2025 McLaren F1 Team

[Watto]

I see. In any case do we have news of an upgrade package?

None really that I've seen.


Little ones like Lando ran last week.

But I tend do wonder too if McLaren are keeping things settled one of Red Bulls issues last year was they contiuned to go down a bad development path. Car probably was quicker in theory/on paper, but not in reality. More updates got worse and worse now the are still trying to undo the mess. I think there are some signs that the car is somewhat in the same kinda area, quick but has become a little harder to handle, they have not gone over the edge but I wonder how much they are playing things carefully with updates and risk going down the same path,

[Ben1980]

I'm not a technical expert in any way.

My understanding though, is they have gone to extremes with the car, anti dive, being the most talked about.

If you push the extremes, it must be hard to push further without risks. I would guess the team are limited on big upgrades, maybe minor tweaks along the way.

I'd also guess they want to focus on next year.

[CjC]

Not sure when we’ll see it but I’m expecting to see something significant in Austria or Silverstone.

I think we’ve already seen most of the components separately already as ‘test items’ just they’ll be all fitted on the cars at the same time.

We’ll probably see the new suspension on both cars, the new front wing, the new diffuser along with a new floor which we haven’t seen.

[CjC]

Also I’ve posted this link about the changes to the wording for the tyre cooling rules in the tyres, brakes and ducting thread

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/real ... e-mclaren/

Putting it here to discuss if anyone else feels that the criticism towards McLaren recent purple patch is the most we have ever seen?

I get the feeling with the current social media warriors they have the opinion of ‘when I started watching F1 10 years ago (if even for that long) McLaren where at the back so it’s not right that they are at the front now and have already won a championship- they MUST have cheated to get there!’

Or is it just me?

[mwillems]

Ive long left twitter so don't follow. But I don't think twitter represents a balance of opinions and to be honest, I don't care what most people think.

It's pretty clear that this could be a response to Red Bull, Mclaren, any other team or just a general attempt to cover things off.

It's clear that there is no evidence of wrongdoing and that to say that Mclaren have done anything untoward is based on an opinion they want to have, and not facts. And you see this with some of the RB fans coming here to dump ad nauseum.

As such, its just not worth listening to.
Any championships won this year will be remembered for the right reasons and other than for some stubborn die hards who are determined to somehow put shade on Mclaren, Mclarens brilliant renaissance will be the main story.

[Darth-Piekus]

Not only that but people are not giving Oscar the respect to the great season he had so far. Somehow to these fans of RB just as Mclaren must be cheating, Max should not be losing. It is the car, the tyres, the brakes, the wings etc etc and they love to make assumptions. If driver X was in car Y he shoulda, coulda, woulda done this and that. If my grandma had wheels she would be an F1 car.

[bauc]

Not only that but people are not giving Oscar the respect to the great season he had so far. Somehow to these fans of RB just as Mclaren must be cheating, Max should not be losing. It is the car, the tyres, the brakes, the wings etc etc and they love to make assumptions. If driver X was in car Y he shoulda, coulda, woulda done this and that. If my grandma had wheels she would be an F1 car.

That is coz most of them are Lando haters and they do not know what to do when it comes to Oscar, as the guy did not put one foot wrong this season.

[aMessageToCharlie]

Not only that but people are not giving Oscar the respect to the great season he had so far. Somehow to these fans of RB just as Mclaren must be cheating, Max should not be losing. It is the car, the tyres, the brakes, the wings etc etc and they love to make assumptions. If driver X was in car Y he shoulda, coulda, woulda done this and that. If my grandma had wheels she would be an F1 car.

That is coz most of them are Lando haters and they do not know what to do when it comes to Oscar, as the guy did not put one foot wrong this season.

Let's not go overboard here. There is a balance between giving credit where it's due and objective criticism. Oscar is doing great and I think he will win a deserved WDC but he absolutely did put a foot wrong, e.g. Australia. In a season like 2021 that can make all the difference between winner and loser. However, relative to his competitors he's still doing great as everybody seems to be making mistakes this year. It's great to watch as a fan.

[bauc]

Not only that but people are not giving Oscar the respect to the great season he had so far. Somehow to these fans of RB just as Mclaren must be cheating, Max should not be losing. It is the car, the tyres, the brakes, the wings etc etc and they love to make assumptions. If driver X was in car Y he shoulda, coulda, woulda done this and that. If my grandma had wheels she would be an F1 car.

That is coz most of them are Lando haters and they do not know what to do when it comes to Oscar, as the guy did not put one foot wrong this season.

Let's not go overboard here. There is a balance between giving credit where it's due and objective criticism. Oscar is doing great and I think he will win a deserved WDC but he absolutely did put a foot wrong, e.g. Australia. In a season like 2021 that can make all the difference between winner and loser. However, relative to his competitors he's still doing great as everybody seems to be making mistakes this year. It's great to watch as a fan.

In Australia the weather played a surprising factor and NOR and PIA were first to hit that corner, if you take that as his blame, an error then so be it, but it is laughable at best

[Darth-Piekus]

I havent seen a single driver in the history of F1 who was errorless all year. Its unfair to criticise Oscar for just one error all year. Max for example had also an error in Spain. The error to use his car as a weapon and he is really lucky not to have goten a black flag and a race ban. Lando and Charles have error after error.

[mwillems]

It's hard to evidence that Oscar still has work to do, which is why a lot of the opinions around his pace are just unsubstantiated opinions. I've a chart that shows average gap to theoretical best and he's in top 3, below Max, almost nothing in it. There are times when you think he got the most from the car, and days when you can see Lando still has a tenth on Oscar. But then you'd expect there to be some swing, based on track and conditions, where one driver has the edge on another.

I do think Oscar has time to find and he has made mistakes. But I also think that his trajectory continues to be strong.

Australia was a mistake. Not from going off track initially, but from being too eager to re-join ahead of Max, which lead to him beaching the car. It was silly, but he'll learn. He could have been 40 odd points clear now.

But every driver drops points. Max has dropped maybe twenty potentially a little more after being mugged by Oscar at SA and from his dodgem penalty.

[MormegilRS]

Also I’ve posted this link about the changes to the wording for the tyre cooling rules in the tyres, brakes and ducting thread

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/real ... e-mclaren/

Putting it here to discuss if anyone else feels that the criticism towards McLaren recent purple patch is the most we have ever seen?

I get the feeling with the current social media warriors they have the opinion of ‘when I started watching F1 10 years ago (if even for that long) McLaren where at the back so it’s not right that they are at the front now and have already won a championship- they MUST have cheated to get there!’

Or is it just me?

You are not wrong. Every time there is a change in the pecking order, there are a lot of fans who have been supporting the dominant team/ driver who bring this to fore, and its been worse over the last few years especially with all the talk of tire water, etc. But we see similar things happen the history of the sport, e.g. 2009 with the double diffuser.

Over a period of time, all fans will start to appreciate the impressive job McLaren have done. Overhauling a dominant Red Bull team, and moving to the front in such a short span of time. The change to the engine rules where all customers get the same engines and the cost cap have made it possible, but no other team has managed to improve their performance like McLaren. But that is going to take a few years before the appreciation from fans comes through.

[Darth-Piekus]

It's a little off topic but Sonic the Hedgehog and Sega has become the newest partner of Mclaren Mercedes in a fantastic reunion from the 90s. As someone who grew up with both of them I love it. Sega is back in F1.

https://www.mclaren.com/racing/partners ... -hedgehog/