2025 McLaren F1 Team

[mwillems]

It's just FP2, don't read too much into it. There are signs of competitiveness in other teams data.

For those with memory issues, Japan Q did not turn out the way we expected after "dominating" free practice.

[Ground Effect]

Anyone with info on long runs?

[AR3-GP]

I swear some F1 fans bend over backwards to hate on Norris. He said nothing wrong... he's said that the car is very good in public before but he is now just saying it is not as dominant as Max says it is.

Aged like milk.

Again, I see nothing wrong with the quote even though it looks like McLaren are indeed dominant here. McLaren have by far the best tyre treatment in the field, high deg tracks like Bahrain they will destroy everyone. Suzuka had very little deg this year, so their advantage was not "dominant".

More annoying to me was his comment post FP2 about it being close. That was just weird.

Australia: Mclaren was on track to finish 35-40+ seconds ahead of the rest before the safety cars and floor damage of #4.
China: Piastri finished 13 seconds ahead of Russell while cruising after Norris brakes failed and Russell driving flatout to catch Norris. Mclaren Fastest laps of the race are 3-4 tenths quicker than Russell.
Suzuka: I won't discuss qualy. It was impossible to overtake without 1.2 seconds advantage so they could not demonstrate their pace.

What more does Mclaren have to do to? A lot of people almost don't buy how good the car is, but that is only due to happenstance. Bahrain will be demonstration run.

[venkyhere]

What more does Mclaren have to do to? A lot of people almost don't buy how good the car is, but that is only due to happenstance. Bahrain will be demonstration run.

First, Norris should buy how fast the car is.
Second, he should stop parroting McLaren PR teams' lines abput it being a "difficult" car. It simply isn't. It can't be, if it doesn't have a weakness in any kind of corner or the straight. It simply can't.

[Mansell89]

Still think Ferrari will be the surprise tomorrow. They showed mini glimpses of pace today dialling in a new floor so there is pace for them to find in the fine tuning.

Lewis was 0.3 down before his last two corner errors.

We looked very strong however, especially that middle sector.

[billamend]

Second, he should stop parroting McLaren PR teams' lines abput it being a "difficult" car. It simply isn't. It can't be, if it doesn't have a weakness in any kind of corner or the straight. It simply can't.

I don’t ever remember Norris locking up his tires, or missing corners, as much as this year. He might not be as fast as Max, but he always very smooth in his driving -until this year. Something is not right.

[Emag]

Anyone with info on long runs?

[AR3-GP]

I think we have realized that there's a couple of things that, especially in relation to Lando's driving style, may be occasionally an advantage, but sometimes may create a bit of a disconnect between what Lando expects from the car and what the car is actually doing."

"We have approached that with, actually, what I could see was quite high-level engineering. And even here at this event, we have applied a few modifications, and we are very interested in seeing how they work."

"I think it's an interesting weekend not only from an overall competitiveness point of view but also in terms of fine-tuning this aspect of the car so that Lando can drive in the most natural way. I know it's early days because we've only seen FP1 and he was obviously top in that session but [Iit was] unrepresentative."

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/stella-o ... -naturally

[mwillems]

Still think Ferrari will be the surprise tomorrow. They showed mini glimpses of pace today dialling in a new floor so there is pace for them to find in the fine tuning.

Lewis was 0.3 down before his last two corner errors.

We looked very strong however, especially that middle sector.

Ferrari and Mercedes set their fastest time on softs that were a few laps old, I believe. Mercedes look particularly interesting here, in both their long runs and Q runs.

I do think we are ahead, but I wouldn't like to say by how much.

[Sergej]

Still think Ferrari will be the surprise tomorrow. They showed mini glimpses of pace today dialling in a new floor so there is pace for them to find in the fine tuning.

Lewis was 0.3 down before his last two corner errors.

We looked very strong however, especially that middle sector.

Ferrari and Mercedes set their fastest time on softs that were a few laps old, I believe. Mercedes look particularly interesting here, in both their long runs and Q runs.

I do think we are ahead, but I wouldn't like to say by how much.

Ferrari used one more set of (new) soft tyres to set their times, and quite late in the session, they were out of synchro compared to the others, hence they did quite short long runs. Mercedes yes, they set their times on the second attempt with the same tyre.

[CjC]

Still think Ferrari will be the surprise tomorrow. They showed mini glimpses of pace today dialling in a new floor so there is pace for them to find in the fine tuning.

Lewis was 0.3 down before his last two corner errors.

We looked very strong however, especially that middle sector.

Ferrari and Mercedes set their fastest time on softs that were a few laps old, I believe. Mercedes look particularly interesting here, in both their long runs and Q runs.

I do think we are ahead, but I wouldn't like to say by how much.

According to the live timing app both Ferrari and Mercedes set their times on new softs. Including Verstappen and the McLarens.
He, George and the McLarens set their times at near enough the same time so are all very comparable. Ferrari however set their quickest times later in the session.

[mwillems]

Hmm, let's see then, i wasn't 100pc sure about ferrari but I thought Merc were on used, but I'm probably wrong.

[CjC]

I’ve no idea how to post a screenshot but Ferrari used a new medium and 2 new softs, Verstappen used 2 new softs, McLaren used a new hard and a new soft and Russell used 2 new softs

[mwillems]

I’ve no idea how to post a screenshot but Ferrari used a new medium and 2 new softs, Verstappen used 2 new softs, McLaren used a new hard and a new soft and Russell used 2 new softs

I'm developing a tool to show me this info but currently the graphs are only for race, need to develop the Q and FP graphs.

Merc and Ferrari both did 3 laps with 2 softs then and likely did their fastest laps on new.

That makes me less interested in Ferrari, but I still think Merc are in the mix.

Red Bull are certainly not down and out and I strongly believe are doing a bit more to hide their pace.

[mwillems]

I just built the chart and your right. First two fast laps for Merc and Ferrari were on the same softs, final lap for both on new.