McLaren MP4-18
 The MP4-18 |
|||||||||
| Constructor: |
 McLaren Racing
|
||||||||
| Designer: | Adrian Newey | ||||||||
| Predecessor: | McLaren MP4-17 / McLaren MP4-17D | ||||||||
| Successor: | McLaren MP4-19 | ||||||||
| Technical specifications | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chassis: | Sandwich construction , outer layers made of carbon fiber reinforced plastic , honeycomb structure inside | ||||||||
| Engine: | Mercedes-Benz FO 110P | ||||||||
| Weight: | 605 kg (including driver) | ||||||||
| Tires: | Michelin | ||||||||
| Petrol: | Mobile 1 | ||||||||
| statistics | |||||||||
| Driver: | 5. D. Coulthard 6. K. Raikkonen 
|
||||||||
|
|||||||||
| World Cup points: | - | ||||||||
| Podiums: | - | ||||||||
| Leadership laps: | - | ||||||||
The McLaren MP4-18 was a Formula 1 racing car that McLaren Racing developed for the 2003 Formula 1 World Championship . Adrian Newey , Mike Coughlan and Neil Oatley were the chief designers. The car was not used in races and it was not until 2004 that the MP4-19 , which was further developed from it, was used.
Development and technology
The 2002 season was a very difficult season for McLaren. The McLaren MP4-17 achieved only one win of the season by David Coulthard in Monaco and nine other podium finishes, but Ferrari with its extremely strong and reliable F2002 was never close. Even Williams-BMW had with the FW24 developed a more powerful car than McLaren, so it was not possible to defend second place in the Constructors' Championship.
In order to be able to catch up on the technical deficit, team boss Ron Dennis decided on a radical solution: He commissioned his design team, chaired by Adrian Newey, to abandon the concept of the MP4-17 and to design a completely new car. The MP4-18 should set standards in all areas and, like the F2002, be invulnerable to the competition. Since it was clear from the start that the development of the vehicle would take a lot of time, Dennis commissioned a second design team to further develop the MP4-17 in order to use this vehicle, known as the MP4-17D , for the first races of the 2003 season deny.
The MP4-18 was completely redesigned. The nose was shortened, sharply drawn down and very narrow. The nickname "Dolphin" arose from this construction method. The curved shape of the front wing was new. The most important external change, however, concerned the rear end. The model was the Ferrari F2002, whose side boxes were much narrower towards the rear. However, the concept was further interpreted. This mainly concerned very narrow cooling air intakes and a lower installation of the engine, which made an extreme air flow to the rear possible. It took other teams to perfect these traits within the next five years. The technology has also been revised. The engine was newly developed by Mercedes. It was lighter, more powerful and more harmoniously integrated into the vehicle. The chassis remained conventional with double wishbones , torsion bars and internal shock absorbers at the front and rear. The transmission was given a lightweight housing made of carbon fiber reinforced plastic .
Test use
The winter tests already showed that the MP4-18 would not be ready for the season opener. But other teams, such as Ferrari, followed the same strategy. The Ferrari F2003 was only used from the Spanish Grand Prix .
The tests were unsuccessful, and the vehicle systems often overheated. Too little cooling air reached the engine through the narrow air inlets, which is why the car broke down several times with engine damage. When the engine burst, the vehicle's brake lines were severed several times, leading to accidents. The transmission also suffered from excessively high temperatures right up to the end.
In one of the last tests of the car in August 2003, test driver Alexander Wurz reached a top speed of 330 km / h, but temperatures of up to 120 ° C were reached in the rear of the car. Additional air outlets have been incorporated into the chassis to direct the heat from the engine and transmission to the outside. However, these attempts remained unsuccessful. In addition, Wurz often criticized the unpredictable driving behavior of the MP4-18. There were a number of serious test accidents that were never clearly resolved, but were possibly due in part to the difficult handling of the vehicle. Among other things, the underbody broke during test drives in Jerez , in Silverstone Wurz lost the left front wheel several times, and later the rear suspension broke. In addition, the MP4-18 failed a number of mandatory FIA crash tests.
In the second half of the season, Dennis decided to continue to hold onto the MP4-17D and not use the MP4-18. This decision earned the MP4-18 the inglorious nickname “Phantom Car”. The title of 2003 could still not be won.
In the 2004 season, a further developed version of the MP4-18 was used under the name MP4-19. However, it quickly became apparent that a year after the first tests the problems were still not resolved. On the first race weekends, the vehicles broke down several times with engine damage. In addition, the car was not competitive enough. The drivers Kimi Raikkonen and Coulthard struggled to get into the top 10 even with a functioning car.
Despite the technical failure, some elements of the MP4-18 were reused in the McLaren Formula 1 racing cars of the next generation. The dolphin nose became an integral part of the McLaren design until 2008, and the knowledge gained from testing the new wind tunnel introduced in 2003/04 was incorporated into vehicle development.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ A b c Ruben Zimmermann: Alex Wurz: How dangerous the ominous MP4-18 really was. Motorsport-Total.com, August 12, 2016, accessed August 15, 2016 .
- ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from September 10, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
