2025 McLaren F1 Team

[mwillems]

Trust, feel and confidence. He already said that he doesn't have the feeling like last years car and this one is more 'numb' which hurts his driving style. You can't push to the max if you don't feel the car is there and that breaks your confidence everywhere.

Just yesterday I read that Lando said that he already feels the car well and the latest changes to the chassis have made it better for him.

He pushed harder on his outlap so he wasn't giving Max a tow. This might explain 2 tenths if we're generous though. Don't think there was a mistake, but it is sprint so setup can be a big differentiator.

Don't think he did, but does anyone know if Oscar got a tow?

[deargodhelpme]

Trust, feel and confidence. He already said that he doesn't have the feeling like last years car and this one is more 'numb' which hurts his driving style. You can't push to the max if you don't feel the car is there and that breaks your confidence everywhere.

Just yesterday I read that Lando said that he already feels the car well and the latest changes to the chassis have made it better for him.

He said it's better but not perfect and also mentioned that it's track dependent.

[Darth-Piekus]

And sprint shows why its so hard for someone who starts first to keep that first place. Such a huge TOW especially when the one behind has 10 more km of straight line speed. That victory was pure luck and doesnt take much skill to defend with higher top speed to the only place of the circuit you can pass. The team has to sit down and see what they can do regarding that straight line speed.

[Seerix]

They can probably use the same setup for the race and use tyre deg to get ahead if needed.
Sprint went exactly as expected tbh.

[Ben1980]

And sprint shows why its so hard for someone who starts first to keep that first place. Such a huge TOW especially when the one behind has 10 more km of straight line speed. That victory was pure luck and doesnt take much skill to defend with higher top speed to the only place of the circuit you can pass. The team has to sit down and see what they can do regarding that straight line speed.

Eh?

Its not luck to set up the car for high top speed.

Red Bull have some tracks they are good at, this would appear to be one. Even so, the Macca will be close.

[Darth-Piekus]

Its not luck to set up a car. It was a victory though based on that sole straight line and that is all. Lets not pretend he did anything special. Another confirmation that these rules are a joke so far when we see a car with DRS not able to follow.

[venkyhere]

And sprint shows why its so hard for someone who starts first to keep that first place. Such a huge TOW especially when the one behind has 10 more km of straight line speed. That victory was pure luck and doesnt take much skill to defend with higher top speed to the only place of the circuit you can pass. The team has to sit down and see what they can do regarding that straight line speed.

didn't expect anything else.

'setup of the car' mattered and as we all know it's a trapeze act. There is scope for tweaks before the main race tomorrow.

[Darth-Piekus]

Obviously it mattered and that what made the difference and not some magical skill that made the car go 10 KM faster. After all Max said it himself that it was the only way to pass and then defend. Not sure why people started hyperboles again today.

[venkyhere]

Obviously it mattered and that what made the difference and not some magical skill that made the car go 10 KM faster. After all Max said it himself that it was the only way to pass and then defend. Not sure why people started hyperboles again today.

who is talking about magical skill ?
setting up the car correctly isn't "luck".
Get your narrative straightened, instead of blind copium.
.

[Darth-Piekus]

Let me then rephrase. Top straight line speed was the key to victory today in the only place you can pass and not some magical skill that made the car be 10km faster on a huge slipstream straight and then keep a car with DRS behind. It's up to Mclaren to see what they can change in order for that not to be repeated.

[CjC]

Silverstone like conditions forecast for tomorrow. I’d be keeping this set up even if it compromises full quali later on today

[Darth-Piekus]

What's with the rainy conditions this year either in sprint, qualifying or race? How many did we have this year so far?

[CjC]

Not enough times of you ask me. The McLaren is rapid in the wet this season

[Emag]

Not enough times of you ask me. The McLaren is rapid in the wet this season

McLaren is rapid pretty much in any conditions imaginable to be fair. If the entire weekend is executed completely flawlessly by McLaren, the others have no chance.

The only time they were outpaced was Jeddah (although I think Norris would have been faster than Oscar), Imola and Canada.

And at Canada I am pretty sure they would have done much better if they had track position. The gap just shrunk a lot, but they were still the fastest race car there.

[FittingMechanics]

In 2024, I would have no doubt that with the pace shown today they can easily win against Verstappen. Just split the strategies and use the pace the car has.

Problem in 2025 is that it is unlikely they will split the strategies. They seem to be unwilling to do that because it would favor one of the drivers so we get Japan situation where they followed Verstappen into the pits.

Hopefully we can avoid that tomorrow. It would not be smart to leave any chance of Verstappen making a comeback.