2025 McLaren F1 Team

[Emag]

Lando has been going on for quite a lot of laps after setting that 30.4

The times he went in the pits, he just had a front wing adjustment, so no refuelling. Considering how heavy the car might have been when setting that fastest lap, it’s safe to assume the MCL39 will blow the Bahrain-spec MCL38 out of the water when we come back to this track for qualifying. (For reference, the best McLaren managed in qualifying here last season was a 29.6)

[Cassius]

Impressive stint from Norris. Most laps in high 32s.

[Emag]

Impressive stint from Norris. Most laps in high 32s.

I think he was fuelled for 1/3 of a race (maybe around 35-40L) considering how long he kept going after setting his fastest lap.

Not comparable with Leclerc’s stint. I believe Leclerc is fuelled for a full race based on the laptimes.

[FittingMechanics]

Norris did a 17 lap stint after his hotlap.

Not sure how much LEC did.

[Cassius]

Impressive stint from Norris. Most laps in high 32s.

I think he was fuelled for 1/3 of a race (maybe around 35-40L) considering how long he kept going after setting his fastest lap.

Not comparable with Leclerc’s stint. I believe Leclerc is fuelled for a full race based on the laptimes.

I am not comparing him to Leclerc. He was indeed on a full race sim. Compared to other 1/3 stints from Leclerc, Russell and Max, Norris was clearly faster. We don't know fuel loads / engine modes though. Max is now also doing an impressive stint.

Could be top teams have converged even further.

[FittingMechanics]

McLaren crew ungluing a piece of carbon fiber from the top of the front wing.

I guess they want more flexibility.

EDIT: They just flowvizzed the whole car.

Not sure why they don't use UV sensitive flowviz, it seams much easier/safer way to do it.

[Emag]

Some banter between drivers I suppose. Could be Russell trying to downplay Mercedes too.

[CjC]

https://i.imgur.com/Bj9BCAQ.png

Some banter between drivers I suppose. Could be Russell trying to downplay Mercedes too.

Don’t know why but I expected to hear that- especially from Russell.

Didn’t expect to hear Lando saying that they had found a lot but I expected Russell to talk up Mclaren

[Macklaren]

When was the last time we topped a day of testing?

[Darth-Piekus]

Back in 2012 if we are talking about genuine pace and not glory runs.

[geogate]

looked a very good day. Not making any predictions as to where anyone else is, but the "radical" geometry seems to be performing to expectation. An extremely bias perspective but it just looked like they could pump in a fast time at will. I am hopeful.

[bauc]

No they don’t have equal footing, but they wouldn’t say McLaren has some input on the design phase if that wasn’t true to some degree, which what the guy was denying.

In any case, this was McLaren’s best choice. They get one of the power units which will likely be close to the best, if not the best, while also having more input than a normal customer.

They considered RBPT for a short while, but RBPT is way too inexperienced and I doubt they will be competitive in 2026, whereas a Ferrari-powered McLaren will never happen.

The only other option was to develop it themselves like RedBull, but it’s too late for that. It could be a consideration for the next reg cycle, assuming McLaren keeps an upward trend.

The guy wasn't denying that, though. Only arguing about the degree to which it was actually true. Because this is all about nuance and degrees of truth, if you yourself even agree that they aren't on equal footing. You simply side on the collaboration being much stronger, while the other person believing the collaboration being less strong. You're not fundamentally disagreeing on the core argument here, which you've been trying to portray them as doing, and the only reason I felt like speaking up.

McLaren have a more preferential deal with Mercedes vs other customer teams by the looks of it. It allows for a certain degree of input on the PU design, helpful when you build your own gearboxes. And it sounds like they might be first in the queue for newer parts that the works team will obviously get first. I'd not call it a semi works team deal. More like an Enhanced Customer Deal. At the end of the day, if the Mercedes F1 team wins the constructors or McLaren does? Still great marketing for Mercedes "Look even a customer team can win with a Mercedes AMG HPP Engine in F1".

It could well be a great move by Zak Brown signing a new deal with Mercedes for the PU's. We'll find out in '26.

Mclaren already has a deal with Mercedes till 2030

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/arti ... 4r4mi0vhT5

[bauc]

Interesting way to hide flow wiz in the pit box

https://x.com/i/status/1894797620066832730

[MTudor]

Are we actually good at the start of the season ?!
Happy days

[proteus]

When was the last time we topped a day of testing?

2013, 2018