McLaren updates title-leading MCL39 with new floor at F1 British GP

McLaren introduced revisions to its MCL39 Formula 1 car’s floor for the British Grand Prix, and also made minor changes to the rear brake duct inlet as it aims to raise the bar even further.

Currently 207 points ahead of its nearest challenger in the constructors’ championship, McLaren has taken aim at finalising its defence of its teams’ title with additional developments as the season reaches the half-way point.

In its pre-event technical notes the team registered an update to the floor, stating: “The complete floor has been revised resulting in improved flow conditioning and a redistribution of suction to gain overall aerodynamic performance.”

The revised brake inlet should also confer an aerodynamic advantage to the rear end of the car, while also improving the overall cooling efficiency and output.

Red Bull has come to Silverstone with its own floor updates as it looks to imbue its RB21 with more stability and consistency; the team says that the revised underbody surfaces will improve the pressure distribution across the floor. The team has augmented this with its new floor fences.

Revising the pressure distribution should, in theory, develop a more consistent pressure difference between the top surfaces of the car and the floor, thus creating a more stable suction effect across different cornering phases.

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Images via Getty Images

Aston Martin has brought further updates across the road from its facility at Silverstone; the team has changes to its floor surfaces, fences, and edges; this unites with a revised upper bodywork package to improve the underbody performance.

Fernando Alonso explained that, although the package was smaller than the Imola updates, he hoped that it would follow suit with the prior updates and surpass the expected performance output.

“Honestly it’s less than the Imola package, it’s a very minor tweak on the floor and nothing really too obvious – you will even not notice because it’s well underneath the car and it’s minor. Obviously, everything that we bring is welcome and we will try to exploit the package at its best,” he said.

“Imola also was not that big and it seems that it worked a little bit better than the numbers on the wind tunnel said, but I think it’s less than what we brought to Imola, let’s say that.”

Elsewhere in the midfield battle, Haas also introduced a number of changes to its floor – with the target to rework the flow structures underneath the car to mitigate the high-speed instability that the VF-25 has faced over 2025.

This includes surface changes to the floor body, reshaped floor fences, and a smaller edge wing. These also come with the added extra of a different sidepod inlet.

Oliver Bearman, Haas F1 Team

Photo by: Zak Mauger / LAT Images via Getty Images

“It should give a bit more grip and a bit more stability – and that means confidence,” said Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu. “It should improve both quali and race, but we’ll see. Hopefully it does what it’s supposed to do.

“We’ll just put it on Esteban’s car [for FP1] and then the idea is to have a comparison across the garage. And then all being well, we should update Ollie’s car for FP2. “

Elsewhere, Racing Bulls has introduced smaller-profile upper front wing flaps, feeling that it can deliver more performance in this manner without too much need to balance the car from front to rear. Williams has brought revised floor fences to inject further downforce into the FW47, and Sauber has continued to iterate its floor – paired with a new front wing.