2025 McLaren F1 Team

[Farnborough]

You don't see tennis playes discuss the proportionality of the rules regaring "in" and "out" ..

Because calling for rule change or mitigation (Stella being quoted) after being caught the wrong side of a fixed line, is disingenuous at best.

If he'd called for this at season start, maybe some credence. Now though ...... we can all see the motivation, which they've caused from their independent actions.

Edit:- apologies henkv, wrong quote by me.

[Balalu]

Red Bull shouldn't have been able to add an engine outside a penalty (for performance reasons) but if Mekies just said "we saw a problem" it would have been fine as per Tombazis, so I guess that's it.

They couldn't see the problem because the problem was outside the scope of their sensors. I think we can put this to bed now.

In a separate interview with De Telegraaf, Verstappen’s engine engineer, David Mart, detailed what it is like to work closely with the four-time world champion, highlighting how it can sometimes be quite the challenge.

He said, “Max is a very special talent. He is 100% committed to motor racing and is someone who has a keen sense of when there is a problem.

“That’s why working with him can be quite challenging at times, but ultimately very rewarding. Recently in Brazil, he got a new engine and immediately said that it vibrated less and felt better.

“But we don’t see that in the data, even though we have something like 500 sensors. That’s why the driver’s own feedback is so important and decisive.”

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/what-r ... t%20better.


Verstappen's sensitivity allowed him to detect the problem before the PU engineers could even see it with the sensors. It's not for no reason that Laurent Mekies called him the best sensor that they have.

"The simple plain truth is that then you get the luck to work with him and the guy is even more extraordinary out of the car than he is in the car," Mekies said.

"It looks stupid to say but that's what it is. You discover the level of his technical sensitivity, we call him the best sensor in the car," the Red Bull boss added, before jokingly pleading with podcast hosts Nicola Hume and Tommo McCluskey: "Don't tell him but he really is the best sensor in the car!"

https://www.gpfans.com/en/f1-news/10676 ... pen-truth/



Trying to correlate Mclaren's DSQ for illegal plank wear to an engine penalty and suggesting there was a miscarriage of justice is like comparing Mclaren's disqualification to what I had for breakfast. There's no relevance.

Ha... so anything RedBull say is gospel, but McLaren twist facts, right?

[Farnborough]

The rules, all of them are known and layed out for them all to understand. You imply there's collusion by the FIA to bring RB into the game to raise competitive spectacle.

After LV Lando had a virtually insurmountable points advantage at +42 over Max, until taken into account the actions of solely this team in the choices they made against known risk. The FIA or anyone else for that matter, are not responsible for this eventuality coming about. That's the problem right there. There's no logical exchange of mitigation or equivalent tradeoff.
Any other competitor would, and absolutely should, get the same treatment in regard to defined plank wear.

Not a chance do i believe there is collusion.

All I wanted to point out was how the same organisation can be so strict ( fairly) yet also not strict on something else, which they admit was a weakness.

I don't think they are dodgy, though probably have been in the past I'm sure

If anything, I think F1 has become so big, its starting to outgrow them. But thats another subject.

It's a bit amazing to me that all these other posters fly oh so neatly past your point and just plain refuse to understand what you're saying.

Because calling for rule change or mitigation (Stella being quoted) after being caught the wrong side of a fixed line, is disingenuous at best.

If he'd called for this at season start, maybe some credence. Now though ...... we can all see the motivation, which they've caused from their independent actions.

[Darth-Piekus]

I seem to recall the FIA making statements about disqualification to the team that broke the budget cap rule back in 2021. I wonder what happened to that statement. The rule book also seems to have mysteriously lost the black flag for dangerous driving rule that it used to have and people still have questions to how many cars are allowed to unlap during a safety car procedure. If only more people than Stella asked for rule improvements instead of defending a corrupt system that made F1 into WWE for some years now.

Before some people go full white knight and use the usual tin foil hat and OMG childish etc etc sit and think how many times have we seen rules getting changed on a whim or interpreted depending on who was the face of F1. From the days of Prost that is happening and so many times I've lost count.

[langedweil]

A lot of whataboutism going on here ..
Was just wondering if there's any technical update considering ride height matters, but this thread has taken a different path.

[aMessageToCharlie]

Better place to look for that would be the car thread, m8

[Darth-Piekus]

In any case the time of reckoning has arrived. Qatar is a golden opportunity for Norris to end the title battle.

[Slahinki]

Not a chance do i believe there is collusion.

All I wanted to point out was how the same organisation can be so strict ( fairly) yet also not strict on something else, which they admit was a weakness.

I don't think they are dodgy, though probably have been in the past I'm sure

If anything, I think F1 has become so big, its starting to outgrow them. But thats another subject.

It's a bit amazing to me that all these other posters fly oh so neatly past your point and just plain refuse to understand what you're saying.

Because calling for rule change or mitigation (Stella being quoted) after being caught the wrong side of a fixed line, is disingenuous at best.

If he'd called for this at season start, maybe some credence. Now though ...... we can all see the motivation, which they've caused from their independent actions.

Nowhere has Stella been quoted as calling for a rule change though. In the interview posted on the McLaren website he merely states that the FIA are already looking into the lack of proportionality in the rules. At least get your quotes right before getting your panties in a bunch.

[euv2]

It's a bit amazing to me that all these other posters fly oh so neatly past your point and just plain refuse to understand what you're saying.

Because calling for rule change or mitigation (Stella being quoted) after being caught the wrong side of a fixed line, is disingenuous at best.

If he'd called for this at season start, maybe some credence. Now though ...... we can all see the motivation, which they've caused from their independent actions.

Nowhere has Stella been quoted as calling for a rule change though. In the interview posted on the McLaren website he merely states that the FIA are already looking into the lack of proportionality in the rules. At least get your quotes right before getting your panties in a bunch.

Go watch the weekend warmup on F1's youtube channel, he calls for proportionate penalties, you can watch the words right from the horse's mouth. Stella even incorrectly said that the skids failed in only one position, as if the FIA's document aren't put out for the world to see.

[ispano6]

Looking back at the video footage of the race, I don't buy the "porpoising" reasoning. There is no porpoising, just dragging the floor on the ground in a controlled and non-oscillating manner. It looks like a grand slam infringement of running the car too low in attempt to gain an advantage. The verdict is absolutely fair and sound. No rule change needed. Nothing to do with power units being swapped and pitlane starts.

[FittingMechanics]

Another super objective commentator has joined us. Hello, welcome.

[Watto]

It's a bit amazing to me that all these other posters fly oh so neatly past your point and just plain refuse to understand what you're saying.

Because calling for rule change or mitigation (Stella being quoted) after being caught the wrong side of a fixed line, is disingenuous at best.

If he'd called for this at season start, maybe some credence. Now though ...... we can all see the motivation, which they've caused from their independent actions.

Nowhere has Stella been quoted as calling for a rule change though. In the interview posted on the McLaren website he merely states that the FIA are already looking into the lack of proportionality in the rules. At least get your quotes right before getting your panties in a bunch.

Stella's comments were still poor IMO.

Adding any proportionality to something that has - and words fine with a black and white interpretation is to do down a 50 shades of grey is going down the wrong path. Sometimes those things are needed a lot of the sporting ones do needs some of it overtaking guidelines become grey and open to too much interpertation I don't think Piastri deserved his penalty a few weeks ago but get by the guidelines it was probably there (I think in itself shows an issue with the rules Kimi should have still had to leave space and as LeClerc said did contribute to the crash he should have to did know Oscar was there). That kinda thing is the issue with going down the path of 'proportionality' open it to much and teams will push the limits. One thing that bothers me with a lot of sports is where they change rules that worked into ones that become overly complex and open to interpertation and can change from stewart to steward/ump/ref they almost always change them in a way they are never wrong can give penalties and say they were right. I would prefer - where possible just a clean cut rule where everyone knows the penalty for overstepping.

Just think McLaren made a misjudgement here.

[FittingMechanics]

I don't think skid block should have proportionality, it would just open FIA to manipulation by the teams where the teams may judge that taking a small penalty for small skid block infraction is beneficial because they will nail the setup.

It's going to cause much more issues than it solves. Imagine that after most races you end up with teams breaking that rule and then adding penalties to various cars and changing the order. Complete chaos.

Stella is annoyed that they made a mistake and hurt the drivers but that is the way it is. I'm sure he will agree once he has time to process and WDC is sealed.

[Slahinki]

Because calling for rule change or mitigation (Stella being quoted) after being caught the wrong side of a fixed line, is disingenuous at best.

If he'd called for this at season start, maybe some credence. Now though ...... we can all see the motivation, which they've caused from their independent actions.

Nowhere has Stella been quoted as calling for a rule change though. In the interview posted on the McLaren website he merely states that the FIA are already looking into the lack of proportionality in the rules. At least get your quotes right before getting your panties in a bunch.

Stella's comments were still poor IMO.

Adding any proportionality to something that has - and words fine with a black and white interpretation is to do down a 50 shades of grey is going down the wrong path. Sometimes those things are needed a lot of the sporting ones do needs some of it overtaking guidelines become grey and open to too much interpertation I don't think Piastri deserved his penalty a few weeks ago but get by the guidelines it was probably there (I think in itself shows an issue with the rules Kimi should have still had to leave space and as LeClerc said did contribute to the crash he should have to did know Oscar was there). That kinda thing is the issue with going down the path of 'proportionality' open it to much and teams will push the limits. One thing that bothers me with a lot of sports is where they change rules that worked into ones that become overly complex and open to interpertation and can change from stewart to steward/ump/ref they almost always change them in a way they are never wrong can give penalties and say they were right. I would prefer - where possible just a clean cut rule where everyone knows the penalty for overstepping.

Just think McLaren made a misjudgement here.

I agree that technical matters should be black and white and that proportionality in breaches of the technical regulations should be avoided, but if the FIA wants to look into that it's entirely within their purview to do so.