McLaren plans to upgrade its 2022 car at F1 season opener in Bahrain

McLaren intends to upgrade their 2022 car just before it hits the asphalt in Bahrain. The Woking-based team's operations director Piers Thynne confirmed the team is adopting a ‘late and lean’ approach in developing the upcoming MCL36. The upgrades are expected to be fitted just in time for the first race of the season.

The new regulatory changes in F1 have pushed all teams to start designing from scratch and this has brought with it multiple challenges for McLaren. Thynne elaborated during an interview with GPFans, where he said:

“Building the MCL36 to the new regulations is a significant burden, but it is perhaps more the cultural change of doing some things in a different way. We are very keen to be as late as possible and as lean on stock as we can be to ensure there is opportunity to deliver upgrades in sync for race one. The layout of the program is fundamentally different for the ’36 compared to previous cars.”

Thynne was also asked if the new regulations made it more difficult to deliver on the team's 2022 challenger. He said:

“They’re all tough! It’s tricky to compare them because they’re never directly comparable. We look at the burden of work versus a similar week in previous builds, and that’s how we know we’re doing 20% more work this year. But comparing them may be a bit subjective and perhaps not really the right way of looking at it.”

McLaren finished the 2021 season in P4 with a total tally of 275 points. They were also the only team to score a one-two finish last year. Daniel Ricciardo picked up his first win for the British outfit at Monza with Lando Norris following in tow in P2.

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McLaren CEO Zak Brown not expecting team to fight for titles in 2022

Zak Brown has confessed he does not expect McLaren to mount a challenge for either world championship in 2022.

During an interview with Gulf Business, Brown admitted his team is still trying to catch up with the F1 front runners. He said:

“Of course, we’re going to give it everything we’ve got but we still have a couple of years of technical catch-up that we just can’t accelerate any further or faster than we are. We still have technical infrastructure that we’re catching up on, most notably our wind tunnel. I’m not going into next year [2022] thinking we’re going to be a championship contender.”

Reports suggest McLaren are 'cautiously optimistic' about their chances for 2022 despite Brown's apprehension.