McLaren M28
Formula One racing car
The McLaren M28 is a Formula One racing car built and run by McLaren in the 1979 Formula One World Championship. Powered by a naturally-aspirated Ford Cosworth 3-litre engine, the M28 was designed and wind tunnel tested during the latter half of 1978.
Development
Following a disastrous 1978 season, James Hunt left for Walter Wolf Racing and was supposed to be replaced by Ronnie Peterson but he was killed at the 1978 Italian Grand Prix. McLaren was left with few drivers available on the market and John Watson was signed for 1979. The car was noticeably larger than contemporary designs and was much bulkier looking. Three chassis were built. The bulky design had a sharp impact on top speed, and the car was one of the slowest through speed traps. The car first appeared on track in October 1978 during a test at Watkins Glen.
During initial testing, the M28 was soon found to have problems with poor grip as its ground effect design proved not particularly effective. Watson described the car as "a disaster." Patrick Tambay was even less enthused by the M28, labelling it "a shitbox." The car suffered from a lack of torsional rigidity and a poor understanding of the ground effect aerodynamics required to be competitive against the new generation of F1 cars.
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This entry incorporates text from “McLaren M28” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.