2025 McLaren F1 Team

[mwillems]

We will look back at this race as the single most important race for McLaren and Norris of the whole year. To withstand Verstappen's pressure in conditions like this with a broken car is massively important for Lando's confidence. From now on, only failed updates by McLaren or a quick Piastri can pose a problem for the title . I expect a total demolition of the other teams in China.

It was ominous last year, Red Bull were deemed a shoo in for everything. And then Mclaren happened.

Let's not get ahead of ourselves!

[mwillems]

Not replying directly to you @Ground Effect
Supposedly Lando sustained ‘significant’ floor damage….

I’ve not been able to validate the suggestion nor decipher what corner/ which lap it happened

Surely it would have been when they went into the gravel during the heavy rain?

Yes I believe it was when they both went off at the same spot but piastri carried too much speed to keep position in front of Max.

[CjC]

Not replying directly to you @Ground Effect
Supposedly Lando sustained ‘significant’ floor damage….

I’ve not been able to validate the suggestion nor decipher what corner/ which lap it happened

Surely it would have been when they went into the gravel during the heavy rain?

The Autosport article I read was undecided between the incident you refer to or of another wide moment not long from the end which allowed Max to get within his DRS- i think it was missed by the live feed but Max mentioned it in his post race interview

[CjC]

We will look back at this race as the single most important race for McLaren and Norris of the whole year. To withstand Verstappen's pressure in conditions like this with a broken car is massively important for Lando's confidence. From now on, only failed updates by McLaren or a quick Piastri can pose a problem for the title . I expect a total demolition of the other teams in China.

It was ominous last year, Red Bull were deemed a shoo in for everything. And then Mclaren happened.

Let's not get ahead of ourselves!

Think McLaren are very aware of that.
Lando says they’ll continue to improve the car with further understanding and development. He also says Oscar is making him extract an extra tenth and a half in quali
https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/norri ... /10704059/

[SmallSoldier]

MCL39 in 2025 is looking every bit like the RB19 in 2023. More than 1s/lap on race pace. Even if others 'add performance' over the season, it's too big a gap to bridge. Congrats on the WDC and WCC.

Australia always suits us. There will be tracks where we aren't fastest, but it looks promising.

The car is already clearly better at the front end and better in wet conditions, so that's two major flaws addressed. Let's see a few more tracks to see if they had to compromise.

Stella said that neither Melbourne nor Bahrain were expected to be strong tracks for the Mcl39, with that in mind, I look forward to see what can be achieved on tracks that do favour it's characteristics

Suzuka will be an interesting track to watch

[nitrotech]

The Mclaren's dominant pace advantage appears to be stemming from their ability to keep the tires alive for almost eternity. That cake tin aero cooling appears to be doing a lot of the magic. Having tires in great condition allows the drivers to push the car harder on all kinds of corners and the tire pressure doesn't balloon up either, providing consistent high grip. As it's a relatively easy trick to copy, we might see that appearing up and down the grid in a few races' time. If that indeed is a major boost, then McLaren may not keep the advantage for long. That's just a hunch.

[FittingMechanics]

I think that having a lot of clean downforce will help with tires. You don't slide, you don't overheat the tire. Cars that are aero sensitive that have a lot of snaps will also overheat the tires.

Btw, I want to mention again that Stella before the season said that when he looks at their performance data, it still looked like their pace is improving at the same rate as last two years (where they were the best improving team). In other words, they are not seeing diminishing returns so far. Kind of incredible to still be able to improve the car at that pace.

[Darth-Piekus]

This is off topic but the tradition says that whoever wins the first round of F1 that happens in Australia usually gets the double. Anyway. If Australia and Bahrain are tracks that don't suit Mclaren and the car was able to gap all the rest to such a degree, what's gonna happen when we go to tracks that suit them?

The forum seems to be back to normal.

[Szabi1112]

The Mclaren's dominant pace advantage appears to be stemming from their ability to keep the tires alive for almost eternity. That cake tin aero cooling appears to be doing a lot of the magic. Having tires in great condition allows the drivers to push the car harder on all kinds of corners and the tire pressure doesn't balloon up either, providing consistent high grip. As it's a relatively easy trick to copy, we might see that appearing up and down the grid in a few races' time. If that indeed is a major boost, then McLaren may not keep the advantage for long. That's just a hunch.

Easy? You summed up Mercedes’s problem from 2022

[mwillems]

I think that having a lot of clean downforce will help with tires. You don't slide, you don't overheat the tire. Cars that are aero sensitive that have a lot of snaps will also overheat the tires.

Btw, I want to mention again that Stella before the season said that when he looks at their performance data, it still looked like their pace is improving at the same rate as last two years (where they were the best improving team). In other words, they are not seeing diminishing returns so far. Kind of incredible to still be able to improve the car at that pace.

Yeah i was thinking this, but more in terms of whether we are going to hit the ceiling this year.

But as long as we do the business and get the points whilst we can, it won't be an issue.

[mwillems]

https://www.planetf1.com/news/lando-nor ... qualifying

Lando says the gap to the other drivers in Q was only in small part down to the car, but was largely down to the skills of Lando and Oscar and that others should look in the mirror and not at the 39.

Ouch.

Also says they will be very strong in China, because they are always stronger in China, and that at Bahrain he isn't confident of a win.

[Darth-Piekus]

Lando should not make these kinds of statements. While it's true that a good car needs a good driver to perform at maximum he should not underestimate the opposition. We go race by race to try and win them all.

[Emag]

https://www.planetf1.com/news/lando-nor ... qualifying

Lando says the gap to the other drivers in Q was only in small part down to the car, but was largely down to the skills of Lando and Oscar and that others should look in the mirror and not at the 39.

Ouch.

Also says they will be very strong in China, because they are always stronger in China, and that at Bahrain he isn't confident of a win.

I don't really like what he said, but whatever, it's not the first time Lando says random stuff on live interviews.

Unless they (the team) actually believes the margins will be tight. The only way for Lando not to look bad for what he said, is if they're really not in contention for the win at Bahrain.

[Ground Effect]

The MCL39 looked pretty amazing, still planning to watch the race again. Rob Marshall has really taken the team to another level. It's incredible that he had been moved aside in the last couple of years at Red Bull. He's a real top class engineer and innovator. I jumped and punched the air when I read the news he was coming to McLaren.

[mwillems]

Horner, talking of Mclarens "strange" ability.

"I think it's different to every body, yes. And what's quite strange is that they enjoy great warm-up, but also, [a] very low degradation. Usually one comes at the expense of the other, so they've certainly, at this circuit, seem to have mastered that," he concluded.

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/332903/h ... range.html