2023 - McLaren Formula 1 Team

[Slahinki]

I told everyone here. Lack of ambition brings us to this! afraid to take design risks. planning to be top 4 is planning to fail! they race to win not to be in the middle. you give this hahaha it's okay to the team so there you go, it's what you get! They can't even fight with the Williams. Mclaren is the new Williams! unacceptable! as a Mclaren fan for over 35 years we hit Rock bottom! I can't blame the engine on this one! its GP2 Chassis this time, GP2 team!

Man, the thread was just cleaned of a bunch of useless posts and you come in and add another. If literally everything you're going to do here is cry and whinge and try to make everybody else as miserable as you are, take it elsewhere. I hear twitter is a nice place for stuff like that.

[FittingMechanics]

Honestly the race would have went OK if there were not technical difficulties. Lando would probably win some points and Piastri looked to be able to overtake and fight on track. Not a great result but not catastrophic either.

Obviously having two technical DNFs (I know Lando finished but it was not a real race for him) is not good. Especially in a tightly contested season.

[mclaren111]

Serious question: who is responsible for the team's current situation (whatever it is)? Andreas Seidl or Andrea Stella?

Or is it even the actual "change" timeline that might have created this situation, with no one really to blame?

Seing a lot of McLaren fans stupidly asking for Binotto for TP across the internet.

I would personally pin this more on Seidl (or just his situation amid changing teams) than Stella. Stella deserves time.

I know they don't build the cars, but ultimately the buck stops with them. They have the last say in the team.

The current situation is temporary... They decided to change direction in aero which could not be finished until April...

I suspect "they" will be Peter Prod, Stella, Key & Seidl to some degree... Seidl leaving is not big in this regard I think...

The benefits of this knew direction must be well worth it & most probably have an influance on 2024 as well...

Kudos to the team for making such a Bold & Difficult choice...

[mwillems]

I guess we just need to wait a few races to see how this package looks. And by the team we start to see what this package looks like, we will have a major update !

[mwillems]

Since Capital Expenditure is excluded from the budget cap, but running costs are not, I wonder if the team would be able to generate some of their own power somehow via a wind turbine or two or from Solar Generation. I would assume that the power bill for the team must be huge, especially once they have their own wind tunnel.

Feels like it would be costing at least 6 figures to run that place.

Edit: I went back to see if Red Bulls submissions were published to see if there is an indication of the cost, since they did say they would publish them to be open, honest and transparent, but I cannot find them anywhere.

[Macklaren]

To those who say that NOR only kept up with HAM/ALO/STR/RUS because he was on fresher rubber....do you think McLaren had 6 sets of new tires?? He was used tires most of the time and one of his new sets was a Medium, which was rubbish on this track. Yes, he could push more since he was on 11-lap stints but the problem also caused performance issues.

The fact is that the doomsayers who said we would be last on pure pace were dead wrong -- we were the 5th fastest team here on pace...
On what was one of our worst tracks last year...
Before the big update coming...
There is plenty to be excited about this season!

[kfrantzios]

Since Capital Expenditure is excluded from the budget cap, but running costs are not, I wonder if the team would be able to generate some of their own power somehow via a wind turbine or two or from Solar Generation. I would assume that the power bill for the team must be huge, especially once they have their own wind tunnel.

Feels like it would be costing at least 6 figures to run that place.

Edit: I went back to see if Red Bulls submissions were published to see if there is an indication of the cost, since they did say they would publish them to be open, honest and transparent, but I cannot find them anywhere.

You could read this sustainability report from the team.
https://media-cdn.mclaren.com/media/sus ... Report.pdf

[Ben1980]

Today, 14:20
Ride height ruling change scuppered McLaren

It turns out this caused big issues for McLaren. Key said that while a 15-millimeter change "sounds very small," the importance of the floors in generating downforce means it had a “massive" impact. "When we did that in our car, it actually gave us a much bigger loss than anticipated," Key explained. "When we took that step, it was a really big knock for us." It left McLaren moving in a different direction with its floor concept about a month too late to get it resolved for the start of the season. "It is frustrating, because to be honest, the route we're on now seems to be pretty prolific," said Key. "Had the reg been earlier, or had we clocked the fact that you need to do a different thing with it four weeks earlier, we wouldn't be talking about it right now, to be honest. It's a bit of a shame. We are where we are."

By Race 4 in Baku, it should have the fixes in place to make it more competitive again.



Source: Luke Smith Senior Writer, F1

https://theathletic.com/tag/f1/



Read this on another forum.

[mwillems]

Since Capital Expenditure is excluded from the budget cap, but running costs are not, I wonder if the team would be able to generate some of their own power somehow via a wind turbine or two or from Solar Generation. I would assume that the power bill for the team must be huge, especially once they have their own wind tunnel.

Feels like it would be costing at least 6 figures to run that place.

Edit: I went back to see if Red Bulls submissions were published to see if there is an indication of the cost, since they did say they would publish them to be open, honest and transparent, but I cannot find them anywhere.

You could read this sustainability report from the team.
https://media-cdn.mclaren.com/media/sus ... Report.pdf

Nice thanks, I hadn't seen that. They are indeed looking at on site generation and passive energy generation.

[mwillems]

Today, 14:20
Ride height ruling change scuppered McLaren

It turns out this caused big issues for McLaren. Key said that while a 15-millimeter change "sounds very small," the importance of the floors in generating downforce means it had a “massive" impact. "When we did that in our car, it actually gave us a much bigger loss than anticipated," Key explained. "When we took that step, it was a really big knock for us." It left McLaren moving in a different direction with its floor concept about a month too late to get it resolved for the start of the season. "It is frustrating, because to be honest, the route we're on now seems to be pretty prolific," said Key. "Had the reg been earlier, or had we clocked the fact that you need to do a different thing with it four weeks earlier, we wouldn't be talking about it right now, to be honest. It's a bit of a shame. We are where we are."

By Race 4 in Baku, it should have the fixes in place to make it more competitive again.



Source: Luke Smith Senior Writer, F1

https://theathletic.com/tag/f1/



Read this on another forum.

I like hearing the words prolific and substantial from the team.

And now it makes sense why the late change.

[billamend]

McLaren was pushing for those changes to happen. https://us.motorsport.com/f1/news/mclar ... /10341634/

[mwillems]

McLaren was pushing for those changes to happen. https://us.motorsport.com/f1/news/mclar ... /10341634/

They already held their hands up, hard to dispute they were slow on the uptake.

I'm more interested in next. That was a strong message from the team in terms of development.

[taperoo2k]

I told everyone here. Lack of ambition brings us to this! afraid to take design risks. planning to be top 4 is planning to fail! they race to win not to be in the middle. you give this hahaha it's okay to the team so there you go, it's what you get! They can't even fight with the Williams. Mclaren is the new Williams! unacceptable! as a Mclaren fan for over 35 years we hit Rock bottom! I can't blame the engine on this one! its GP2 Chassis this time, GP2 team!

They were fighting with the Williams. And Lando was pulling in Albon before his engine issue.

I think yesterday's result was very much engine, hence the 6 stops.

And lack of ambition? That makes no sense.

If Lando hadn't had his engine issues, then I expect he'd have finished in the points or been very close to the points. The McLaren isn't great but nor is it terrible. If the development path they've chosen pays off then the first few races will be forgotten. It takes a lot of guts for an F1 team to realise they've made a design mistake and then ambition to switch designs and sacrifice the first few races to get a better performing car. Hopefully the design changes work, and they become much more competitive.

[continuum16]

To those who say that NOR only kept up with HAM/ALO/STR/RUS because he was on fresher rubber....do you think McLaren had 6 sets of new tires?? He was used tires most of the time and one of his new sets was a Medium, which was rubbish on this track. Yes, he could push more since he was on 11-lap stints but the problem also caused performance issues.

...

For clarity and objectivity purposes:

He completed 55 laps:
18 of them on used softs (most likely from qualifying, so max. 3 laps, albeit at least one at full push)
37 on new rubber, various compounds

He was actually not on used rubber most of the race. They had 4 sets of new tires. If the last stint was the one where he kept up with the leaders (I think it was), it was on an 8-lap stint on used softs (presumably not more than 3 laps old when they put them on), compared to ~25 lap stint on hards from those in front.

[daren_p]

Could be wrong, but I believe it was the second last stint he was keeping up with the leaders, so looks like new hards.