F1 News: McLaren’s Rob Marshall led design team makes others look like fools
Since Rob Marshall left Red Bull and went to McLaren, Red Bull has plummeted in performance and McLaren has become the fastest car in F1 by a wide margin. Rob Marshall is the best designer in F1 today.
–by Mark Cipolloni–
From its flexible wings to its brake design that keeps the car’s tires in operating range, Rob Marshall is always one step ahead of all the other car designers in F1.
The latest revelation coming out of the Miami GP where McLaren buried the competition, was that McLaren has designed a clever, but legal, rear brake design that keeps the wheel rims cool and prevents their rear tires from overheating.
While other cars fall off in performance as their rear tires become overheated, the McLaren cars remain at top performance.
McLaren is cooling the outer surface of its rear brake drum – which then helps in stopping the wheel rim and tire that sits over it getting too hot, reports Jon Noble of The-Race.
Sources have suggested that after McLaren secured a 1-2 in the Miami GP, a more thorough inspection of the braking system, ducts and drums was conducted by FIA personnel on Sunday night in a bid to finally put the matter to bed.
The result – McLaren’s design fully complies with the regulations – and that it is simply a clever design.
“I just want to take the opportunity to praise the work that has been done by the engineers (led by Rob Marshall) at McLaren,” Italian McLaren Team Principal Andreas Stella said.
“This is in terms of identifying these factors, and designing these factors in a way that is practical, to actually cash in this kind of benefit.
“And then master one of the matters that still in F1 looks like it’s a little bit of a black art, which is dealing with tires. So very proud of the team.”
“It’s a result of some very targeted engineering work,” he added. “If you had asked me before the season, I would say like, we have invested in improving the interaction with the tires.
“But I wouldn’t have said that the extent would have been the one that we see in this kind of race.”
