The McLaren MCL60 is a Formula One car designed and constructed by McLaren, initially under the direction of James Key, to compete in the 2023 Formula One World Championship.
The car made its competitive début at the 2023 Bahrain Grand Prix. It was driven by Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, Norris for his fifth season with McLaren and Piastri in his rookie year. The initial specification of the MCL60 proved uncompetitive, exhibiting inefficient and draggy aerodynamic performance and high tyre degradation. Its poor performance led to Key's departure from the team in March 2023, and he was replaced by a new structure of technical directors. Peter Prodromou and Neil Houldey took over the development of the MCL60. An upgrade package delivered at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, the fourth round of the season, was the final development produced under Key's leadership.
Beginning with the Austrian Grand Prix, the ninth round of the championship, the new technical leadership delivered a significant upgrade package to the car, which began a marked improvement in the team's results. Another substantial package was delivered at the Singapore Grand Prix. Once the initial Austrian–British package had been fitted, the MCL60 went on to achieve nine podiums and three fastest laps in Grands Prix. Further, the car achieved two sprint poles and four sprint podiums including one victory. By the season's end, the MCL60 was noted as a capable and competitive all-rounder and the only consistent challenger to Red Bull Racing's dominant RB19. Its remaining shortcomings were primarily its comparatively poorer tyre management and tricky handling. The change in design direction was praised as highly effective and successful to a degree not seen in modern Formula One and appeared to influence the development programs of several other teams.
Background
Name The car was originally referred to by McLaren and the press as the MCL37, a continuation of the numbering scheme that began in 1981 with the McLaren MP4/1 (although the MP4 prefix was replaced by MCL in 2017 following the departure of Ron Dennis from the team). However, McLaren announced that the car would be named the MCL60 to commemorate 60 years since Bruce McLaren founded the team in 1963.
Development context
A new generation of technical regulations began in the 2022 season. The MCL36, the MCL60's immediate predecessor, appeared competitive during its first testing appearance yet proved to have a significant issue with brake overheating. These issues limited its performance capabilities in the early stages of the season and delayed much of the car's development.
Then-team principal Andreas Seidl stated in September 2022 that only part of the MCL36's concept would be continued in its successor. Technical director James Key said the team hoped the MCL60 would require less in-season development compared to the MCL36. However, Key later revealed that the team had realised in September 2022 that the regulation changes to floor height would have an unavoidable negative impact on the car given its overall design philosophy, and began work on a new concept. However, the new concept had not matured enough to be used at launch and it was delayed for introduction during the early season.
In November 2022, Seidl stated he believed the team's struggles with the MCL36 would have an impact on the MCL60, namely that the lack of testing for the MCL36 and the time required to address its brake issues had delayed the start of development for the MCL60. Seidl, who was originally set to leave the team at the end of 2025 for the incoming Audi project, departed in mid-December 2022 to fill the vacancy at Sauber caused by the sudden exit of chief executive officer Frédéric Vasseur. Seidl was immediately replaced by Andrea Stella, who had been McLaren's executive director of racing.
Initial design and development At its launch, the car was considered an evolution of its predecessor, which had itself undergone heavy development during the 2022 season. It retained the unusual front pullrod, rear pushrod suspension layout that was reintroduced with the MCL36. The MCL60 featured tighter sidepod geometry with a more aggressive undercut, partly intended to free up space for ground effect inlet tunnels. The radiator inlet on the engine cover was lengthened, closer to the style of the inlet seen on the 2022 Ferrari F1-75. The floor edge cut-out was shifted forwards, closer to its positioning on most other teams' cars.
The team stated that they were confident they had addressed the shortcomings of the MCL36, broadly labelled as aerodynamics and tyre management. Despite this, Stella said the team was "[n]ot entirely happy for the launch car" and intended to introduce substantial upgrades beginning in the fourth round of the season, the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. It was later revealed that these upgrades had been in development since September 2022 when McLaren decided to change design course entirely. Norris said that he had advocated for McLaren to change their design philosophy to prioritise driveability rather than ultimate performance. He said that certain undesirable design characteristics were persisting in McLaren cars across his four seasons with the team and through several rule changes, but also said that he did not expect to know if the team had successfully addressed this until the pre-season test.
The MCL60 was Key's last project at McLaren. He departed the team in March 2023 as part of an organisational restructuring, and the position of executive technical director was split into three departments. Peter Prodromou and Neil Houdley took over work as head of aerodynamic and head of engineering and design, respectively.
Liveries
The MCL60 livery largely resembled the design débuted on the MCL36, but with additional exposed carbon fibre to save weight. As with all McLaren Formula One cars since the MCL35, the livery was applied with a vinyl wrap rather than paint, which is more lightweight and aerodynamically efficient compared to painted cars, as well as quicker to prepare. The MCL60 featured a new advertising scheme developed by Seamless Digital using e-ink displays, allowing the advertising to be changed at any time. Although the technology debuted on the MCL36 during practice for the 2022 United States Grand Prix, the MCL60 marked its first full-season usage.
For the Monaco and Spanish Grands Prix, the car ran with a special livery celebrating McLaren's achievement of the Triple Crown of Motorsport – McLaren being the only motorsports team to have completed it . The car was painted in three segments to commemorate McLaren's first win of each component race. The rear of the car was papaya in reference to the McLaren M16C/D that Johnny Rutherford won the 1974 Indianapolis 500 in, the middle was white in tribute to the McLaren MP4/2 that Alain Prost drove when he won the 1984 Monaco Grand Prix, and the front was black in recognition of the McLaren F1 GTR that JJ Lehto, Yannick Dalmas, and Masanori Sekiya drove to victory in the 1995 24 Hours of Le Mans.
For the British Grand Prix, in conjunction with sponsor Google Chrome, the MCL60 featured a chrome livery, a tribute to the livery used while Vodafone was the team's title sponsor.
The car featured another special livery for the Singapore and Japanese Grands Prix, this time predominantly black with papaya orange highlights. The livery was named "Stealth Mode" by McLaren and was run in conjunction with sponsor OKX.
For the third year running, the MCL60 featured a special livery for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, which in collaboration with Vuse featured the artwork of an emerging local artist, in this case Nujood Al-Otaibi.
Competition and development history Pre-season Stella stated that the primary goal for the 2023 season was for the team to re-establish itself as the leading midfield team. The team reiterated during the pre-season test at Bahrain International Circuit that it was not satisfied with the launch specification car, especially its excessive aerodynamic drag. Piastri said the MCL60 experienced the same limitations as the MCL36, which he tested in the official 2022 post-season test.
Opening rounds and Azerbaijani upgrades Norris qualified eleventh and Piastri eighteenth for the first race of the season, the Bahrain Grand Prix. Ahead of the race, Stella and Norris both agreed that McLaren could out-develop its rivals during the course of the season, saying that the issues the team faced were fixable. During the race, Piastri had risen to twelfth place before his car suffered an electrical issue. The team attempted to fix the issue by switching steering wheels in the pits, but the fault was located further down the steering column and could not be rectified, meaning Piastri retired on his début. Norris also suffered reliability issues, hampered by a loss of pneumatic pressure from the Mercedes power unit. The issue limited gearbox performance and forced Norris to pit every ten laps or so in order for the pneumatic pressure tank to be topped up. He finished seventeenth and last on track after completing six pit stops, motivated by McLaren's desire to collect additional data on car performance. The result meant the team were classified tenth and last in the World Constructors' Championship (WCC). Despite the reliability issues, Norris stated that he believed the MCL60 was not as far off the pace as some commentators had argued.
The MCL60 featured a new diffuser upgrade and a track-specific rear wing for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. Norris was forced to take his second engine of the season after the team determined the unit that failed in the first race could not be reused. Piastri qualified for the race in ninth, and started eighth after another driver received a grid penalty. Norris, meanwhile, clipped a wall and damaged the steering system on his car. The damage could not be repaired by the end of the first stage of qualifying (Q1), leaving him nineteenth on the grid. On the opening lap of the race Piastri and Pierre Gasly collided, causing damage to the front wing of Piastri's car. The debris from the collision struck Norris' car, requiring both to pit for a new front wing. Piastri finished the race fifteenth and Norris finished seventeenth. Piastri left the round classified nineteenth in the World Drivers' Championship (WDC) and Norris in twentieth and last.
At the Australian Grand Prix, McLaren ran a tighter circuit-specific engine cover and introduced new floor fences for the car's diffuser. Norris qualified thirteenth and Piastri sixteenth. Piastri said his struggles were a combination of poor car set-up and inexperience. In a chaotic race interrupted by multiple incidents, Norris finished seventh and Piastri ninth. Both were promoted a place by a penalty for Carlos Sainz Jr. Norris moved up to eighth and Piastri up to thirteenth in the WDC, and the team moved from last to fifth in the WCC.