2025 McLaren F1 Team

[mwillems]

And I'm fairly certain that his move at the start of the race was to harm Lando and try and get Max in front of him.

What move? Defending the inside line? Good grief...I know this thread hates Oscar but it used to be disguised more.

Oh hold on, weren't you just a short few weeks ago trying to persuade everyone that the team favoured Lando and that they didn't celebrate Oscars wins, and was roundly told where to go?

You literally said that in the middle of a convo in which Oscar was being bigged up.

And now it is the thread that hates Oscar??!

Ironic that you've also said that to the person that has been one of Oscars biggest cheerleaders on here

[Ben1980]

Maybe. For me, Oscar's improvement each year is not slowing. He's keeping to his trajectory. His head is down and he quietly and relentlessly just gets on with the job.

He's the bastard child of Kimi Räikkönen and Rafael Nadal.

Though you only really get to show progression if the car allows it.

And next year is the great unknown.

Progression vs teammate. He got better over the course of last year.

The MCL39 is very good on the tyres, so this has removed a big part of Lando's advantage to be fair to Lando.
If this was last years car I expect it would be close but Oscar behind a little.

Maybe, it's just feel that drivers plateau, and 3 years is probably enough to find where your ceiling is. Unless you come in very young, similar to Lando, or Nax or Kimi.

But Oscar and Lando aren't really far off in age, and Oscar wasn't really young when he started.

Though, i do still think obe of them leaves soonish.

[mwillems]

I do think that 6.5 years is likely to be better with the fine details than 2.5 years.

Look at how Max progressed after his first WDC, and he was Oscars age this year.
With this being Oscars first WDC fight, I feel he will gain a lot this year.

[Emag]

Though you only really get to show progression if the car allows it.

And next year is the great unknown.

Progression vs teammate. He got better over the course of last year.

The MCL39 is very good on the tyres, so this has removed a big part of Lando's advantage to be fair to Lando.
If this was last years car I expect it would be close but Oscar behind a little.

Maybe, it's just feel that drivers plateau, and 3 years is probably enough to find where your ceiling is. Unless you come in very young, similar to Lando, or Nax or Kimi.

But Oscar and Lando aren't really far off in age, and Oscar wasn't really young when he started.

Though, i do still think obe of them leaves soonish.

I think he got a point there to be fair. The MCL39 is such a good car, it has made the things Lando was better at, much easier to pull off. The thing just turns in medium-speed corners and doesn't give a crap about tire wear either. Both things Lando was better last year just because he could manage the pace better, have become "trivial" this year because the car is doing half the job. There's no need to do much management with this car anymore. Austria was kind of proof of that.

[Sergej]

congrats to Oscar, very strong weekend

feel a bit bad for Lando and for the championship fight which loses a bit of interest and "tension"; somehow I hope Oscar can win this with more than 18 points

anyway McLaren were due some failures from the Mercedes PU considering all the problems Mercedes powered teams are having, so it could happen again to Oscar

[venkyhere]

Yeah, I think Lando start was good but he was cut off by Piastri and I guess he let off the gas slightly. At least it looked that way.

It's unfortunate but it happens.

Piastri cut off both Norris and Verstappen, fully within his rights. DId both, superbly. Deserved the win, always kept Norris more than DRS delta behind. It's a shame we didn't get to see a proper battle towards the end, Norris drove brilliantly, but eventually the '2025 Mercedes engine reliability bug' caught up with McLaren. Probably due to remaining in dirty air for the entire race. Unlucky. Zero points is difficult to digest, but unlucky DNFs is part of F1. Piastri now has a proper gap in WDC standings. The next 10 (or 9?) races will be a proper test of character of Norris, and I hope he is in contention for the WDC when we get to AbuDhabi.

[Ben1980]

Yeah, I think Lando start was good but he was cut off by Piastri and I guess he let off the gas slightly. At least it looked that way.

It's unfortunate but it happens.

Piastri cut off both Norris and Verstappen, fully within his rights. DId both, superbly. Deserved the win, always kept Norris more than DRS delta behind. It's a shame we didn't get to see a proper battle towards the end, Norris drove brilliantly, but eventually the '2025 Mercedes engine reliability bug' caught up with McLaren. Probably due to remaining in dirty air for the entire race. Unlucky. Zero points is difficult to digest, but unlucky DNFs is part of F1. Piastri now has a proper gap in WDC standings. The next 10 (or 9?) races will be a proper test of character of Norris, and I hope he is in contention for the WDC when we get to AbuDhabi.

Not sure there was going to be a battle. Has there been one that hadn't been either tyre or strategy offset. Apart from Austria which is basically a drs lap.

[venkyhere]

And I'm fairly certain that his move at the start of the race was to harm Lando and try and get Max in front of him.

Mate, that's clutching at straws. Give the man the credit he deserves. Everyone deserves the right to block off a chaser on race starts, forget the front row guys. Piastri 'did the job' on both Norris and Verstappen at T1. Will your opinion change if it was Norris instead of Piastri starting P1 and did the same ?

[mwillems]

And I'm fairly certain that his move at the start of the race was to harm Lando and try and get Max in front of him.

Mate, that's clutching at straws. Give the man the credit he deserves. Everyone deserves the right to block off a chaser on race starts, forget the front row guys. Piastri 'did the job' on both Norris and Verstappen at T1. Will your opinion change if it was Norris instead of Piastri starting P1 and did the same ?

I gave him credit for it, i wasn't criticising it.
I was observing his ruthlessness. But i think hes not even defending against Max. He took a clever and calculated approach to block and box Lando. His eyes were laser focussed on one person.

Like I said, he's the bastard child of Raikkonen and Rafael Nadal.

We already know he cares more about being in front of Lando than winning.

[proteus]

Its a shame, but it is what it is. The biggest positive is another win under the belt.

[GrizzleBoy]

A big shame we didn't get 5th 1-2 in a row. But this was bound to happen.

I can see at least two positives.
1. It would be super unfair if Piastri while ahead in the championship lost his lead (or WDC in the end) due to a singular engine DNF. Not to mention the conspiracy theories it would start.
2. Norris will take eventual loss in WDC better with this DNF. If he ends up losing it wasn't just his mistakes, it was bad luck as well.

Great drive by both drivers. Norris probably had this in the bag if he was just a tiny bit faster in Q3. Imagine if he lost a win by this engine failure.

Imo, the only reason Lando didn't already have an absolutely huge points gap to make up is because of luck being ON his side. I think statistically, this DNF actually neutralised the "lucky" points hauls hes had in the WDC

In just the last few races, if he wasn't lucky that Oscar got the Silverstone penalty or lucky enough to luck into the optimal strategy by being out of position in Hungary, the gap would be 48 points. If Lando wasn't similarly out of position in Baku there'd be another 6 points swing towards Oscar.

Hes had probably over 20 points worth of points just from being out of position and having the luxury of pitting when Oscar couldn't because he wasn't even in contention for the win at the time.

This is all jumping the gun anyway, because unless something changes and Oscars performance drops off a cliff, if things continue as they've been, the only story will be that regardless of this DNF, Oscar won because he was consistently better.

My point here isn't really to poop on Lando, but to properly give Oscar the recognition of absolutely, definitely being the best driver at Macca this year and deserving the lead he has, even with today's DNF.

[Carmack]

I gave him credit for it, i wasn't criticising it.
I was observing his ruthlessness. But i think hes not even defending against Max. He took a clever and calculated approach to block and box Lando. His eyes were laser focussed on one person.

Like I said, he's the bastard child of Raikkonen and Rafael Nadal.

We already know he cares more about being in front of Lando than winning.

Well, that's a bit rich... Caring about Bortoletto being behind him doesn't really help the title fight, does it? If he is in front of Lando, he is extending the points gap, I struggle to see the difficulty to understand this from some of the fanboy/national pride comments here...

I wonder, if internet was this developed in Schumacher era, some of you would have been on fire....

[TyreSlip]

What makes it harder after losing an engine is that Lando has to make due with the remaining engines and stretch them a bit further than he wants.

[Avocado]

Its a shame, but it is what it is. The biggest positive is another win under the belt.

True, true, but 1-2...

[proteus]

Its a shame, but it is what it is. The biggest positive is another win under the belt.

True, true, but 1-2...

Agreed, but what can you do. Fate os cruel sometimes.