2025 McLaren F1 Team

[Mcl_G10]

Bravo Norris. Hes really developing that knack for getting out there and 'getting it done'.
Its all well and good to say hes got the fastest car but so has just about every single WDC of f1 history. Its days like these when its wet, dangerous and those who dare to do make it happen.
He has annihilated oscar for a number of races now and if he felt this comfortable in the car at the start of the season he'd have had it wrapped up about 3 races ago.

As for the race, just make it a clean one. Max will 100% try the dive bomb and try force lando off track if he gets the opportunity. P2 would be plenty good enough for lando but I want him to go win it and claim the wdc like a true champion does.
If lando wins and Oscar only manages p3 at best then its over and max is all but eliminated and I said a few weeks ago that really the championship was between lando and max so it will be almost job done.

[venkyhere]

Isn't it time some people should start to appreciate Lando Norris at this point and stop with the coping excuses (it's the car, it's my grandma, it's this, it's that). Put Hamilton, Alonso, Senna, Prost, Lauda, Mansell, Schumacher and any champion of the 80s, 90s and 2000s in that Red Bull and they would be leading that title when you have a grid that the distance from first to tenth is half a second. If at the end of the day Max and Red Bull are unable to find a way to surpass Lando and Mclaren the whole year then they are inadequate to be champions. After all everyone makes mistakes and Lando Norris won on a fully wet surface where cars become equal and if he had another lap expect him to have had over a second on Max. There should be no more excuses.

1) It wasn't fully wet (even in Q1 and Q2 where they ran the blue tyre) , it was 'drying' in Q3

2) Because of the above, car differences don't get bridged, because tyre temperature becomes the game and a car which can ramp up the core temp of the inter tyre (switch on it's tyres) after a 'cool down/recharge' lap without any lateral load corners and with very little play room for 'snaking' (single drying line in the middle of a wet track), and at the same time prevent 'old-inters' from overheating from hard braking on the same dry line (keep the temp from overshooting) has a clear advantage over competition. In a fully wet scenario (light showers falling all the time), the same inters behave differently and equalize the field (no more "tyre-treating advantage" for a car that otherwise has that) because there isn't a 'drying line'.

3) Forget what Marko says, he will always find excuses when his team/driver don't get pole. But to say that the entire 1s advantage came from 'driver skill' alone, without any contribution from car capability difference, shows poor technical understanding of the sport or confirmation bias (hatred for a driver) or both.

This is why I keep saying that the 'logical reasoning' that we get to read in f1technical, more often than not, is no better quality than the arguments in a facebook fan-wars forum.

[Emag]

Lando will never be popular with a particular crowd. And honestly, I get it, he hasn’t helped himself with some of the stuff he has said/done since last year. But the way people react to some things is hilarious. He could bring world peace tomorrow and they’d still call him an economy bottler for bankrupting the gun manufacturers

[SmallSoldier]

https://ibb.co/7dYQ0zMh

A shame for that slide, 1 second up would have been mental. Lando is very good in drying conditions and has been since 2021 at least.

Watch his F2 race in France before joining McLaren… He is very good in wet and drying conditions

[Darth-Piekus]

1) It wasn't fully wet (even in Q1 and Q2 where they ran the blue tyre) , it was 'drying' in Q3

2) Because of the above, car differences don't get bridged, because tyre temperature becomes the game and a car which can ramp up the core temp of the inter tyre (switch on it's tyres) after a 'cool down/recharge' lap without any lateral load corners and with very little play room for 'snaking' (single drying line in the middle of a wet track), and at the same time prevent 'old-inters' from overheating from hard braking on the same dry line (keep the temp from overshooting) has a clear advantage over competition. In a fully wet scenario (light showers falling all the time), the same inters behave differently and equalize the field (no more "tyre-treating advantage" for a car that otherwise has that) because there isn't a 'drying line'.

3) Forget what Marko says, he will always find excuses when his team/driver don't get pole. But to say that the entire 1s advantage came from 'driver skill' alone, without any contribution from car capability difference, shows poor technical understanding of the sport or confirmation bias (hatred for a driver) or both.

This is why I keep saying that the 'logical reasoning' that we get to read in f1technical, more often than not, is no better quality than the arguments in a facebook fan-wars forum.

1)It was wet enough that made many drivers spin and Norris did a better job than the rest. He almost lost it there himself but nobody is perfect.
2)So last year in Brazil it was all Super Max and nothing like the Red Bull bringing tyre temperatures on the right conditions while the Mercedes and Mclaren were unable to heat them every after Safety Car which played the role of cooldown recharge lap making many drivers spinning while this year it was all the car. How many times have we heard that? Literally every wet race. If it makes you feel better let's call it Norris got the most out of the package.
3)I guess then Ayrton Senna had a much better car when he was making mincemeat out of Newey's Williams rocket ships in Donnington 1993 giving them 3 seconds per lap. Or in Monaco 1984. That Tolemann must have been a beast to be giving 3 seconds per laps on Prost's Mclaren. Or when Schumacher was partying when the rain started. That Ferrari must have been powerful. Or Alonso winning 2012 Malaysia with a tractor that must have had a lot of speed hidden somewhere. Or Schumacher in Canada 2011 when it rained. I suppose we have a poor technical understanding.

This isn't the first time that happened and that is too see a driver excelling in a wet or mixed condition. What the new Facebook and DTS F1 fans like to call super performance and masterclass, we the veterans who watched from the 80s call it another Sunday.

[erikejw]

Very impressive and rock solid performance from Lando in a very harsh tricky situation.

He managed to balance on the limit and push it with enough margins to not jeopardize anything.

And the McLaren car works in any situation.
Kudos to the team (factory)for an impressive season.

[venkyhere]

1) It wasn't fully wet (even in Q1 and Q2 where they ran the blue tyre) , it was 'drying' in Q3

2) Because of the above, car differences don't get bridged, because tyre temperature becomes the game and a car which can ramp up the core temp of the inter tyre (switch on it's tyres) after a 'cool down/recharge' lap without any lateral load corners and with very little play room for 'snaking' (single drying line in the middle of a wet track), and at the same time prevent 'old-inters' from overheating from hard braking on the same dry line (keep the temp from overshooting) has a clear advantage over competition. In a fully wet scenario (light showers falling all the time), the same inters behave differently and equalize the field (no more "tyre-treating advantage" for a car that otherwise has that) because there isn't a 'drying line'.

3) Forget what Marko says, he will always find excuses when his team/driver don't get pole. But to say that the entire 1s advantage came from 'driver skill' alone, without any contribution from car capability difference, shows poor technical understanding of the sport or confirmation bias (hatred for a driver) or both.

This is why I keep saying that the 'logical reasoning' that we get to read in f1technical, more often than not, is no better quality than the arguments in a facebook fan-wars forum.

1)It was wet enough that made many drivers spin and Norris did a better job than the rest. He almost lost it there himself but nobody is perfect.
2)So last year in Brazil it was all Super Max and nothing like the Red Bull bringing tyre temperatures on the right conditions while the Mercedes and Mclaren were unable to heat them every after Safety Car which played the role of cooldown recharge lap making many drivers spinning while this year it was all the car. How many times have we heard that? Literally every wet race. If it makes you feel better let's call it Norris got the most out of the package.
3)I guess then Ayrton Senna had a much better car when he was making mincemeat out of Newey's Williams rocket ships in Donnington 1993 giving them 3 seconds per lap. Or in Monaco 1984. That Tolemann must have been a beast to be giving 3 seconds per laps on Prost's Mclaren. Or when Schumacher was partying when the rain started. That Ferrari must have been powerful. Or Alonso winning 2012 Malaysia with a tractor that must have had a lot of speed hidden somewhere. Or Schumacher in Canada 2011 when it rained. I suppose we have a poor technical understanding.

This isn't the first time that happened and that is too see a driver excelling in a wet or mixed condition. What the new Facebook and DTS F1 fans like to call super performance and masterclass, we the veterans who watched from the 80s call it another Sunday.

"we the veterans" , eh ?
I see you have no idea what the difference between 'wet' and 'drying' is, and it's impact on the inter tyre. All those years of watching, you say, and yet I see no technical understanding. Anyway, no more about this from me.

And btw, I did post about how well Norris did in the quali :

It was a 'who has warmed up the tyres well' (it differs for each car and the skill of the driver-engineer combo is figuring out how best to do it on their car) quali session on wet->dry track. Lando did a brilliant job of it, that's why he was 1 second up on the field in Q3. Delivered when it mattered. Driving like a true champion.The car isn't 1s faster, it's the way the driver and team used the tyres. Considering this, Piastri being so far back can mean only one thing - he doesn't deserve the WDC (painful though it is to say it, it's the truth) , because unless the car operates in an ideal environment, he isn't able to 'adapt' to suboptimal conditions. I still think Piastri is the better wheel to wheel racer, but in terms of operating at the limits of adhesion, Lando is superior.

perhaps your confirmation bias made you skip this post.

[Darth-Piekus]

The conditions where treacherous and wet enough for intermediates. Lando was anxious, Verstappen felt like qualifying on ice. Those were their comments. It was a hard lap to make on the limit after seeing so many drivers spin. Call them what you want At the end of the day he got the best out of his car and did the best job and personally I've seen these conditions plenty of times and drivers who excelled on them from the rest.

And by the way, my original first reply wasnt for you but to someone else who started undermining Lando again. Exactly one page back.

Anyway. The race is again toi early for me so I won't really watch it. Good luck to our drivers and may Lando seal the title.

[Szabi1112]

Very poor execution of start

[Shader]

Very poor execution of start

Yes... they could have done better at star, but looking at pace in the race, this is pretty much what we had.

[Szabi1112]

Very poor execution of start

Yes... they could have done better at star, but looking at pace in the race, this is pretty much what we had.

I believe we can win this if we stay on the front.

[trinidefender]

Piastri has ultimate pace similar to Norris from what I can tell (if they were equalised) but when he gets close to a car in front he seems to get too aggressive and makes mistakes.

[geogate]

thats ok - I'd certainly have taken p2 behind max before the weekend

[napoleon1981]

In my opinion Norris should cover Max and stop him from passing at all costs even if it means sending him in the wall. Exploit the same rules he's exploiting.

[Shader]

I don't know what issue Norris had, but he was loosing so much it looked like DNF coming. Too close...