2024 Mclaren Formula 1 Team

[trinidefender]

Anyone have any long run data from McLaren and other teams?

[BMMR61]

Anyone making McLaren predictions before Sprint Qualifying is likely to look foolish. I find it hard to believe we are as competitive as the times indicate. If it was anyone other than Ted saying the McLarens looked planted I'd get interested. Anyway, once the qualifying is done we can look at the factors involved - temperature, compounds, degradation, balance - all the things that need time and data to analyse.

[FittingMechanics]

Lando was very fast (0.5s up on Piastri) on a lap that was not clean - he went wide and brought up dust in one corner and there were reports that he was impeded by a Haas.

Now it is likely no one showed their pace so take that with a grain of salt, but I want to mention that this is a sprint weekend and it is possible that a team nails the setup quicker then the other teams. McLaren didn't bring upgrades from the start of the season so they probably have a good understanding of their package by now.

Looking forward to the rest of the weekend. Hopefully it continues to be positive.

BTW one thing that commentators were bringing up is that both Stella and Norris were quite optimistic about chances of winning later this season. The commentators thought that is quite telling and that McLaren seems to think their upgrades will be good.

[BMMR61]

Lando was very fast (0.5s up on Piastri) on a lap that was not clean - he went wide and brought up dust in one corner and there were reports that he was impeded by a Haas.

Now it is likely no one showed their pace so take that with a grain of salt, but I want to mention that this is a sprint weekend and it is possible that a team nails the setup quicker then the other teams. McLaren didn't bring upgrades from the start of the season so they probably have a good understanding of their package by now.

Looking forward to the rest of the weekend. Hopefully it continues to be positive.

BTW one thing that commentators were bringing up is that both Stella and Norris were quite optimistic about chances of winning later this season. The commentators thought that is quite telling and that McLaren seems to think their upgrades will be good.

Lando drove into a wall of cars on outlaps, he was on track to take the fastest lap by a margin. We know so little about fuel weight, engine mode etc that the times represent anything except confirming there's high circuit evolution, but we expected that. Visually the car looked pretty awful and oversteery early on when running hards but settled down late as the track rubbered in. I expect we may suffer high deg in the race(s).

Regards the upgrades optimism by the team that sounds almost reminiscent of last year - we're expecting a decent jump in performance from a car which has all surfaces updated. It's less than a year ago that the team were claiming the 2024 car would be the first McLaren designed with the aid of the new wind tunnel. That all changed some months later, I still haven't seen any reference to this setback as I would term it.

[BosF1]

SQ2 graph from F1 data showing Piastri being fifth fastest of all in slow speed corners. Not that bad with the current package

[mwillems]

SQ2 graph from F1 data showing Piastri being fifth fastest of all in slow speed corners. Not that bad with the current package

We are always looking better on lower fuel.
Plus the conditions help as the car has good mechanical grip.

Package will look sh*t there on Sunday in the dry.

As I've already said, we have a good chance of getting good points in the sprint and doing well in Qualification.

[FittingMechanics]

What a session. Lando was on fire - but got himself into trouble with the sliding off in the penultimate lap.

Hopefully it doesn't get deleted again.

[BosF1]

Geeeez, what is happening! Norris' fastest lap got deleted and than reinstated! Yes, P1! Let's go, Lando!

[De Wet]

Let's Go Lando !!!!!

[f1rules]

maybe being able to focus fully on slow speed helped also, normally mclaren has trouble when its a mix/compromise between slow/fast corners
let it rain all week

[FittingMechanics]

Stella says that Piastri had a problem with the gearbox in the hairpin - it shifted to neutral so he lost a lot of time.

[Darth-Piekus]

In the rain its where a driver trully shines. Lets go Lando

[Emag]

It doesn't look like it's gonna rain for the rest of the weekend. Sunday will have cooler temperatures but no showers predicted so far.

[FittingMechanics]

It doesn't look like it's gonna rain for the rest of the weekend. Sunday will have cooler temperatures but no showers predicted so far.

I think Stella thinks morning (sprint) may be wet and then maybe qualy will be dry.

[SilviuAgo]

Stella says that Piastri had a problem with the gearbox in the hairpin - it shifted to neutral so he lost a lot of time.

That's true, heard now on SkyF1. First, I super like this man. Is so confident, so calm, so intelligent. I think was a mega top move from Zak to install Andrea as Team Principal.
Second, seem that Lando's lap, the pole one, was clean, but the stewards considered that the previous one, when was also a pole time and deleted for the last corner exit, helped Lando to obtain the time to retake pole. But that's obvious an error, Andrea saying Lando actually lost 0.3 - 0.4 with that exit in the last corner.

Now also Toto confirmed that actually Lando was slowed by that error, and that he could have been faster in his last lap.