2023 - McLaren Formula 1 Team

[FittingMechanics]

Yeah I know he drove a better lap. I was wondering where he found that difference.

The 3 tenths are found in Bruxelles (1 corner)… The rest of the lap they are pretty even, with Lando having an slight edge in the first sector

Can you compare the last chicane? And compare to VER/SAI.

Verstappen looks like on rails in that chicane.

[Ben1980]

Don’t know why Al-peen thought it would be cute to leave Oscar on the sidelines for ‘22 then shop him to Williams. Don’t they understand talent spotting, it was flaming obvious his was a special talent as many of us had anticipated.

Big call to drop Fernando for him though.

[Ben1980]

Don’t know why Al-peen thought it would be cute to leave Oscar on the sidelines for ‘22 then shop him to Williams. Don’t they understand talent spotting, it was flaming obvious his was a special talent as many of us had anticipated.

You’ve answered your own question… They don’t understand talent spotting… In my opinion, it was simply Ego, they think of themselves as a big team and therefore they thought that Piastri had nowhere else to go (reality is, that if Daniel wouldn’t have underperformed as he did, Piastri wouldn’t have had the McLaren chance)… The whole saga, with delays to put a contract in front of him (which open the door for McLaren) and the attitude towards Alonso (more or less calling him old and wanting him on a 1 year contract) talks about a team with a very short team strategy driven by a few egos, instead of one with a long term plan.

If anything the long term plan was sound, Oscar does a year, Fernando another year. They just messed ut up short term.

Worked out well for macca!

[organic]

Having two happy drivers on the level of Norris/Piastri is truly a blessing!

[Darth-Piekus]

There was still a 5km difference between our drivers and Max and a 7 KM Difference between us and Perez. The difference is that Red Bull chose a lower DF set up while Mclaren a higher DF set up. If Peter Prodromou manages to make this High Downforce set up shed it's drag, fix the low speed decifit and make the car 5 KM faster on straights without sacrificing downforce, Mclaren is gonna have a car that will fight for the championship. Red Bull will definately suffer at some point due to that penalty from 2021 and let's wait and see if they did it again in 2022.

While I have slight favoritism to Lando over Oscar having two super fast drivers is gonna work wonders this year and on the following years.

[Stu]

Can you make any changes in setup after qualifying during weekends with sprint?

Nope, cars are in Parc Ferme as soon as the main qualifying goes green.

[Darth-Piekus]

All we need for the sprint later is a clear start for both drivers and not lose any position in the first turn and for Oscar to be behind Verstappen in those high speed corners and see if he can get him at the straight using the tow. That is why I was wondering why not choose a lower DF higher top speed set up unless of course as it was proven during the Q3 they have something up their sleeve cause if Oscar is able to be behind Verstappen using his much faster Sector 2 he might have a chance with the tow combined with the DRS to get a pass.

[SmallSoldier]

Yeah I know he drove a better lap. I was wondering where he found that difference.

The 3 tenths are found in Bruxelles (1 corner)… The rest of the lap they are pretty even, with Lando having an slight edge in the first sector

Can you compare the last chicane? And compare to VER/SAI.

Verstappen looks like on rails in that chicane.

Before the last chicane, Piastri is ahead of Sainz by 0.224, losing 2 tenths to Sainz in the chicane alone… Lando actually loses 1 tenth against Piastri in the chicane also.

By the time they hit the chicane, Lando was matching Sainz in terms of lap time (almost identical)… And as an additional reference point, Piastri loses 1 tenth to Hamilton also at the chicane

[SmallSoldier]

Don’t know why Al-peen thought it would be cute to leave Oscar on the sidelines for ‘22 then shop him to Williams. Don’t they understand talent spotting, it was flaming obvious his was a special talent as many of us had anticipated.

You’ve answered your own question… They don’t understand talent spotting… In my opinion, it was simply Ego, they think of themselves as a big team and therefore they thought that Piastri had nowhere else to go (reality is, that if Daniel wouldn’t have underperformed as he did, Piastri wouldn’t have had the McLaren chance)… The whole saga, with delays to put a contract in front of him (which open the door for McLaren) and the attitude towards Alonso (more or less calling him old and wanting him on a 1 year contract) talks about a team with a very short team strategy driven by a few egos, instead of one with a long term plan.

If anything the long term plan was sound, Oscar does a year, Fernando another year. They just messed ut up short term.

Worked out well for macca!

That’s kind of my point, if the long term was Oscar… Then you have to go all in, even at the expense of Fernando… Clearly they had a short term priority, it just didn’t work out… I don’t know, at least lock Oscar in (which they didn’t)

[BMMR61]

Is this Spa race setup conundrum something that better simulation tools can effect?

[Jambier]

Don’t know why Al-peen thought it would be cute to leave Oscar on the sidelines for ‘22 then shop him to Williams. Don’t they understand talent spotting, it was flaming obvious his was a special talent as many of us had anticipated.

Big call to drop Fernando for him though.

The issue was to have signed OCO for so long… a line up with PIA and ALO would have been very great

Anyway, I’m very happy for the team, NOR and PIA seems to be maybe the best line up, and the one with the more futur on the grid

Happy to see PIA this fast, let’s go get a first podium!

[SmallSoldier]

Is this Spa race setup conundrum something that better simulation tools can effect?

A better simulator will definitely help with setup, more importantly to arrive at a track with a better pre-planned setup and allowed to make adjustments in between sessions… But if you mean by conundrum, which part of the lap you favor (the top speed dependent S1 and S3, or the DF dependent S2) will be based on the car strengths / weaknesses… Given the strengths of the car, I would have also favor S2, specially looking at the race more than just 1 lap pace.

[Darth-Piekus]

This is off topic but after watching the F2 Sprint I can't wait to see yet another Fittipaldi in F1 and I would also love to see a Fittipaldi in the colours of Mclaren like his grandfather but that won't happen soon as we have two super fast drivers. Maybe in the distant future.

[LionsHeart]

Verstappen quicker than Piastri by 0.4 sec in S1, quicker by 0.3 sec in S3, but slower 0.7 sec in S2.

[BMMR61]

Is this Spa race setup conundrum something that better simulation tools can effect?

A better simulator will definitely help with setup, more importantly to arrive at a track with a better pre-planned setup and allowed to make adjustments in between sessions… But if you mean by conundrum, which part of the lap you favor (the top speed dependent S1 and S3, or the DF dependent S2) will be based on the car strengths / weaknesses… Given the strengths of the car, I would have also favor S2, specially looking at the race more than just 1 lap pace.

Yeah exactly. With our very limited data we sometimes seem to find fault in how the team present their car setup. We’re just keyboard warriors when it comes down to it!

So the scenario for our S2 oriented setup is that the extra downforce will give greater and longer race pace with lower degradation, would you say?