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Originally Posted by S griffin
Brabham seemed to past their best then. Just seemed to be less interested in developing the car
McLaren in 88 got lucky that they had the right engine in the back, although Murray did do plenty of good work on the car
McLaren really seemed to lose their way after 76. It's amazing they kept going after those bad times. And the less said about the Cosworth 4WD, the better.
It's amazing looking back in 68-70 how much weaker F1 seemed to be due to circumstances
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The M23 was a beautifully balanced car, long wheelbase, good aero and wing capability but even then there were a few things they learnt about what went on aerodynamically at the back of the chassis in 75-77. The M26 that succeeded it needed a bit of work and then once the Lotus 78-79 became the standard that caught McLaren on the back foot.
The M27 and 29 weren't great cars with a good understanding of aero efficiency and the M28 was an classic example of blind thinking. It basically had a huge plane area assuming the bigger the plane the more downforce you could generate and that was all you needed.
But it didn't work out like that and McLaren struggled in that whole era with aero.
Not until Marlboro got Ron Dennis involved did the team find its footing after Dennis has John Barnard involved and the first MP4 arrived. Then aero balance came back.
The MP4/4 in 1988 wasn't luck. The TAG engine had reached the end of its development with the fuel restrictive rules but getting Senna and Honda on board and having Murray involved in the F1 supercar project meant his input with Steve Nicholls who did most of the work on the MP4/4 created a sublime chassis with laid down driver, so the profile las limited to little more than the size of the engine with radiators along the side meant it was very efficient in a straight line, low centre of gravity, wide track stability and god attacking entry and centralized fuel capacity keep the centre of inertia low. All point's in Murray's mind when he had tried the BT56 'rollerskate'.
Actually very methodical deliberate design. The monocoque was a simpler very effective idea for assembly that Nicholls came up with, different from the originally MP4 series.