2025 McLaren F1 Team

[mwillems]

We're faster than everyone bar Red Bull, who generally don't go backwards compared to us between FP3 and Q.

[mwillems]

And then Ferrari find their feet.

[Darth-Piekus]

So far Mclaren seems to be struggling on colder weather against their competitors and so far they aren't the fastest car. Unless our drivers or the team can find something more for Q3 they aren't gonna be on the first row but let's see how it goes.

[ScottR267]

Fair play to Max there, no mistakes on his final run unlike our drivers who did which could have been the difference

[mwillems]

The RB and Mclaren are equal today once mistakes are removed. But they won't be tomorrow.

[Watto]

I think that lap by Max is why I still have him as the best driver not much in quali between RBR and the McLaren but when it comes to the crunch manages. to pull a lap out under pressure I think the McLarens will be to quick tomorrow but will be an interesting race with the differences in how they both achieve their laps

[Darth-Piekus]

So an interesting pole battle today.
1)Max gave his best as he does every time. Sometimes it doesn't work but today it worked with the cooler weather and possibly track evolution but he got pole.
2)Piastri was a unlucky with that snap of understeer at the last corner making him lose a tenth for pole but I am confident Oscar will try and get him at the start like in Saudi Arabia or after some laps.
3)Lando Norris did well. He could have done better but I know Lando is not stable.
4)Russell is again Mr. Saturday and he got 4th when Mercedes was nowhere all weekend.
5)Hamilton is 5th and he lost more than 2 tenths from those two consecutive snaps at the end. I think he missed pole out of badluck.
6)Leclerc is where I think he should be here as he wasn't in Hamilton's level in Silverstone.

For tomorrow's race I still think Mclaren are the favorites but as people can see on colder weather Mclaren and the rest are equals in terms of speed. It's on hot weather where Mclaren has that big advantage due to how they handle their tires. That Low DF of Red Bull will eat those tyres compared to Piastri who has a higher DF wing. It all depends of the temperature.

[venkyhere]

McLaren are holding lots of pace 'in hand'. Looking at the data, I expect McLarens to be 1-2 with times in the range of 1.24.4xx to 1.24.5xx. Anyone else is going to be 0.25s to 0.3s behind.

Based on?

It's an interesting prediction.

Mistakes by both PIA and NOR - could have been front row lockout, definitely lost more than 0.2s each. But that still doesn't make my prediction NOT fall flat on it's face. I didn't expect the temps to drop and the MCL39 to lose it's advantage so much (perhaps some tyre warmup routine oversight ?)

[Watto]

So an interesting pole battle today.
1)Max gave his best as he does every time. Sometimes it doesn't work but today it worked with the cooler weather and possibly track evolution but he got pole.
2)Piastri was a unlucky with that snap of understeer at the last corner making him lose a tenth for pole but I am confident Oscar will try and get him at the start like in Saudi Arabia or after some laps.
3)Lando Norris did well. He could have done better but I know Lando is not stable.
4)Russell is again Mr. Saturday and he got 4th when Mercedes was nowhere all weekend.
5)Hamilton is 5th and he lost more than 2 tenths from those two consecutive snaps at the end. I think he missed pole out of badluck.
6)Leclerc is where I think he should be here as he wasn't in Hamilton's level in Silverstone.

For tomorrow's race I still think Mclaren are the favorites but as people can see on colder weather Mclaren and the rest are equals in terms of speed. It's on hot weather where Mclaren has that big advantage due to how they handle their tires. That Low DF of Red Bull will eat those tyres compared to Piastri who has a higher DF wing. It all depends of the temperature.

Max's race sims yesterday were pretty good though and didn't seem to show any bad signs of tyre deg - maybe not as good as the McLarens but they seemed to hold on pretty we and I think hence they dept the low DF package, I guess it depend on if the changes made for quali had any negative effects on tyre life

[SilviuAgo]

Very interesting quali, where some people just forgot about Verstappen )))
Is Oscar, is Lando, or maybe the Ferrari's? Or Russell cause Mercedes is mighty on cold weather? The answer was Max with his amazing first two sectors. I am very curios about tomorrow's weather and if the RB choice with that skinny RW was a genius option or only a moment hero for Saturday. Interesting Sunday ahead!

[mwillems]

Both cars were marginally faster than the RB. Even with Piastris poor final exit he was ahead of Max but the exit cost him down the straight.

[Chaithu.s23]

McLaren are holding lots of pace 'in hand'. Looking at the data, I expect McLarens to be 1-2 with times in the range of 1.24.4xx to 1.24.5xx. Anyone else is going to be 0.25s to 0.3s behind.

Based on?

It's an interesting prediction.

Mistakes by both PIA and NOR - could have been front row lockout, definitely lost more than 0.2s each. But that still doesn't make my prediction NOT fall flat on it's face. I didn't expect the temps to drop and the MCL39 to lose it's advantage so much (perhaps some tyre warmup routine oversight ?)

Piastri/Lewis/Leclerc -> all 3 made mistakes in the final corner.

[SilviuAgo]

So an interesting pole battle today.
1)Max gave his best as he does every time. Sometimes it doesn't work but today it worked with the cooler weather and possibly track evolution but he got pole.
2)Piastri was a unlucky with that snap of understeer at the last corner making him lose a tenth for pole but I am confident Oscar will try and get him at the start like in Saudi Arabia or after some laps.
3)Lando Norris did well. He could have done better but I know Lando is not stable.
4)Russell is again Mr. Saturday and he got 4th when Mercedes was nowhere all weekend.
5)Hamilton is 5th and he lost more than 2 tenths from those two consecutive snaps at the end. I think he missed pole out of badluck.
6)Leclerc is where I think he should be here as he wasn't in Hamilton's level in Silverstone.

For tomorrow's race I still think Mclaren are the favorites but as people can see on colder weather Mclaren and the rest are equals in terms of speed. It's on hot weather where Mclaren has that big advantage due to how they handle their tires. That Low DF of Red Bull will eat those tyres compared to Piastri who has a higher DF wing. It all depends of the temperature.

At point no3 you should have stopped after first sentence. Lando did well today, such as Oscar did. We saw a lot of snaps and small errors and the wind impact on a car running +300km/h almost across entire field. We all want only P1 and P2, but today Max was the best and we have to admit it. Anyone can say that "if..." part. Even Max had a yellow S3 on his pole lap.
I am really happy that Lando took back the confidence in the MCL39 and today was not the one saying things such as Charles did, unfortunately.


The funny part of this pole is that now maybe Max is reconsider leaving RB for Mercedes, so mister Horner may give a brake to Oscar

[Darth-Piekus]

Tomorrow I still think Mclaren is the favorite and if the weather is hot or hotter than today expect both Mclarens passing Max in a moment of some laps if Piastri doesn't pass Max at the start.

[mwillems]

McLaren are holding lots of pace 'in hand'. Looking at the data, I expect McLarens to be 1-2 with times in the range of 1.24.4xx to 1.24.5xx. Anyone else is going to be 0.25s to 0.3s behind.

Based on?

It's an interesting prediction.

Mistakes by both PIA and NOR - could have been front row lockout, definitely lost more than 0.2s each. But that still doesn't make my prediction NOT fall flat on it's face. I didn't expect the temps to drop and the MCL39 to lose it's advantage so much (perhaps some tyre warmup routine oversight ?)

The trends showed that RB rarely drop back in pace from FP3 to Q, they either match or move forward. So it was clear to me that this was a misplaced prediction with the times being somewhat optimistic on the same basis of % improvement each team typically makes. Ferrari surprised me but Max did not. That said, we were faster than Max although I believe probably by a tenth at most and likely (In my opinion) by about half a tenth.

It was there for the taking and we may regret the fight we have put ourselves into.