2025 McLaren F1 Team

[Sergej]

Oscar seems a crushed driver since Monza, which again is a result of the amazing papaya rules.

You think hes that mentally weak?

Not necessarily, but even if he is, he's only into his 3rd season, so he's got room for improvement. My impression though is that this micro-management by McLaren is creating more damage than help to the drivers, and Oscar is suffering this more, also because he's the one been most penalized by the papaya rules this year, and this may have cracked a bit his confidence.

I am not a fan at all of the papaya rules, sorry, they're making the drivers look like puppets, pushing them asking ridiculous things over the radio and thus taking away credibility from the future WDC.

[Sergej]

Oscar seems a crushed driver since Monza, which again is a result of the amazing papaya rules.

You think hes that mentally weak?

He's only here to mock McLaren and her fans, knowing full well their current state.

did we wake up quite sensitive today eh ?

[Badger]

Bad weekend by Piastri, off by 3-5 tenths from Lando in both qualis which led to being desperate at the start.

Now Lando is P2 next to Verstappen. I hope he has a good launch and goes tough against Verstappen. It is in McLaren (and Lando) interest to be as tough as he can, Max cannot risk a DNF (neither can Lando but Max must have everything go his way).

I hope Norris sees it that way, be tough on Verstappen and either you are ahead or McLaren WDC is almost assured.

I know Verstappen would have no issues doing the same.

Lando has far more to lose by tangling.

Not compared to Verstappen. One DNF by Verstappen and WDC chance is gone.

For Lando he would still help McLaren win a WDC, not all is lost.

You’re thinking like a McLaren fan who doesn’t care which of their drivers wins the WDC. That’s not how Lando thinks obviously, he wants to win himself, and he will drive accordingly.

The truth is that Lando doesn’t need to win today for his championship, but he does need to beat Oscar. Going for a risky move on Verstappen (who will be defending like crazy for his own championship) is a bad risk-reward. A DNF for Norris would ruin a very legitimate championship bid. A DNF for Verstappen would kill a long shot championship bid. You don’t destroy your own legitimate chances to prevent someone else’s highly unlikely chance to win.

Now mind you I’m only talking about going for risky moves. He should still try to win the race, but with safe moves and strategy.

[search]

unconfirmed, but as I haven't seen it here yet: apparently the consequence of the Singapore clash may be that Piastri now has first choice of when to head out in Qualifying for the remainder of the season. I guess usually it alternates every weekend.

https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/comme ... spoken_of/

[Ben1980]

Bad weekend by Piastri, off by 3-5 tenths from Lando in both qualis which led to being desperate at the start.

Now Lando is P2 next to Verstappen. I hope he has a good launch and goes tough against Verstappen. It is in McLaren (and Lando) interest to be as tough as he can, Max cannot risk a DNF (neither can Lando but Max must have everything go his way).

I hope Norris sees it that way, be tough on Verstappen and either you are ahead or McLaren WDC is almost assured.

I know Verstappen would have no issues doing the same.

Lando has far more to lose by tangling.

Not compared to Verstappen. One DNF by Verstappen and WDC chance is gone.

For Lando he would still help McLaren win a WDC, not all is lost.

Both of them it absolutely kills their chances. I think, like yesterday the both get through. Issue will be Leclerc as he really has nothing to lose, but will be lift and coat from about lap 4 anyway.

Just needs to be sensible.

[Ben1980]

unconfirmed, but as I haven't seen it here yet: apparently the consequence of the Singapore clash may be that Piastri now has first choice of when to head out in Qualifying for the remainder of the season. I guess usually it alternates every weekend.

https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/comme ... spoken_of/

That will need to be scrapped i guess.

[Farnborough]

It would be pragmatic for both Lando and Oscar to stabilize their WDC points position and not take significant risk throughout this race.

Both still have decent margin in points overall. After events so far, holding station should re-establish some semblance of balance to their individual campaign.

Conventionally speaking, Oscar will likely outrun both Scuderia, but may struggle with GR Merc to take that place. Baseline forth maybe his best "normalised" aim, with good opportunity/ situation a low possibility of higher. Risk reduction seems to be the most important today to get out of this weekend, regroup and come more settled into coming races.

[Darth-Piekus]

Im not sure what to say. I feel empty after seeing the team and its drivers in such a state.

[search]

acording to AmuS, due to the lack of data from the sprint, the team went for a too conservative approach and raised the car more than others.

If true, they likely won't be at their best in the race either.

https://www.auto-motor-und-sport.de/for ... erstappen/

[Ben1980]

acording to AmuS, due to the lack of data from the sprint, the team went for a too conservative approach and raised the car more than others.

If true, they likely won't be at their best in the race either.

https://www.auto-motor-und-sport.de/for ... erstappen/

Did think that was a possibility. Too conservative.

[basti313]

unconfirmed, but as I haven't seen it here yet: apparently the consequence of the Singapore clash may be that Piastri now has first choice of when to head out in Qualifying for the remainder of the season. I guess usually it alternates every weekend.

https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/comme ... spoken_of/

His timing was horrible in Q...

[SilviuAgo]

acording to AmuS, due to the lack of data from the sprint, the team went for a too conservative approach and raised the car more than others.

If true, they likely won't be at their best in the race either.

https://www.auto-motor-und-sport.de/for ... erstappen/

here you go...

[CjC]

As I said after Quali, there’s just too much going against McLaren since Monza, it’s either self inflicted or not their fault.
Having been flawless for 2/3s of the season the door is wide open for Max now.
They need to slam it shut asap

[SilviuAgo]

Oscar should still wrap this up. But yesterday's move was so needless. A 3rd was absolutely fine in a sprint.

If Max wins 6 in a row and 8 of the 12 on the second half of the season, while Piastri wins 2. That's your narrative, its a season of two halves.

Agree with this, Oscar was so focused on Lando and not to lose to him (doesn't matter that we speak about 1 point or 3 points or 10) than now is facing a much worst situation. I don't blame Oscar, maybe if was vice-versa was the same, but Lando has the "advantage" of fighting Max also in 2024 and has another approach to this fights.

Cause is still some hours to the race let put an if: Oscar keeps his head in the Sprint and stay P3. And everything finished as expected. The outcome? -1p to Lando and -2p to Max.
Quali: Max P1, Lando P2 and Oscar P3 (although I saw also quali's where Lando started better and Oscar was ahead in the end, but just to play safe ). In the race same finish order. So another -3p to Lando and -10p to Max.
Total of the weekend? -4p to Lando and -12p to Max. Reasonable I would say, no?

Now, how can be?
Sprint: -0p to Lando and -8p to Max.
Race (if the order of the quali remain): -10p to Lando and another -17p to Max.
Total of the weekend? -10p to Lando and -25p to Max. Not good ahh?

So this is why I said yesterday that to win a championship to be fast is not enough. You have to be also smart. And unfortunately for him, Oscar yesterday wasn't. I stay with my opinion that in T1 he should have followed Lando's line, and not to try to re-cut on inside where not only the door was wide open but already there were 2 cars there.

[venkyhere]

Lap1 T1 , THAT cota corner, not a place to do switchbacks. Doing something like this in Imola/Monza/Canada, in Lap1 T1 would be less risky, as the track width doesn't allow five cars to go in parallel into a pinch point. But here it does. It's only his 3rd year - when the adrenaline is pumping, it's difficult to suppress instinct with conscious thought process. He will learn.