2023 - McLaren Formula 1 Team

[Darth-Piekus]

I am curious about something. Is Mclaren bringing a completely different car in Baku with a completely differene approach? Is the current car thats running an obsolete design that has been abandoned?

[McFAN]

We are happy with the session so far. Listening to both drivers they are definitely happier with the car than they were at testing, so it looks like we are making some forward progress. As you know with these cars they are never perfect, so I wouldn't say we have anything solved, but we are making a step in the right direction. Predictions are always tricky especially this early in the weekend, but I think we will put a better performance than we did in testing. Q3 is going to be tight because the midfield is so compressed, but let's see.
Zak Brown, McLaren CEO

[Ben1980]

I am curious about something. Is Mclaren bringing a completely different car in Baku with a completely differene approach? Is the current car thats running an obsolete design that has been abandoned?

Not sure anyone here can fully answer. But it's not been indicated to be the case.

[FittingMechanics]

P4 for Lando - we're back baby!

I'm joking. Still, nice to see.

[dimensi]

P4 for Lando - we're back baby!

I'm joking. Still, nice to see.

Still no soft tyre running from Ferrari, Mercedes, Aston Martin or Alpine. Don't hang your wish way too high.

[billamend]

How does anyone know what Binotto wants, or what his arrangement is with leaving Ferrari.

A technical partnership between Honda and McLaren with Binotto leading would be amazing.

[Macklaren]

P4 for Lando - we're back baby!

I'm joking. Still, nice to see.

Still no soft tyre running from Ferrari, Mercedes, Aston Martin or Alpine. Don't hang your wish way too high.

AMR did run softs with both cars and commentary said that they were running very light
Alpine did not run softs but their pace on mediums was terrible. Lots of headshaking on the pit wall

[Ground Effect]

P4 for Lando - we're back baby!

I'm joking. Still, nice to see.

Still no soft tyre running from Ferrari, Mercedes, Aston Martin or Alpine. Don't hang your wish way too high.

Pretty sure Alonso set his fastest times on sifts. I think only Mercedes and Ferrari didn’t use the softs

[McL-H]

I'm eager to see whether Zak Brown will start clearing the technical team or not. It's obvious that we are lack of grey matter. Needles to say that our facilities are not good enough.

Why is it though that Aston Martin attracted Dan Fallows and we did not? Binotto is out on the lose, but we are now waiting for him to go to Alpine? I am sure anyone would rather work for a legendary team like McLaren than for Daddy Stroll. Has the leadership put enough emphasis on attracting top personnel? I believe state-of-the-art facilities are important and I can’t wait for the team to start using them. But those facilities alone are not going to cut it when competitors use facilities that are of similar quality.

Isn't Dan Fallows Job taken at Mclaren by James Key? June 2021 it was agreed between the teams. Was their a job to offer him?

How does anyone know what Binotto wants, or what his arrangement is with leaving Ferrari.

Maybe James Key could had been assisting Dan Fallows, bundling all their knowledge together. They could had been doing it with the two of them. True we don’t know what Binotto wants, but in the end, anything can be purchased for the right price.

[mwillems]

I'm looking forward to P3 and Q1. So much time can be found from learning the car, in how it wants to be setup and driven. It sounds like we are moving forward and are confident we are not out of the race to fight for the lead of the midfield, if not confident yet of leading it.

From reading the update docs there are less changes to the underfloor than I would expect to see, so it feels like there is a lot to come from the next update. I'd love to know how much has been held back, but it feels like new floor, new front wing will come and then floor edges will be mandatory with those two changes to handle the new airflows and possibly then also the tunnel entrances / Fences which act as a bargeboard, they may need updating to handle the airflow from the front tyres, hopefully needing to do less work around the tyre wake if there is indeed less wake.

I feel happy right now. I'm happy Lando is pushing for a faster car and I'd imagine part of his outbursts are posturing as the de facto leader of the team anyway and putting his chest out for the paddock.

In 8 weeks, I may be eating my hat, but I think this team are going to do us proud as the year goes on.

[Darth-Piekus]

What about Lando Norris. How light was he and what tyre?

[MrGapes]

Ooof the race pace on softs compared to the Bulls is painful to see. Might be 1 to 1.5s off per lap in race trim. (Obviously we don’t know fuel or engine modes)

We're comparing race pace to Red Bull? We should focus on that very tight midfield.

KMAG faster by 0.2/0.3s on a few laps older tyre

Only reason I look for race pace to leaders is to see comparative gaps to last year

Haas definitely had less fuel they were taking turn 12 flat.. Don't think it matters, FP1 is way to hard to work anything out.

We will get a closer picture in FP2

[McL-H]

We are happy with the session so far. Listening to both drivers they are definitely happier with the car than they were at testing, so it looks like we are making some forward progress. As you know with these cars they are never perfect, so I wouldn't say we have anything solved, but we are making a step in the right direction. Predictions are always tricky especially this early in the weekend, but I think we will put a better performance than we did in testing. Q3 is going to be tight because the midfield is so compressed, but let's see.
Zak Brown, McLaren CEO

That sounds optimistic.

[FittingMechanics]

P4 for Lando - we're back baby!

I'm joking. Still, nice to see.

Still no soft tyre running from Ferrari, Mercedes, Aston Martin or Alpine. Don't hang your wish way too high.

I guess saying "I'm joking" was not clear enough?

[Macklaren]

We are happy with the session so far. Listening to both drivers they are definitely happier with the car than they were at testing, so it looks like we are making some forward progress. As you know with these cars they are never perfect, so I wouldn't say we have anything solved, but we are making a step in the right direction. Predictions are always tricky especially this early in the weekend, but I think we will put a better performance than we did in testing. Q3 is going to be tight because the midfield is so compressed, but let's see.
Zak Brown, McLaren CEO

That sounds optimistic.

Looks like McL's Bahraini shareholders rung him up and asked him to dial up the optimism in their commentary LOL