2022 - McLaren Formula 1 Team

[diffuser]

I thing Gas is a unknown quantity, not as down beat on him as you are but I'm not a dreamer either.

I agree Alonso would be a good replacement, not sure where Alo is going, he seems to have options. He seems to be interested in AMR. Alpine is gonna be Alonso or Piastri, no room for Ricciardo there.

Cmon guys the whole Alonso/Mclaren saga is over for good. No need to reheat that soup. McLaren started to rise again when Nando left the team. He is too big of a burden to have in a team that is still in its rebuilding phase.
He is a man that dictates everything in a team. It's the same in Alpine. And they are nowhere near consistency since he rejoined. I like Alonso but I don't want him back in my team.

All I’d say is that Alonso was very much praised by Pat Fry and the team who built the 2019 car for the feedback and development work after McLarens woeful 2018 effort that laid bare the myth that only Honda PU was holding them back.

Sure, on paper it looks like McL revival started after he left, but ultimately he just ducked out for a while as he knew race wins weren’t on the table and wanted to try out some other racing.

As for Alpine, essentially the problem for them is the woeful management of the project and the chop changing of key personnel at key moments - Alonso can’t be blamed for inheriting that mess.

I’d be disappointed if Alonso made way for Piastri without getting a good drive somewhere, having comfortably shown better speed than Ocon.

Perhaps he’d get teamed up with Vettel if daddy stroll could pay Williams to take Lance again!!

If you beleive the rumours, Vettel might be retiring. I think, at Alpine, it's Alonso's job as long as he wants it.

That stuff about Alonso keeps coming back up. Pat Fry came to Alpine before Alonso did, served with Alonso at McLaren, and Ferrari for several years; If Alonso is really a problem don't you think Pat Fry would have said no to him joining Alpine... You know Pat Fry was asked.

I think Ricciardo will be back next year come rain or shine.

[runningmanz]

Monza is definitely a highlight for Dan’s McLaren tenure… But, he wasn’t “commanding” as Emag presented it, it’s not like if he was miles ahead of Lando, they arguably were pretty equal with the caveat that Daniel wasn’t going full out and Lando wasn’t attacking him either, so a pretty even performance from both of them.

Sorry but Dan was clearly better than Lando that weekend. Lando has beaten Dan quite a lot but you can't take away that Monza weekend from Dan.

Dan and Max pulled a gap on Lando to about 5 secs early on in the race. By lap 23 it was almost 10 seconds. Lando only got close to Dan after Lewis and Max crashed and the safety car came out. Also when Dan was told to push he pulled a gap again on Lando and set the fastest lap of the race on the last lap also without a tow proving he had pace in hand. You can have a go at Dan about other races, but in Monza he was clearly the better driver of the two over the weekend.

I’m not taking it away from him, but I don’t think that there was a big performance gap between them, was he the “better driver” that weekend, surely the result shows he was, but one weekend doesn’t erase a season of disappointment, nor does it negates the fact that Lando has performed better and more consistent than him for the Team… The reality is that the fact that you feel compelled to defend Daniel after almost every single weekend says it all about his performance so far in McLaren… Blaming the car, the Team, the asphalt on a race track, the temperature, the humidity on that particular race and everything else we can think of to justify his lack of performance is very telling that fanatism is trampling logic.

I don’t think McLaren fans want Daniel to fail, the Team needs him to succeed, the fans want him to succeed and he is been given every opportunity and support to make it happen… For me, I don’t care who is the better driver, as long as they both deliver and are close to each other, but been said that, is it that hard to accept that Lando might be better than him? What if he is?

Let’s hope he gets his mojo / speed back, if he does it will be great… but if he doesn’t, at some point in time decisions will have to be made since the Team needs someone that will deliver consistently and if he isn’t the driver that can do so, everyone needs to move on.

Bit unfair to have a crack at me defending Dan when you have done it for Lando. I just don't agree that he has been that bad this season overall. Ive tried to give all the information available and make a reasonable judgement and not just look at the scoreboard. Yeah he hasn't still got to the level we expect, but his pace this season has improved alot and he certainly has had quite a few issues affecting his weekends at various critical times this year. More than Lando that's for sure. I just don't buy that he has lost his ability since leaving Renault, he's never had this problem in any of the many other cars he has driven. That says alot to me. Hopefully Baku he gets back to doing what we all know he is capable of.

[SmallSoldier]

Sorry but Dan was clearly better than Lando that weekend. Lando has beaten Dan quite a lot but you can't take away that Monza weekend from Dan.

Dan and Max pulled a gap on Lando to about 5 secs early on in the race. By lap 23 it was almost 10 seconds. Lando only got close to Dan after Lewis and Max crashed and the safety car came out. Also when Dan was told to push he pulled a gap again on Lando and set the fastest lap of the race on the last lap also without a tow proving he had pace in hand. You can have a go at Dan about other races, but in Monza he was clearly the better driver of the two over the weekend.

I’m not taking it away from him, but I don’t think that there was a big performance gap between them, was he the “better driver” that weekend, surely the result shows he was, but one weekend doesn’t erase a season of disappointment, nor does it negates the fact that Lando has performed better and more consistent than him for the Team… The reality is that the fact that you feel compelled to defend Daniel after almost every single weekend says it all about his performance so far in McLaren… Blaming the car, the Team, the asphalt on a race track, the temperature, the humidity on that particular race and everything else we can think of to justify his lack of performance is very telling that fanatism is trampling logic.

I don’t think McLaren fans want Daniel to fail, the Team needs him to succeed, the fans want him to succeed and he is been given every opportunity and support to make it happen… For me, I don’t care who is the better driver, as long as they both deliver and are close to each other, but been said that, is it that hard to accept that Lando might be better than him? What if he is?

Let’s hope he gets his mojo / speed back, if he does it will be great… but if he doesn’t, at some point in time decisions will have to be made since the Team needs someone that will deliver consistently and if he isn’t the driver that can do so, everyone needs to move on.

Bit unfair to have a crack at me defending Dan when you have done it for Lando. I just don't agree that he has been that bad this season overall. Ive tried to give all the information and make a reasonable judgement and not just look at the scoreboard. Yeah he hasn't still got to the level we expect, but his pace this season has improved alot and he certainly has quite a few issues affecting his weekends at various critical times. More than Lando that's for sure. I just don't buy that he has lost his ability since leaving Renault. Hopefully Baku he gets back to doing what we all know he is capable of.

I really hope that’s the case! We all need Daniel to deliver.

My apologies if you felt attacked, not my intention

[runningmanz]

All good , would be boring if we all agreed all the time.

Just want to see Dan back to his best and McLaren firing , like Lando has been.

[runningmanz]

[McG]

Daniel has a major flaw to struggle with 2 different cars in a row now. Not only 2 different cars, but all the changes, evolutions, different setups tested through over a year and still struggling. He had more than enough time to get used to the 2021 car and is on the verge of, or has had, what should be enough time to get used to the 2022 car. The only acceptable level is to be matching Lando. It's a great skill to have if you can adapt to drive any car at a top level, lots or drivers have done it for over a century. Looks like Daniel is not one of them. His win at Monza is his only saving grace at the moment. If it continues like this, even if there is another fluke win, he won't be in a McLaren F1 car next year.

And all that makes me sad because he's a great guy, one of the people who really make F1 a happy place. Not for McLaren fans anymore though, it's depressing to see him struggle.and depressing not to get the most out of the 2 cars.

[runningmanz]

Yeah he is struggling but really is it all the time this season? I don't believe so. As mentioned theres at least 4 race weekends he was generally on Lando's pace. Bahrain, Saudi, Australia and Imola. He also lost points through a PU DNF and also a minor mistake where he lost ALOT of points in Imola. If he had those extra 20 or so points on the board would everyone still see things the same now?

Getting robbed in two qualli sessions through no fault of his own could have changed the dynamic where its quite reasonable to suggest he might have started ahead of Lando given those sessions he was on form. Spain I have no idea where his pace was given the reported car issue. Monaco was a shocker in qualli though and the race he was stuck behind other cars for alot of it where you can't pass and redeem a bad qualli result unlike other tracks so hard to call that race. Am I the only one that thinks its not as bad as it appears when you look at this season in isolation? Yeah he has some grip issues esp over 1 lap but its not at every track and not even at half of them so far this year. Lando just doesn't make mistakes when it counts, has had better luck and is snow one of the best in F1 which is making it look worse than what it is imo. He does need to start getting some results though one way or another and fast because all this pressure isn't going to go away otherwise that is true.

Just hope he can turn it around because his best is amazing and it would be sad to see him go out of F1 like this.

For now given its the flavour of the month I'll liken it to Mav in Top Gun, the doubts might be creeping in for him in this new car but he's got the talent so just "keep sending him up" . The cream always rise to the top eventually, well lets hope so and soon!

[Ground Effect]

I really don't know what's up with Daniel. There have been times when he's been as quick, even quicker than Lando, until they get to Q3, or sometimes in Q2. It seems he struggles with track evolution, changing temps etc. Could his problem be simply down to tyres? It's a real head scratcher...

[runningmanz]

Nice to see a constructive article from The Race on the situation with Dan.

https://the-race.com/formula-1/option-f ... the-teams/

[runningmanz]

I really don't know what's up with Daniel. There have been times when he's been as quick, even quicker than Lando, until they get to Q3, or sometimes in Q2. It seems he struggles with track evolution, changing temps etc. Could his problem be simply down to tyres? It's a real head scratcher...

Imo it's lack of grip at certain tracks and conditions and his driving style where he likes to roll the car through the corner and trail brake. Combine that with understeer in the McLaren and it takes away his strengths. That's why we see at tracks like Australia with alot of grip he is fine. Deeply frustrating. The understeer is a carryover still from the previous cars it seems while we also are lacking df as well with this new ground effect car. Doesn't work at all with his driving style, whereas Lando is able to cope much better braking later and harder and rotating the car quickly through the corner not sliding as much as Dan or chewing up the tyres on low grip tracks which he has mastered over a number of seasons in the McLarens. Having said that though Lando doesn't seem to like having to drive this way with this type of car, as he again recently mentioned he's still not able to drive it to an extent how he wants to. I believe this relates to it still being a bit twitchy at times too.

As mentioned before how hard is it to get a sharper front end and oversteer into this car, which is what Dan has had at RBR and Renault and even Lando likes too given Key stated they have both asked for the same things on this car? It sounded like in that last podcast with Key that was what they were working towards still a better balanced and easier car to drive and also obviously more downforce.

[PhillipM]

As mentioned before how hard is it to get a sharper front end and oversteer into this car, which is what Dan has had at RBR and Renault and even Lando likes too given Key stated they have both asked for the same things on this car? It sounded like in that last podcast with Key that was what they were working towards still a better balanced and easier car to drive and also obviously more downforce.

Which is never gonna happen, he needs to work around it, with these big low profile tyres these cars are front limited and snatchy at the front on the limit and they're going to stay that way until the rules change, not for years.

[PlatinumZealot]

Danny Boy sees the writing on the wall, but he can turn it around.

It's not about the car. Lando is just faster.

After years of watching Daniel I think I can classify him as a "one style" sort of driver. I think his troubles stem from driving based on feel 90% of the time and if that car doesn't feel good, he is lost. At Renault remeber how long it took him to get up to speed? Even Cyril was worrying about the return on investment. Fortunately, Daniel pulled through, but it was not an impressive campaign. It was spotty and inconsistent.

I'm not sure what Daniel has to do now to adjust when he has that constant pressure from Lando. It's one thing taking your time when you are the number 1 driver, but as the slower driver it's difficult to bounce back.

[billamend]

Danny Boy sees the writing on the wall, but he can turn it around.

...

Strong agreed on everything. And I would even say that the fact that he goes all on "feel", means that he is not good about developing a car.

But can he turn it around? I don't think so, and I would still bet that the messaging around him is changing because his fate has been decided (inside McLaren).

[Lucky]

Fast in the slow corners

Regardless, McLaren was satisfied with the way the car was presented. The upgrade presented in Barcelona also proved its worth on the totally opposite circuit of Monte Carlo. Norris drove on par with Ferrari and McLaren in the slow corners. Mercedes only saved itself in the fast passages. "We had the speed of Mercedes here. That's a positive development," praised Seidl.

The same holds true for Baku and Montreal, two circuits where the majority of corners are in the sub-130 km/h range and where traction plays an important role. There, however, the top speed problem must be solved. Otherwise Mercedes will be ahead again. Blessed realization: The aerodynamics of the MCL36 work stably at different ground clearances and vehicle movements. That was not always so. And that puts you a little ahead of Mercedes
https://www.auto-motor-und-sport.de/for ... ricciardo/

[M840TR]

Fast in the slow corners

Regardless, McLaren was satisfied with the way the car was presented. The upgrade presented in Barcelona also proved its worth on the totally opposite circuit of Monte Carlo. Norris drove on par with Ferrari and McLaren in the slow corners. Mercedes only saved itself in the fast passages. "We had the speed of Mercedes here. That's a positive development," praised Seidl.

The same holds true for Baku and Montreal, two circuits where the majority of corners are in the sub-130 km/h range and where traction plays an important role. There, however, the top speed problem must be solved. Otherwise Mercedes will be ahead again. Blessed realization: The aerodynamics of the MCL36 work stably at different ground clearances and vehicle movements. That was not always so. And that puts you a little ahead of Mercedes
https://www.auto-motor-und-sport.de/for ... ricciardo/

Unfortunate that 3rd place is out of question without Dani