2024 Mclaren Formula 1 Team

[SilviuAgo]

VSC wasn't a factor in anyone we were battling with, only those behind. 55 points in the bag after 3 races including a quiet opening race, last year we had a lucky 12 from Australia to show for our troubles and 5th place looked the ultimate dream..... This year we're clear in 3rd though with a bit to gain back on Ferrari, dare to dream!

Anyone got any ideas why Mercedes are struggling with PU reliability? Speaking of which that was another setback for us a year ago so McLaren are in the fight, especially now we see RedBull isn't invincible. The race was run at near maximum pace and we had close to the measure of the Ferraris and possibly Max if he hadn't DNFed. Bahrain was an outlier and the team are working methodically not chucking ideas at the cars.

Allow me to disagree cause when Norris lost 22 seconds that a usual pit stop takes, Leclerc did exploit the 13 seconds that usually costs during a VSC to gain a place. We might have had a different result.

Here you can see the Pit times for all the drivers. Lando and Charles had similar pit times and both on track when VSC was deployed (lap 15 when Hamilton retired)

https://www.formula1.com/en/results.htm ... mmary.html

1 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 9 15:15:42 17.409 17.409
1 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN 14 15:22:37 17.776 17.776

2 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 34 15:50:35 17.308 34.717
2 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN 40 15:58:46 17.653 35.429

The main beneficiary of the VSC brought by Hamilton was Alonso:

15:27 Virtual safety car! Hamilton pulled off at a service road but the angle is awkward for the recovery.
15:28 Alonso pits under the Virtual Safety Car to gain race time. He comes out in fifth on fresh mediums having started on hards

[Sphere3758]

Lando had relatively clear air compared to Charles on the first stint which gave him a tyre advantage. Charles also did not optimize his tyre preparation in his second stint trying to undercut Lando and gain track position.


Once he got some clean air, Charles managed his final stint very well to get the fastest lap with 5 laps older tyres. But a strong showing by McLaren that they are very competitive on certain track layouts.

[DragonSGC]

Why is it that when Carlos wins, George, chasing his opponent in front, gets into an accident on the last lap?

I see no fault on Alonso side here. And how desperate Russell was asking for a red flag (but is the same guy that was pointing Lando to be penalized for the jump start in Jeddah ). I think was a good call from the stewards to end the race on VSC.




LE: seems Alonso was penalized by the stewards.

POS NO DRIVER CAR LAPS TIME/RETIRED PTS
1 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 58 1:20:26.843 25
2 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 58 +2.366s 19
3 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 58 +5.904s 15
4 81 Oscar Piastri MCLAREN MERCEDES 58 +35.770s 12
5 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT 58 +56.309s 10
6 18 Lance Stroll ASTON MARTIN MERCEDES 58 +93.222s 8
7 22 Yuki Tsunoda RB HONDA RBPT 58 +95.601s 6
8 14 Fernando Alonso ASTON MARTIN MERCEDES 58 +100.992s 4
9 27 Nico Hulkenberg HAAS FERRARI 58 +104.553s 2
10 20 Kevin Magnussen HAAS FERRARI 57 +1 lap 1

I think that his desperation was just out of pure fear, also red flag comes way easier to mind and the tongue than virtual safety car.... cant fault him for that or downplay it because he played hall monitor against lando in Jeddah

[SilviuAgo]

I agree, was pure fear. But not to forget that Russell is that kind of person that is complaining anytime about anything that, specially, is in his favor. I personally don't like him / his character.

[SilviuAgo]

First data from the race:



Good news for MCL38 how close was McLaren to Ferrari on this track layout. And a real surprise Perez pace (after the race the guy in charge with RB team said that Perez had a floor damage after he passed Alonso, don't know if is true or just an excuse for the Mexican driver).

[BMMR61]

VSC wasn't a factor in anyone we were battling with, only those behind. 55 points in the bag after 3 races including a quiet opening race, last year we had a lucky 12 from Australia to show for our troubles and 5th place looked the ultimate dream..... This year we're clear in 3rd though with a bit to gain back on Ferrari, dare to dream!

Anyone got any ideas why Mercedes are struggling with PU reliability? Speaking of which that was another setback for us a year ago so McLaren are in the fight, especially now we see RedBull isn't invincible. The race was run at near maximum pace and we had close to the measure of the Ferraris and possibly Max if he hadn't DNFed. Bahrain was an outlier and the team are working methodically not chucking ideas at the cars.

Allow me to disagree cause when Norris lost 22 seconds that a usual pit stop takes, Leclerc did exploit the 13 seconds that usually costs during a VSC to gain a place. We might have had a different result.

For someone who admits he didn't watch the race you're making some assumptions D-P.

[Darth-Piekus]

My mistake then. Someone clarified that both drivers pitted under VSC so that wasnt a factor. Still 3-4 is a great result.

[Seerix]

My mistake then. Someone clarified that both drivers pitted under VSC so that wasnt a factor. Still 3-4 is a great result.

You really have a reading problem, don't you? None of them pitted under VSC.

[SilviuAgo]

My mistake then. Someone clarified that both drivers pitted under VSC so that wasnt a factor. Still 3-4 is a great result.

What I said above, on short, is that Lando and Charles were both on track when VSC was deployed (lap 15 when Hamilton retired). The main beneficiary of the VSC was Alonso

[LionsHeart]

What surprises and impresses me at the same time is not the pure race pace itself, but the degradation of the tires. This is what I understand, the team has made great progress. Or, McLaren cars had the least granulation of tires.







P.S.: mwillems, If your next prediction is that McLaren will challenge Red Bull at Suzuka, I won't argue with you.

[Macklaren]

Once he got some clean air, Charles managed his final stint very well to get the fastest lap with 5 laps older tyres. But a strong showing by McLaren that they are very competitive on certain track layouts.

Just FYI the team radio shows that Lando was prepping to get the fastest lap back on the last lap until the VSC

[mwillems]

Also, McLaren is not bringing anything big for Japan right? Stella said the target is to bring the first major package before the mid part of the season, and the first couple of races will only see minor changes which he estimated to be on miliseconds in terms of laptime.

And as far as Suzuka goes, yes, Ferrari is much more competitive in high speed corners this year. I think Lando had a slight edge at some of the very fast stuff, but unfortunately the difference is marginal compared to what they lose on the slow corners to Ferrari. So it nets to a disadvantage.

The last chicane in Suzuka perhaps won't be as bad, but the hairpin will probably be the main time loss. If they have 3 tenths in the pocket from the high speed sections of the track, they might have a fighting chance. Otherwise, Ferrari will probably still be ahead.

And of course, Max.

I think it was quoted that Imola is likely to recieve upgrades as they don't want to bring upgrades to the Sprint weekends

[Darth-Piekus]

My mistake then. Someone clarified that both drivers pitted under VSC so that wasnt a factor. Still 3-4 is a great result.

You really have a reading problem, don't you? None of them pitted under VSC.

I'm gonna see the race and see myself what happened. Still from the diagrams that I saw the difference was miniscule.

I'm watching the race right now and I don't see how Ferrari was faster than us. Sainz had free air while Norris had to burn his tyres behind the dirty air of Sainz for the first 7 laps and on tyre saving later. I think it would have been a different race if Norris passed Sainz on the start. I'm seeing two equal cars till lap 22.

Also I think we could have tried the one pit stop strategy. I've seen now that both drivers went into pits under normal circumstances.

But make no mistake. I'm satisfied with the 3-4 result. Suzuka will play on our strengths much more than Australia.

I notice that we lost time on the straights and the last slow corner but gain also a lot of time on the fast and middle speed corners of the middle sector.

[Emag]

I wish we had some onboards of the car from the qualifying laps. Would have liked to see if with this year's car it's still easy to spot the lazy turn-in on slow corners compared to RB/Ferrari.

[Darth-Piekus]

They should have put Norris immediately on the next lap for a tyre change. He seemed to had the momentum. Boxing him after 5 laps costed 2nd position if you look how close it was.

So I've watched the whole race. The 3-4 was a very good result. Could have been better on a perfect day but nothing is perfect. The commentators are mentioning about how much Suzuka will suit Mclaren to the point we might see a battle between Verstappen and the two Mclarens. We got to give it our all there to get in the game.