Material gain

Should we be blown away by the new McLaren skinsuit? Simon Smythe went to the Silverstone wind tunnel to find out

- Simon Smythe

What makes this kit faster than everyone else’s? “The McLaren badge,” answers Matt Williams, principal aerodynamics engineer and the man behind the new Le Col x McLaren clothing range, launched off the back of the two companies’ sponsorship of the Bahrain McLaren WorldTour team in 2020.

Williams is only half-joking. “Nobody is as protective of their brand as McLaren,” he says, “or as careful about what they put their name to.”

He and Le Col boss Yanto Barker are so sure that their clothing, which comprises a skinsuit (to be launched in the summer), a road speed suit and long and short-sleeved jerseys, is world-beating that they’ve invited journalists to the wind tunnel at the Silverstone Sports Engineering Hub to test it against our own kit.

It’s a clever – and brave – marketing ploy but if I had a pound for every time I’d written in a review, “but obviously it’s impossible for us to verify these claims,” I’d, well, I’d be able to afford a wind tunnel session – so it’s an opportunity I couldn’t pass up.

In addition, having talked to Drag2Zero’s Simon Smart at the end of 2019 – arguably the original F1 aerodynamicist who sped up cycling – I was keen to test Smart’s prediction: “If there’s one area where there’s still a lot of improvements to be made, it’s clothing,” he said, and rated the aero watt savings to be had from skinsuits above those from frames and wheels.

So how would McLaren speed up cycling even more?