2025 McLaren F1 Team

[Badger]

I'll just park this here ..

https://racingnews365.com/racing-bulls- ... g-incident

Is that why Lando Norris recieved boos for some races now? I thought people would rejoice for having a new champion

I am getting the feeling that Max fans, who took a disliking to Lando during the 2024 season, are the ones who are suddenly supporting Oscar, booing Lando, and castigating him online.

McLaren fans did it to themselves. We've seen it in this forum, people who claimed Oscar was being unfairly treated by the team for the favoured prince Lando (including the McL fan you responded to, ironically). That narrative spread like wildfire in the mainstream F1 media too, and a lot of casual fans started to believe it. That's the source of the animosity, that's why he got booed in Mexico of all places. Blaming the opposition for friendly fire is just a convenient excuse.

[Balalu]

Is that why Lando Norris recieved boos for some races now? I thought people would rejoice for having a new champion

I am getting the feeling that Max fans, who took a disliking to Lando during the 2024 season, are the ones who are suddenly supporting Oscar, booing Lando, and castigating him online.

McLaren fans did it to themselves. We've seen it in this forum, people who claimed Oscar was being unfairly treated by the team for the favoured prince Lando (including the McL fan you responded to, ironically). That narrative spread like wildfire in the mainstream F1 media too, and a lot of casual fans started to believe it. That's the source of the animosity, that's why he got booed in Mexico of all places. Blaming the opposition for friendly fire is just a convenient excuse.

That does not make any sense. Oscar was not in the picture last year, and the hate started last year.

[Darth-Piekus]

It did not start last year or this year. It literally started a long time now from Christian Horner, Helmut Marko and their ilk. It just happened that Lando is the new target now.

[Farnborough]

Can it not be seen by the continued inclusion here, in this McL thread, that it just gives oxygen to this type of social,agitation ?

It's more kindergarten and ultimately juvenile to just keep banging that drum here DP.

On a technical note, language conversion and nuance, specifically Germanic native speakers having their comments forensically examined after conversion (without the originator's direct input) can lead to misinterpretation of sentiment, very easily.

I have two German neighbours to discuss this with, also one native German working as English language expert in UK education system that conclusively confirm this for me.

Both indicate that German is much more direct in its pure delivery (Often observed as a brutally delivered reality) with English societal delivery frustrating in its ability to talk in circles. The sentiment in original quote, in German, can be flipped in casual conversion.

This McL thread, in a very successful year, is all the worse for perpetual insecurities about other's comment from within F1 quoted sources.

[CjC]

The same can be said when discussing Norris Farnborough. I sometimes feel that the Europeans feel aggrieved by Norris in some of his interviews but I listen to them as a fellow Englishman and think he hasn’t said anything controversial at all.

But yea I totally agree, social media and threads in forums necessary fuel hate for drivers, won’t the end of the day are in the top 1% (or less) in their area of expertise. There aren’t many fans who can make the same claim.

[Badger]

That does not make any sense. Oscar was not in the picture last year, and the hate started last year.

It makes perfect sense. I've read countless comments from casuals and a contingent of McLaren fans suggesting the team was favouring Lando unfairly, and that Lando should have been de-prioritized in the championship when he was only a few points behind. This is what caused the sudden increase in "bad vibes" around Lando, both here and in the mainstream (see Mexico). In this forum some people (like DP) gave up on Lando completely when he was still within reaching distance of the lead, they stabbed him in the back. And now these same guys want to blame other fanbases and claim credit for believing in him all along? It's unseemly and not the truth.

[SilviuAgo]

[venkyhere]

I am a late entry to the forum, joined just before 2024 season started, though I have been following F1 since the mid-noughties.
I don't know why, I see this in every team thread, it's something which I didn't expect to see in a forum called "f1technical" -- lots of emotional attachment with drivers and teams. Though there are technical discussions, how-much-ever naive/amateur/hobbyist it is (sometimes of professional standard due to some members who work(ed) in/around the industry), I find them too far and few in between. I expected to see a lot more and learn even more than I have learned by being here (which I am thankful about, nevertheless).
Most posts are about this 'emotional bond' with team/driver. And many times such posts cross the boundary of reality and dip into fantasy, which is when the forum becomes the equivalent of 'facebook wars'. I feel sad about the forum in these moments (I am sure many old timers here are disappointed for sure) , when instead of opposing opinions involving technical pugilism, they descend to pure emotional barfights. Surely we are all mature enough to not act like teenagers sparring in facebook/whatsapp forums ?

[Darth-Piekus]

Farn explain with a little more detail what do you mean by continued inclusion. Toxicity did not start here. It's a fire that started a decade now. I'm not sure how many years you watch F1 but till 2015 toxicity even though it existed was but a small ant compared to the dinosaur that now became.

Badger I agree that I criticised Lando harshly and gave up on him when he was doing constant mistakes but Im glad he proved me wrong and came back to what he should be really doing. Now I'm criticising Oscar for dropping the ball shattering it and I will continue criticising my team and drivers when they aren't performing as they should. I'm also glad that Mclaren proved everyone wrong including me and without having a dominating car like the Mercedes of 2014-2020 and the Red Bull of 2022-2023 are going to get the double without having No1 and No2. What I will never accept are fans of other teams that came here undermining Lando and Oscar after every race just to become pro Lando now acting high and mighty.

As an old timer I feel dissapointed seeing the forum evolving into facebook wars as the above said. It' s time to break the cycle and stop adding oxygen to that fire.

[Darth-Piekus]

I hope the car has enough speed or some good set up to give him another win and finish the title decider there. It will be the perfect gift for him for staying so many years in the team.

[Avocado]

I don't believe in the doom and gloom of Las Vegas. They will be much better than last year.

[Emag]

Shouldn't be as bad as last year, but I don't expect it to be good enough for them to win. Mercedes should be very strong. Highly likely Max will be up there too and then Ferrari is a bit of a question mark. Going by last year's performance, a podium would be good damage limitation.

As for last year, straight line speed wasn't a problem actually, because I have seen it mentioned a couple of times. They just had no traction out of the slower corners. After T5, it was half a second down already, so clearly something was very wrong. The car didn't work at all in the first part of the lap.

[Darth-Piekus]

We shal see Emag. Many things can change over a year.

[SilviuAgo]

The steps McLaren will take to overcome its Las Vegas GP weakness:
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/the- ... /10777131/

We need to keep an eye also on the weather, current forecast is a wet quali session and for the race time dry but <10 degree Celsius

[CjC]

Wet??? It’s already incredibly cold. That could be a recipe for disaster for everyone