2025 McLaren F1 Team

[Mcl_G10]

The real potential for norris to somehow not win this race would be if both ferrari get ahead at the start and then work together to form a Drs train and keep lando behind.
Not sure what to expect but if lando somehow doesn't win it will be a massive tittle blow for him as he wont get an easier chance to win a race this season. He needs to convert as the tables could be turned in Vegas so execution is key.

As for oscar im not sure what he can manage from p7. The car is more than capable of moving forwards from there. Id love to see oscar scrapping it out with max.

[search]

Is the podium realistic for PIA?
The Ferrari looks very strong here.

he's more or less constantly at least half a second off, no matter if short or long run, so I wouldn't really think so.

Honestly hard to explain this with pressure, or him not liking the track much. This gap is too big.

edit: for comparison, here are all team internal gaps, each from the final quali segment both competed in:

Ocon +0,050s
Antonelli +0,084s
Hamilton +0,090s
Colapinto +0,124s
Bortoleoto +0,161s
Tsunoda +0,213s
Albon +0,319s
Stroll +0,384s
Piastri +0,588s
Lawson +1,268s (no lap on new tires)

[Mcl_G10]

Hard to see oscar turning this around now. With the nature of this title battle its going to be race wins that decides the championship. And if you can't win the race be damn sure to finish p2 to minimise the loss but both lando and max are too strong for oscar now and we also have ferrari and Russel in the mix now unlike earlier in the season.

Even if lando wins and max manages say p3 then max will gain on the title leader this weekend. In my opinion there's still 1 or 2 races where max could get a bumper points swing to mclaren. Vegas certainly and Brazil has potential to go wrong also so there's still opportunities for max to be in with a shout come the final race or 2.

[SilviuAgo]

I like how Andrea is protecting Oscar, he's like a father. But is funny that part with milliseconds, cause there are 15 or 16 corners in Mexico and 16xfew milliseconds does not equal half a second. At least according to my math made in the school decades ago

“Actually, like I said before for Lando, Oscar in relation to Lando loses a few milliseconds pretty much in every corner. So it's more him getting the right feeling with these conditions and pushing that little bit more in every single corner.”



And according to the media, the reason that Lando said after the final lap that he doesn't know from where that time/lap came is due to the fact that his dash on the steering wheel had a malfunction and no data on the time gap was displayed. SO for next raes is better to keep Lando "blind" and not to show his performance vs main competitors

[Seerix]

It was not a malfunction, Lando said in post quali press conference that he does not have delta on steering wheel since Monaco.

[SilviuAgo]

Some data from Ruth:

Leclerc: Clean Early, Classic Ferrari Efficiency
Ferrari’s low-drag philosophy shone on the straights — exactly where it needed to in Mexico’s thin air.

Straight-line advantage:
•Top speed: ~345 km/h, about 4 km/h faster than Norris.
•Time gain: ≈ 0.08 s on the main straight before Turn 1.
•Retained that edge on the run to Turn 4 thanks to the SF-25’s efficient aero and punchy PU.

Sector summary:
•Up to Turn 10, the gap hovered within one-tenth.
•Ferrari’s low-drag setup worked beautifully — fast on the straights, stable under braking, but a touch light in rotation zones.

Norris: The Decider in the Stadium
From Turn 10 onward, the lap swung orange — pure commitment through the technical finale.

Time gain:
•Gained ~0.14 s from Turns 13–16 alone.
•Carried 2–3 km/h more minimum speed through the direction changes.
•Earlier throttle and cleaner traction out of Turn 16 sealed it.

Why it mattered:
Better rotation, rear stability, and traction management meant Norris could attack where the Ferrari began to slide — converting downforce into lap time.

Oscar Piastri: On the Edge
Oscar’s lap had flashes of pace but lacked balance:
•Turn 3 — understeer on entry, costing front-end bite.
•Turn 10 — rear-end snap limiting throttle pickup.
Those two moments alone cost roughly 0.15 s versus Norris. Expect a slight brake-migration tweak and rear-wing trim for race day.

Verstappen: The Setup Reset
After reverting to a higher-downforce rear wing post-P3, Max Verstappen traded top speed for stability:
•Quali top-end ≈ 342 km/h (a few km/h down on Ferrari).
•Much improved traction and tyre load through the esses.
Built clearly for Sunday performance, not Saturday headlines.

Turn 1: The 830 m Drag Race
It’s the longest run to Turn 1 of the season — 830 metres of pure slipstream chaos.
Lewis Hamilton starts P3, perfectly placed to pounce if the front row fights. Remember 2021? Max went three-wide into Turn 1 with both Mercedes, braking 12 metres later and sweeping the outside. That’s what 830 metres of thin-air drag-race can do.

Pole is only half the job — survival through Turn 1 is the other half.

[SilviuAgo]

It was not a malfunction, Lando said in post quali press conference that he does not have delta on steering wheel since Monaco.

Tks mate for the info!

[mwillems]

Even if Lando loses P1 at the start, I expect he'll get it back soon enough if the car continues with its history of being better innthe race.

Great job by Lando.

They showed a comparison of laps between Norris and Leclerc. It looked as if Norris is faster in S3, especially with coming onto the straight. Should be good for overtaking.

Max is the surprise, for me. But i'd got the impression that Mclarens tyre life advantage had been eroded.

Happy to be wrong on this one

[SilviuAgo]

Lando's lap in Mexico reminds me of Lando-MCL38 relathionship

[Emag]

Oscar doesn't lose a couple of mili seconds every corner. Almost 40% of the gap is made in T3 alone. From the onboard of Lando's lap, honestly the T3 was just perfect. The car seems to be gliding over the kerb as it is not even there. No problems with the traction out of it either. Leclerc got close, but he did so while pushing the entries. He got a wobble out of the exit (as you would expect) so ended up half a tenth behind Lando by the end of S1.

As for the rest, he has been 1.5-2 tenths weak to Lando in S2 the whole weekend, so it's not exactly surprising. Lando just completely nailed S3 on his final run and that's where the rest of the gap comes from. Zero wheelspin as far as I could see on the onboard. Maybe a tiny bit out of T16, but that was actually beneficiary since it pulled the car to point a little bit to the right and shortened the distance to the finish line.

[SilviuAgo]

The race start from 2024. Sainz did an ok job, if you can not keep P1 to T1 at least position your car for a P2.

https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2024- ... 9044755057

The start from 2023 when Perez tried to be a hero and hit Leclerc who started from pole:

https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2023- ... 2817478487

And start from 2022 when Max was the only poleman keeping P1:
https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2022- ... 7030320004

[Juzh]

Norris pole lap

https://streamable.com/5fucp2

[FittingMechanics]

The race start from 2024. Sainz did an ok job, if you can not keep P1 to T1 at least position your car for a P2.

https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2024- ... 9044755057

The start from 2023 when Perez tried to be a hero and hit Leclerc who started from pole:

https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2023- ... 2817478487

And start from 2022 when Max was the only poleman keeping P1:
https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2022- ... 7030320004

Basically key is to go to the inside and push the other car off.

Easy to do with nothing to lose. Hard for Norris in this situation.

[SilviuAgo]

The race start from 2024. Sainz did an ok job, if you can not keep P1 to T1 at least position your car for a P2.

https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2024- ... 9044755057

The start from 2023 when Perez tried to be a hero and hit Leclerc who started from pole:

https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2023- ... 2817478487

And start from 2022 when Max was the only poleman keeping P1:
https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2022- ... 7030320004

Basically key is to go to the inside and push the other car off.

Easy to do with nothing to lose. Hard for Norris in this situation.

Finger crossed )))

[GoranF1]

The sudden loss of speed that Piastri is experiencing remainds me of 2007 when same thing happened to Alonso.
Years after all Hamilton fans remember is how rookie beat champion,when in fact it was all orchestrated by English team.