23/03/2020
NEWS STORY
At a time some are pondering what the pecking order will be when the season starts (!!!), the fact is that the coronavirus is already having an impact on next season also.
The wide raft of technical changes have been postponed until 2022, though the budget cap will go ahead as planned - not that many of the teams are going to have the funding to reach anything like the $175m limit.
With that in mind, it has been decided that this year's chassis will be used again next season in a bid to save money at such a difficult time, and while there will be a development freeze on a number of components aero development will still be allowed.
Despite the fact that McLaren will still have to use the MCL35, the Woking outfit still intends going ahead with its switch from Renault power to Mercedes, revealing that the MCL35 "will accommodate (the power unit) in the current base chassis."
Accommodating a different power unit however is not as problematic as one might think, for the rules dictate that the mounting points must be the same on all makes of power unit. It is the manner in which the different architecture of the Mercedes power unit is packaged that will present McLaren with its biggest problem.