2025 McLaren F1 Team

This forum contains threads to discuss teams themselves. Anything not technical about the cars, including restructuring, performances etc belongs here.
erikejw
erikejw
3
Joined: 13 Apr 2012, 14:32

Re: 2025 McLaren F1 Team

Post

I was thinking the same.
I watched Norris slow down lap to hear about what was said. He only got info about the approaching cars that he let by. Really super slow pace, maybe saving tyres.

But when Oscar was approaching Norris, Norris went full speed again and started overtaking cars that just overtook him, very erratic, staying a couple of second ahead of Piastri for a few turns and definitely not saving any tyres.
_cerber1 wrote:
29 Nov 2025, 21:29
Lando's strange slowdown, could he have been deliberately saving the soft tyres for tomorrow?

erikejw
erikejw
3
Joined: 13 Apr 2012, 14:32

Re: 2025 McLaren F1 Team

Post

erikejw wrote:
30 Nov 2025, 00:21
I was thinking the same.
I watched Norris slow down lap to hear about what was said. He only got info about the approaching cars that he let by. Really super slow pace, maybe saving tyres.

But when Oscar was approaching Norris, Norris went full speed again and started overtaking cars that just overtook him, very erratic, staying a couple of second ahead of Piastri for a few turns and definitely not saving any tyres.

Piastri drow flawlessly but Lando just need to bag a decent amount of points tomorrow to inch in on the title.

The car was superior again, great prep work from the team, great execution throughout.
_cerber1 wrote:
29 Nov 2025, 21:29
Lando's strange slowdown, could he have been deliberately saving the soft tyres for tomorrow?

User avatar
venkyhere
28
Joined: 10 Feb 2024, 06:17

Re: 2025 McLaren F1 Team

Post

Emag wrote:
29 Nov 2025, 22:55
If Max is not aggressive tomorrow then we probably moved to a parallel universe somewhere between Vegas and now. Max can't even race Lando properly when he is 60 points ahead, there's no way he doesn't go full attack when he is 20 behind. I really hate how Sky pushed the "friendship" narrative between them too. I have no idea what their relation off-track is, but on-track they are anything but friends. The only time Max has "played cleanly" with Lando has been when there was nothing on the line. Recent Max comments seem to have pulled a nerve too, since Lando lashed back at Max/RedBull for "sh*tstiring". Anyway, the point is, it seem like they particularly don't want to finish behind one-another in a race at all costs.

Going back to Sky. The commentary is hard to listen to at the moment to be honest. I understand the British bias has to be there, being a British media platform, but they seem to be hyper focused on how Lando can win the title all the time. Also, those tongue-in-cheek comments about RedBull supposedly sparking a little bit too much during qualifying. Like Crofty please, it's a Formula 1 car in a high-speed circuit. It will always spark.

A bit petty I would say. McLaren made a mistake and they were off the legal limits for plank wear at Vegas. End of story, no need to drag it on. It's not like RedBull scraped off McLaren's plank with a chisel.
You seem to take SkySports and DavidCroft epecially, too seriously. Absolute zero racing knowledge, zero technical knowledge, and talks total irrelevant stuff most times, yapping constantly. It's like watching an audio version of what you are seeing anyway, there is no 'interpretation' or 'why' to things we see. I watch races on mute, and only turn up the volume when there is an 'incident' or a 'possible penalty'. I so much yearn for Murray Walker in the commentary box - chose the 'moments to talk' well, and knew when to stay silent, and most importantly knew that commentary was about 'interpretation' rather than an audio description for the visually impaired.

PS : Alex Jacques is more knowledgeable & less yappy than Croft.

User avatar
Darth-Piekus
-1
Joined: 28 Apr 2018, 15:27
Location: Greece

Re: 2025 McLaren F1 Team

Post

I miss both Murray Walker and James Hunt on commentary.

CrazyCarperF1
CrazyCarperF1
0
Joined: 01 Feb 2015, 17:31

Re: 2025 McLaren F1 Team

Post

I'd be amazed if the front three all make it through the first corner. Pia will likely line up to cover norris and verstappen will try to drive them into each other.

User avatar
Zynerji
112
Joined: 27 Jan 2016, 16:14

Re: 2025 McLaren F1 Team

Post

Darth-Piekus wrote:
30 Nov 2025, 00:43
I miss both Murray Walker and James Hunt on commentary.
Coming to F1TV AI commentary offering in 2028 for an added fee... :?

michl420
michl420
24
Joined: 18 Apr 2010, 17:08
Location: Austria

Re: 2025 McLaren F1 Team

Post

AR3-GP wrote:
29 Nov 2025, 21:19
michl420 wrote:
29 Nov 2025, 21:15
Why tried Norris not another attempt? He was in front of Russel on track.
They aren't fueled for an extra lap.
Probably right, forgotten that.

User avatar
venkyhere
28
Joined: 10 Feb 2024, 06:17

Re: 2025 McLaren F1 Team

Post

Zynerji wrote:
30 Nov 2025, 02:16
Darth-Piekus wrote:
30 Nov 2025, 00:43
I miss both Murray Walker and James Hunt on commentary.
Coming to F1TV AI commentary offering in 2028 for an added fee... :?
Coming to F1TV :
Additional fee for F1tvProMax, for "watching with both eyes"
(with basic account, visuals will be hologram-like and will need one eye to be closed to be meaningful)

User avatar
bauc
35
Joined: 19 Jun 2013, 10:03
Location: Skopje, Macedonia

Re: 2025 McLaren F1 Team

Post

Image
Формула 1 на Македонски - The first ever Macedonian Formula 1 YouTube channel
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJkjCv ... 6rVRgKASwg

User avatar
venkyhere
28
Joined: 10 Feb 2024, 06:17

Re: 2025 McLaren F1 Team

Post

A good metric of car development by the two rivals :

Image

FittingMechanics
FittingMechanics
16
Joined: 19 Feb 2019, 12:10

Re: 2025 McLaren F1 Team

Post

Thinking about it more I concluded that for Norris it is perfectly fine to finish P3 if Verstappen is P2 (and Piastri P1). This would put Verstappen at 22 points back with Piastri at 12 points behind. Critically Piastri drives the same car so the risk of losing 12+ points in Abu Dhabi is really small. It would be much worse if Max wins and gets to 15 points. Who knows the pace in Abu Dhabi.

Obviously the best would be to win or finish P2, but it's not super worrying if they end up with Piastri winning and Max in P2.

astracrazy
astracrazy
31
Joined: 04 Mar 2009, 16:04

Re: 2025 McLaren F1 Team

Post

FittingMechanics wrote:
30 Nov 2025, 10:32
Thinking about it more I concluded that for Norris it is perfectly fine to finish P3 if Verstappen is P2 (and Piastri P1). This would put Verstappen at 22 points back with Piastri at 12 points behind. Critically Piastri drives the same car so the risk of losing 12+ points in Abu Dhabi is really small. It would be much worse if Max wins and gets to 15 points. Who knows the pace in Abu Dhabi.

Obviously the best would be to win or finish P2, but it's not super worrying if they end up with Piastri winning and Max in P2.
Yep. The biggest risk for Norris is getting caught up in anything with two drivers that haven't much to lose. I guess we will have to wait and see if he is smart enough to work that one out.

FittingMechanics
FittingMechanics
16
Joined: 19 Feb 2019, 12:10

Re: 2025 McLaren F1 Team

Post

Another way to look at it, if Norris beats Verstappen on track in one of the races remaining McLaren wins WDC.

User avatar
Vettel165
4
Joined: 06 Apr 2018, 20:46
Location: Maribor/Slovenia

Re: 2025 McLaren F1 Team

Post

Congratz to Mclaren fans for the both titles this year. Its over. You just had the better car, a much more stable base to work on. You deserved it...

Cheers.

User avatar
Darth-Piekus
-1
Joined: 28 Apr 2018, 15:27
Location: Greece

Re: 2025 McLaren F1 Team

Post

Vettel165 wrote:
30 Nov 2025, 14:03
Congratz to Mclaren fans for the both titles this year. Its over. You just had the better car, a much more stable base to work on. You deserved it...

Cheers.
Let's not count our chickens before they hatch. Keep the cheers for after the race.