2025 McLaren F1 Team

[mwillems]

Nor do I have an issue with the word dominant, just with the large inflation of the pace of the car vs reality, with this false pace labelled as dominant pace. Facts show the car is pushed hard more often than not. But we have dominated the results.

That video and the subsequent conversation leaned heavily on the idea that the Mclaren leaves everyone for dead in races. It's nonsense.

Whether the secret is just in the ducts or if there are other things in play, common sense shows you the front of the car behaves differently in a way not explained by aero or tyre heat, so it seems obvious there are other mechanical changes at play that will also be a large part of the tyre heating solution and front turn in ability. Particularly if the car is able to put less heat into the tyres due to the way the tyres are interacting with the track. This is clear. There is a comprehensive solution at the front. And that solution is flawed in certain conditions or situations, it appears.

No one knows yet what they have done though. It's opinion being pushed as fact.

Again.

[bauc]

[FittingMechanics]

I'm waiting for a normal hot race. Let's see what the car can do.

[AR3-GP]

AR3GP. You can't ignore the details that don't support you. We did a better job of getting the most out of the car in Q3 Australia, banker lap or not. Ultimately you seem to want to ignore context and Marvel at that one gap like it represents the cars potential at every race, when it's not even representative of the real pace gap at Australia Q3.

You are correct that it wasn't representative. They only had 1 run at the end because they messed up their bankers. Their final laps were the bankers which means they had to be more conservative than when you have a good time on the board already. The gap should have been 5-6 tenths there. Both Verstappen and Russell improved on their 2nd runs. You can't fault them for that. The Mclaren drivers simply benefitted from a significantly better car that weekend. There's no indication that the drivers themselves fully maximized (other than on paper), but certainly Peter, Andrea, and Rob did a better job than anyone else that weekend.

The car was then fantastic on the inters. But when forced to push on a wet track with dry tyres, both drivers struggled to control a car they both described as difficult to drive. One got damage and the race was not far from being lost. It's the reality of driving that Mclaren when pushed.

Or they made mistakes pushing in the wet. This can happen. It happened last year in Brazil (Norris) and it happened last year in Silverstone (Pia).

Both drivers experienced difficulties here and elsewhere, one driver is better at managing it by not pushing the car as hard as the other.

We don't have any way to know why Piastri does what he does. It is equally likely that he is simply less sensitive to the balance at the limit. If you insist that Norris has this hidden pace advantage which we have yet to see, then it just further supports Mclaren's dominance being wasted by a driver making mistakes with the car. There is a possibility that other drivers could have showed more of the Mclaren's potential despite the claims of difficulty in driving the car. If you insist that Norris is faster and it's just an inability to deal with the difficulty at the limit, then this scenario is possible imo. The Ferrari and the Red Bull have also been described as difficult to drive. A 7x WDC is nowhere, and 2nd RB driver has been nowhere for ages.