of races to turn their misfortunes around and extract maximum outputs from their MCL60.