2025 McLaren F1 Team

[Farnborough]

If it was by agreement (given the relative positions prior to LV) of both drivers, to split focus, that would seem to be a pragmatic route in leveraging the team's potential and ultimate position against RB.

Only they'll know if the Papaya rules are straightjacketing them of not, that from internal sentiment and discussion.

[venkyhere]

So should they carry margin for the final races now and risk a bit of performance, or try to optimise?

Optimise to risk another DSQ?

They only need Lando to finish 2nd in all remaining races IF Max wins them all.
After this weekend and the fallout in the championship, why should anyone have implicit trust in McLaren's decision making for car optimisation?
They could easily have run conservatively on the plank and finished 3rd at minimum.
They could even have taken an engine and finished 4th easily. Kimi started 17th and finished 3rd.

Throwing the dice at this point not requiring to win is asking for trouble.

Lando needs to finish no lower than P3 in each race and no lower than P4 in sprint ; even if Max wins all three. With the McL39 underneath him, all he needs to do, is to not risk anything in qualifying, and whatever be the grid position, drive a calm race, the car will easily carry him to P3. The only way Norris is losing the WDC, is via human f-up, either himself or via his pitwall.

[AR3-GP]

It's entirely possible the track surface of the last 2 races is nothing special and they can just use the same configuration as they already did previously without much risk.
Depends how much are they affected by the Brazil TD.

There are rumors (per-Autosport and the-race) that Mclaren was already pushing the wear limits in Brazil.

[Jambier]

It's entirely possible the track surface of the last 2 races is nothing special and they can just use the same configuration as they already did previously without much risk.
Depends how much are they affected by the Brazil TD.

There are rumors (per-Autosport and the-race) that Mclaren was already pushing the wear limits in Brazil.

Everyone is doing it more or less.

There was some discussion about that, Alonso said that they quite often were fast on fridays at Aston because they were running lower, but always they rised because they feared disqualification. Saying that in a way, it was maybe a mistake because "many opponents" were doing it anyway as controls are not always done.

[venkyhere]

Considering the unpredictability hovering above the last 2 race weekends, this meme is just for laughs, don't take it seriously :

[Seerix]

It's entirely possible the track surface of the last 2 races is nothing special and they can just use the same configuration as they already did previously without much risk.
Depends how much are they affected by the Brazil TD.

There are rumors (per-Autosport and the-race) that Mclaren was already pushing the wear limits in Brazil.

Hard to imagine other teams leaving too much of a margin on such an important parameter as ride height. I have not seen those rumors, so not sure what they meant by "pushing the limit". Were they more worn out compared to other teams?

To be honest, I expected much worse and a lot more accusations towards Mcl. But I guess after flexiwings, mini DRS, tyre water and all other theories, it's not that easy to set the expectations about their performance in last 2 GPs.
We shall see, it's just a few days away now.

[Quantum]

The only way Norris is losing the WDC, is via human f-up, either himself or via his pitwall.

Mechanical failure may still play a part here too. And plain bad luck.

[AR3-GP]

It's entirely possible the track surface of the last 2 races is nothing special and they can just use the same configuration as they already did previously without much risk.
Depends how much are they affected by the Brazil TD.

There are rumors (per-Autosport and the-race) that Mclaren was already pushing the wear limits in Brazil.

Hard to imagine other teams leaving too much of a margin on such an important parameter as ride height. I have not seen those rumors, so not sure what they meant by "pushing the limit". Were they more worn out compared to other teams?

To be honest, I expected much worse and a lot more accusations towards Mcl. But I guess after flexiwings, mini DRS, tyre water and all other theories, it's not that easy to set the expectations about their performance in last 2 GPs.
We shall see, it's just a few days away now.

Every single team is pushing the limits. No one is leaving anything on the table. I just think it's strange that Mclaren have been through years and years of sprint formats, limited free practice, and other disorder without incident. There were whispers of some changes in Brazil, and Mclaren gets DQ'd a race later.

It doesn't mean they will perform poorly in Qatar or that they are involved in anything out or ordinary. In any case, teams learn with every weekend so I don't expect a repeat in Qatar.

[AR3-GP]

The first may be that Red Bull becoming a bigger threat has pushed McLaren harder to extract more performance.

This will have meant running closer to the ground than it perhaps would like if it wanted to play things super safe.

One source revealed that in Brazil a fortnight ago, McLaren’s skid block wear, while fully legal, was measured as being marginal – suggesting that it was pushing things more to the limit in terms of its approach there.

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/what ... dsq-shock/

[basti313]

One thing that astonishes me the whole season is still the communication hygiene in McLaren.
This weekend was another example of perfect comms:
- The whole driver communication is coded. We have seen this in the past with fake pitstops, we saw a remarkable example this weekend. They had to nurse a large issue, still there was not a single message like "we have a problem" or "protect the skids". Norris slowed down by a huge degree without questioning any need, there was a hidden code (maybe beeps?) that told him "we have a problem and shut up".
- Norris did a Verstappen in turn 1. Still it just goes away like nothing happened. The whole (and last) season they perfectly orchestrate the good boy/bad boy story and keep it perfectly clean. Shooting, but never overshooting. There is nothing similar in RedBull.
- Post race interview....similar. There is a perfect hygiene in Stella and Browns post race interviews. They just had to call back the drivers once, but except for this they are also perfectly clean. This weekend Brown did "interesting" interviews after the race, talking a lot, but saying nothing in the end. Later they did the only correct thing...just say nothing instead of posting or giving nonsense interviews like it would have happened in most other teams.

Absolutely remarkable, strong setup. I wonder who is behind this? Is it Zak and Andrea or marketing comms experts in the background? We see them usually talking immediately to some marketing lady. Zak for example nearly always when they cross the line at the end of a race or Q directly at the pit wall. I wonder who this is and what is the background.

[aMessageToCharlie]

Zack Brown is a professional talking head, no surprise there. When you get a Techie like Mekkies in front of a microphone is when the beans might get spilled.

It's obvious from the team radios that they were all well aware of the potential plank issues and discussed the need for LICO ahead of time, that's why there were no discussions or arguments about it.

Regarding the turn 1 incident I would argue that Verstappen "did a Verstappen" taking the race lead and Norris did a... Norris.

[Darth-Piekus]

3 days to Qatar and the championship battle continues somehow.

[SilviuAgo]

3 days to Qatar and the championship battle continues somehow.

My feeling and hope is that the championship battle will end after Qatar and in Abu Dhabi will have a relax race. God help!

[cplchanb]

3 days to Qatar and the championship battle continues somehow.

My feeling and hope is that the championship battle will end after Qatar and in Abu Dhabi will have a relax race. God help!

not if liberty has their say.... they need max profits and social media likes so theyll do anything to push it to AD.

[f1isgood]

All McLaren need to do is run a legal car and they will likely leave Qatar with lots of points and even the title. It will be close if Red Bull get their setup right but that's not guaranteed.