2025 McLaren F1 Team

[mwillems]

It's Max's perogative to stay ahead. He maybe felt that on turn 1 he had every right to be there. He wasn't that far off. I'm not sure hewould have had to go.off track.if Oscar left toom, but of course Oscar rightly recognised it was his corner and line and bullied Max off it.

Since the battles with Lando and Max, they tightened up the application of the rules on overtakes and as long as they continue to apply it consistently then we can take advantage ourselves if the opportunity arises.

I'm happy that turn 1 advantages are punished less, we don't want them to stop trying.

Going logically, if Piastri on a tighter line managed to make the corner then Max would as well on a wider one. They were both at same speed and with same braking level. That is true.

I think the solution for car on the outside to not yield. If the car stays on the outside and inside car crashes into him, the situation would be clear as day.

Yeah I think he was OK for speed. They say he brakes late to get to the apex first, but on this instance it wasn't so fast he couldn't keep it on track.

If he sent it in and could never make the turn, that's different.

[BMMR61]

It's Max's perogative to stay ahead. He maybe felt that on turn 1 he had every right to be there. He wasn't that far off. I'm not sure hewould have had to go.off track.if Oscar left toom, but of course Oscar rightly recognised it was his corner and line and bullied Max off it.

Since the battles with Lando and Max, they tightened up the application of the rules on overtakes and as long as they continue to apply it consistently then we can take advantage ourselves if the opportunity arises.

I'm happy that turn 1 advantages are punished less, we don't want them to stop trying.

Going logically, if Piastri on a tighter line managed to make the corner then Max would as well on a wider one. They were both at same speed and with same braking level. That is true.

I think the solution for car on the outside to not yield. If the car stays on the outside and inside car crashes into him, the situation would be clear as day.

Good point about the wider line (opening the corner) but it's clear from both onboards that Max reduced the braking force entering the corner. This was noted by the stewards, effectively they are seeing Max marginally retaking the lead by this but being unlikely to make the corner (even if you could spirit Oscar away). To complete it Oscar managed to just make the corner within track limits. Max did what Lando got penalised for last year (Texas I think) when he bailed out quite early and completed the pass off track. The rules were applied consistently. Quite the surgeon, Oscar effectively outmaxed Max. We would say he was "hoisted on his own petard". The whole episode is great for F1, the fans, it makes for lots of clicks etc etc and McLaren come out looking just fine. Max and Red Bull - well their reputations probably haven't suffered significantly because this kind of thing is their playbook. Play is the operative word because Horner loves to play the victim unfairly treated - we're laughing!

[Darth-Piekus]

Have in mind guys that if there was a sand trap there then Max sould never have goten with that speed on that turn and would have probably braked earlier to at least be second.

[AR3-GP]

During the FIA post-race conference Piastri was asked if he agreed with Norris regarding Max Verstappen's alleged pace superiority.
He said. "No. I think our car was still quicker."
Having said that, he was however surprised by the Dutchman's speed in the RB21. "I think it was difficult to be in dirty air. Max was quicker than I expected for sure in the race. I thought over one lap it wasn't a huge surprise to see Max quick, but in the race, I wasn't expecting to struggle so much at the end of the Medium stint."
However, Piastri and Norris did find some common ground in the end, as they both urged McLaren to keep pressing on in making the MCL39 quicker, with the caveat that McLaren, in his view, still posses the quicker car at the moment.

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/was-vers ... i-disagree

[AR3-GP]

Asked by The Race if the trend McLaren is observing with Norris's Q3 struggles is a broad one of small imprecisions in different ways, or if something specific is connecting them, Stella said: "The car has a certain envelope of performance. But the way you exploit this envelope is a little tricky for our drivers.

"There's a lot of grip, there's a lot of grip, [then] grip disappears. You go 1km/h faster and the grip disappears.

"This transition seems to be quite sharp, and the feedback you receive from the car in terms of understanding and leaning on this limit is relatively numb.

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/mcla ... ing-wrong/

[BMMR61]

Asked by The Race if the trend McLaren is observing with Norris's Q3 struggles is a broad one of small imprecisions in different ways, or if something specific is connecting them, Stella said: "The car has a certain envelope of performance. But the way you exploit this envelope is a little tricky for our drivers.

"There's a lot of grip, there's a lot of grip, [then] grip disappears. You go 1km/h faster and the grip disappears.

"This transition seems to be quite sharp, and the feedback you receive from the car in terms of understanding and leaning on this limit is relatively numb.

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/mcla ... ing-wrong/

I think this talks implicitly about the MCL39 which lends weight to Lando's concerns with not feeling comfortable in the new car. While I find the stuff with Stella refreshingly honest, is it a good idea to speak publicly so explicitly? I guess the other teams have enough data to know or at least deduce anyway. Does this reveal that Oscar's uptick in relative speed is less to do with it being Lando less suited/Oscar more suited, but rather he's just worked hard on ironing out his performance deficits?

With all the assumptions made after 5/24 races I don't think this small sample means what so many are saying about Lando. I'm sure he will come back strong, even if some of the tendency to unforced errors will pop up. There were enough of them scattered through previous seasons to say this is likely to reoccur at times. I'm hoping he will put up a stout title fight as he has earned a shot of it after all these years.

[AR3-GP]

“People keep saying that we’re the best, we’re the quickest, blah, blah, blah.

“But it’s just because we show a bit more pace in practice and then we don’t have anything left when it gets to qualifying, but that’s our way of doing things.

https://www.planetf1.com/news/lando-nor ... -mode-crap

[ringo]

Oscar totally owned the line at the first corner and showed no fear of Max in the line to turn 2, with Max being the dtiver who had to bail.

That was a strong ballsy move.

It's exactly the type of move to take away that "let me go or we crash". Max knows both Norris and Piastri can be WDC this year. Crashing with either one would increase the gap to the other one.

To be fair, if we look at it in isolation, if Max held it on the track on outside and they had a crash, Piastri would be at fault as he was the car overtaking. But Max can't do that because he will lose points to Lando. So he abuses the penalty system and clear air to get the best for him. So let's use that against Max, fight him hard willing to crash so he can't abuse the system as he usually tries.

What annoys me is that both Max and Horner know they did it on purpose. They know that by keeping the clear air they gained more than they lost with the penalty but they are faking outrage.

Piastri is not the car overtaking. It would be Max. Remember they're both starting from a standstill. Piastri got the better start and his car was never ever behind Max's. The grid has both cars side by side with P1 marginally ahead.
Piastri passed on the launch and Max then tries to retake the position.
So no Piastri would not be at fault for a crash caused by Max.