Has McLaren learned from its mistakes?

Every year is a big one for all of the teams, but for McLaren 2019 is monumental. It teamed up with Renault last year following three disastrous seasons with Honda, and proved to be just as bad - perhaps even worse - than it had been with its much-maligned previous partner.

During the season, the firing and hiring started. The firing has an immediate effect but the hiring takes a little bit longer. Good people are always tied up in some form of long-term contract, and whoever that contract is with either needs some sort of an incentive to let them go early or the new employer will be made to wait. Both new technical director James Key and team managing director Andreas Seidl are still on gardening leave, so the new McLaren is down to whoever is left at the factory.

McLaren's problems last year are too plentiful to list, but they started in the aerodynamic department. The car was very draggy and lost substantial downforce mid-corner. Neither of these are positive for performance, so the big question must be: has McLaren identified why, and will it turn it all around for 2019?

The car itself looks, as you would expect from McLaren, a well-engineered package. Unfortunately in today's Formula 1, that alone is not enough. Every little detail can make or break a car's performance. As we have heard on many occasions, it's all about flow structure.

The front wing follows the concept we saw from Red Bull, in that it has two elements where it joins to the neutral centre section. The second element is probably supported by, but doesn't actually run into, the central element. The first element then increases in chord length as it goes outboard. Again, this could cause separation problems in high-speed corners when the cars roll from the lateral load.

If I had been as lost as McLaren was in 2018, I might just have been looking around the other teams' concepts and asking the question 'why were we so different in that area?'

The nose is like Mercedes in that it is a narrow section with an undertray fitted below it. McLaren also has two ducts - in the style originally introduced by what was then Force India - between the central crash structure and the wing mounting pillars. These ducts appear to exit just on top of that undertray, probably tidying up the airflow in that area.

The problem is the more you're trying to do with the airflow in this area, the bigger the chance for it all to go wrong when the car is in traffic.

McLaren, as it did last year, has gone its own way with this concept. It's very difficult to see the detail because the area is black, but it looks like it has a large floor section underneath the bargeboard and very far forward turning vanes. This area is very powerful and can make or break any car, both in overall downforce produced and what happens to that downforce mid-corner when steering lock and yaw is applied.

When you head down your own path, as McLaren has done, you need to know in detail what you're up to. If I'd been as lost as McLaren was in 2018, I might just have been looking around the other teams' concepts and asking the question 'why were we so different in that area?'

The mirrors are mounted further outboard. I'm not a fan of this. Yes, when you look in them you can probably see more, but you have to turn your head a lot more to see in them, so it will be less of the casual glance and will need to be a pronounced movement. It does give the teams an opportunity to have two turning vanes mounting them so they can optimise the airflow a bit better in an area you're not allowed bodywork (apart from mirror mounts).

McLaren has also adopted the Mercedes lumps on the rear rims. Basically, these work like a fan and help dissipate the rim temperatures to the airflow that is passing through the wheel, keeping the rear tyres cooler. When a new idea comes along that works, any team that introduces it has a very limited time to get the benefit before the others follow.

McLaren's potential switch to Petrobras fuel is a little strange - the Brazilian petrochemical company has been a sponsor since last year but McLaren has yet to commit to actually using its products. When and if it does, this means that engine supplier Renault will have to do extra dyno testing to optimise its use of the fuel and lubricants, whether or not they're better than the BP/Castrol products both McLaren and Renault currently use. Beyond the performance element, you'll have to do further testing to make sure of reliability. Doing that for two different fuels will not be easy.

I do hope we see a rejuvenated McLaren this year. It needs to be at least competitive in the midfield as opposed to hanging on at the back. It's difficult to say too much about what has been revealed so far, and we'll get a better look at the first pre-season test.

I'm not seeing anything that should worry Mercedes, Ferrari or Red Bull. So if it's better it will at best be in that midfield battle. If it isn't, then when James Key finally starts he will have a major job on his hands.

Jake Boxall-Legge on McLaren's details and curiosities

McLaren has thrown out the baby with the bathwater this year - and let's be honest, it had to. Fernando Alonso is gone. The problematic MCL33, along with its curious characteristic of losing downforce mid-corner and walking out of turns immediately compromised, is now restricted to sitting on the boulevard at the McLaren Technology Centre.

In comes a new line-up in Carlos Sainz Jr and Lando Norris, and a refreshed ethos with the MCL34. Cutting a neat and tidy design at its launch, there are still hallmarks from the previous car among the new parts.

Immediately, the nose comes to mind; the trio of inlets - one either side of the central crash structure snorkel - ensures that the team is able to channel as much airflow as possible underneath the car, bringing the front edge of the floor into play a bit more and bleeding out any high pressure areas from the underside.

This continues further up the bulkhead, which has a curved section underneath to draw the airflow along a longer path - accelerating it and developing a lower-pressure region. Ultimately, this ensures that any effects of lift are killed off as early as possible.

Succeed, and the team shakes off the demons of the past few seasons. Fail, and it falls on its sword, devoid of excuses

A conventional front wing by contemporary standards features an outwash endplate and a raised section at the extremes of the wing to fall in line with current trends, with a small ridge on the underside in order to control the effects of the tip vortices that generate from the endplate and roll underneath the wing. The tyre sensor and flap adjuster both encourage airflow to make its way outboard too.

The elements are of largely equal size, while McLaren has made the decision to break the mainplane in two rather than add an independent extra element in order to manage the vortex off the neutral plane of the wing earlier. Much like the Renault wing seen earlier in the week, the outboard portions of the elements compress inwards to offer a more extreme outwash effect.

As the snorkel and nose inlets develop into the cape-style geometry at the front, the transition to the bulkhead is smoother compared with last year's car. Here, the front suspension geometry is kept low, although the top wishbone is attached to a 'horn' on the brake duct - much like the Mercedes.

There's a lot of complexity in the bargeboard section, in which the front lip of the floor is raised in order to welcome in as much air as possible having been conditioned by the bargeboard geometry.

There's a series of longitudinal and latitudinal serrations on the floor area in order to straighten out that flow and direct any larger pockets of turbulence outboard, offering a bastion of resistance against the incoming tyre wake. There's also a huge boomerang piece that loops around behind the front wheels, offering a bit more dimension in managing the flow in this area.

As we've seen plenty of times already this season, the highly positioned inlets are included in the MCL34, using the crash structures as the extremities of the sidepod intakes and as a basis for the sidepod bargeboards to guide the airflow from the front wheels outboard. This leads into a set of very tight sidepods, which certainly rival Red Bull's close packaging.

Rather than opting for massive sidepod undercuts, packaging the car like this ensures that the components can be positioned lower down, offering a more optimal centre of gravity. Alongside, there's plenty of floor slots to bring airflow around the edge of the floor tray, offering the chance for a greater seal ahead of the rear wheels.

There's something of a curiosity with the engine cover, in that it features a tiny shark fin just before the rear edge of the bodywork. It almost seems to be a stylistic decision, housing the individual driver numbers, but offers a bit more control over airflow at the rear before reaching the rear wing. With it installed as a separate piece, McLaren has the chance to trial other solutions in this area if the rear wing is found to be too compromised by wake off the engine cover.

That rear wing, in launch spec at least, features a prominent spoon section in the centre in order to manage the trailing vortices from the two sides of the wing. McLaren continues to use the overhanging strake design it pioneered, featuring five of them to continue the vortex management at the rear even further.

Having access to the car at the launch furnished Autosport with a first look at the 2019 diffuser. The primary strakes on the underside are broken up, creating a vortex to draw out a lower-pressure zone as the diffuser opens up, improving rear end downforce.

McLaren has also followed a Mercedes innovation, developing its rear wheel hubs with raised scallop sections in order to collect heat from the tyres and improve dissipation - ultimately ensuring that the rear tyres are kept within the ideal working temperatures to extract as much rear-end grip as possible.

There's plenty to enthuse about with the MCL34, and the team needs this to be a turning point in its fortunes - which have been dire recently. With a youthful driver line-up and the transition year to Renault engines now over, there's absolutely nowhere for McLaren to hide. Succeed, and the team shakes off the demons of the past few seasons. Fail, and it falls on its sword, devoid of excuses.

Let's hope, for McLaren's sake, it's a success.