2025 McLaren F1 Team

[FittingMechanics]

Car didn't look particularly nice today with the hotter temps to be honest. Don't know if they were messing around with different setups between runs though.

Car didn't look hooked up (many didn't) but still the pace looks good.

[FittingMechanics]

Stella quite positive about the team, test and the car.

Says they took a risks with the changes for this car but that they agreed to do them because they had confidence in their engineering team and that it looks like they were right.

[Emag]

Stella quite positive about the team, test and the car.

Says they took a risks with the changes for this car but that they agreed to do them because they had confidence in their engineering team and that it looks like they were right.

Let's see when we start racing. Can't' really see a picture in terms of pecking order at the moment. There are some rear limitations, which were particularly apparent today, but it won't matter that much if there is a lot of pace.

[CjC]

Stella did play down lando’s long run pace

[Cassius]

Stella did play down lando’s long run pace

But did not succeed. He said that with the colder weather it brought their car into a sweetspot. Just confirms they are significantly faster than Merc and Ferrari.

[Emag]

Stella did play down lando’s long run pace

But did not succeed. He said that with the colder weather it brought their car into a sweetspot. Just confirms they are significantly faster than Merc and Ferrari.

Not really. Temperatures yesterday were not representative. Lets see how will Oscar’s long run look today with the higher temps.

[organic]

Stella did play down lando’s long run pace

But did not succeed. He said that with the colder weather it brought their car into a sweetspot. Just confirms they are significantly faster than Merc and Ferrari.

Yesterday the temps were more like Vegas than typical Bahrain

[K1Plus]

Stella did play down lando’s long run pace

But did not succeed. He said that with the colder weather it brought their car into a sweetspot. Just confirms they are significantly faster than Merc and Ferrari.

What do you reckon, is it gonna be at the start like Red Bull did last year, albeit this year instead of them, McLaren on top, then a close group of Ferrari Mercedes and this time Red Bull close behind?

[Macklaren]

Stella did play down lando’s long run pace

But did not succeed. He said that with the colder weather it brought their car into a sweetspot. Just confirms they are significantly faster than Merc and Ferrari.

Yesterday the temps were more like Vegas than typical Bahrain

Still, very encouraging given the MCL38's cold weather weakness last year

[Cassius]

Stella did play down lando’s long run pace

But did not succeed. He said that with the colder weather it brought their car into a sweetspot. Just confirms they are significantly faster than Merc and Ferrari.

Yesterday the temps were more like Vegas than typical Bahrain

It just shows their inherent race pace if deg is less an issue with these low temperatures. Mclaren might suffer a bit on rear limited tracks (which it wasn't yesterday) but Stella didn't sound too worried there. Think they are clearly ahead.

How close RB is, is not yet clear.

[organic]

But did not succeed. He said that with the colder weather it brought their car into a sweetspot. Just confirms they are significantly faster than Merc and Ferrari.

Yesterday the temps were more like Vegas than typical Bahrain

It just shows their inherent race pace if deg is less an issue with these low temperatures. Mclaren might suffer a bit on rear limited tracks (which it wasn't yesterday) but Stella didn't sound too worried there. Think they are clearly ahead.

How close RB is, is not yet clear.

Temperature does a lot more than just change the amount of degradation, most importantly shifts balance on a track like this rearwards

[Ben1980]

This team aren't stupid enough to do another mini drs and be caught, are they? Surely?

[mwillems]

Stella did play down lando’s long run pace

But did not succeed. He said that with the colder weather it brought their car into a sweetspot. Just confirms they are significantly faster than Merc and Ferrari.

Cold is the sweet spot now, on harder tyres?

Hmmm.

Still, advantage can still be track specific. Look at the lap data, we only really excel at this point in slow corners, otherwise we are comparable to the red car.

This does suggest the front graining is gone in colder conditions though.

On another note, has anyone looked at our usage of the kerbs versus other cars? I'm curious about how this suspension is being utilised and how stiff the car is, or isn't.

[Harisudhan]

Oscar is on a race sim. He is on the 2nd stint now.

[Macklaren]

slower than Lando yesterday but the track is slower too
PIA times compare well to RUS who just started his race sim (track now quicker than when PIA did his first stint)