2025 McLaren F1 Team

[Darth-Piekus]

But with the way Mclaren is fumbling you would expect them to do anything they can for Lando to even lose 3rd. At this point I'm not even sure I want to watch the last race. Too many coincidences happening. I hope I'm wrong but I know where this is going and I'm not gonna be part of it.

[chengzhongyi2013]

Making foolish and obvious errors is part and parcel of professional sports
One just has to accept it, move on and do a better job
Que sera sera

As Zak Brown had said earlier "we win and lose as a team"

[bauc]

But with the way Mclaren is fumbling you would expect them to do anything they can for Lando to even lose 3rd. At this point I'm not even sure I want to watch the last race. Too many coincidences happening. I hope I'm wrong but I know where this is going and I'm not gonna be part of it.

I have the same feeling right now, but I have been trough worse with this team, we will win again!

[Watto]

I think Lando wins easy enough.

But gee, a poor qualifying to something goes wrong in the race.

Lando hasn't been making all that many if any real mistakes recently had they a normal race he was a pretty comfortable 2nd.

[Gothrek]

I think Lando wins easy enough.

But gee, a poor qualifying to something goes wrong in the race.

Lando hasn't been making all that many if any real mistakes recently had they a normal race he was a pretty comfortable 2nd.

Don't underestimate the pressure of a WDC. In the past he always struggled with pressure, even though it seems to been improving lately.

[Watto]

I think Lando wins easy enough.

But gee, a poor qualifying to something goes wrong in the race.

Lando hasn't been making all that many if any real mistakes recently had they a normal race he was a pretty comfortable 2nd.

Don't underestimate the pressure of a WDC. In the past he always struggled with pressure, even though it seems to been improving lately.

Yeah that's fair but I think hes been solid.


I think had Kimi not made that mistake giving Lando P4, I would have been more worried.

I don't discount an error on his part, just he has had some goos signs.

Max if they nail the car setup (and that is very hit and miss) Max is a pretty solid chance of a win.

[venkyhere]

https://i.ibb.co/Nnxvv4Bj/Qatar-2025-race-pace.png

It wasn't as if the Mclarens were that much faster in race pace, maybe Piastri by 3 tenths and Norris by 1/2 tenth or so. I think the team expected this to be 6-7 tenths.

Are they insane? Red Bull is probably the fastest car overall since Monza.
Here McLaren had an advantage but nothing like 1s or something like that.

post Monza Redbull is the fastest car only in lowDF ckts like Monza, Baku, Vegas, and that too by a small margin. On other tracks high/med DF like Singapore, Austin, Mexico, Brazil, the Mclaren is still fastest.
In Qatar, the Mclaren was the fastest car. By a minimum 3 tenths a lap. The reason for the flop show was because they thought 47 laps (lap10 SC restart to lap57) would be enough to 'cover' 22 seconds over Max. That means they must have expected a pace advantage of min 0.5s/lap over Max. Turns out, they didn't have it. Which made the 'skip the free stop' look even more stupid than it already was. Whether the pace delta estimate was an overestimation of their own pace or underestimation of Redbull's pace, it's irrelevant, TBH.

[WardenOfTheNorth]

Big question now, if Max is leading, a Oscar is third and Lando fourth, do McLaren ask Oscar to swap positions?

Would Oscar comply is another matter. I think he does, because he's the bigger man and would basically lose any trust between himself and the team if he doesn't, but I know others will disagree.

[Darth-Piekus]

Can they at least not fumble the last race and help Norris secure the title? In any case I don't have the energy or the mental health to watch it anymore. I have lost my nights sleep literally last night. Even if Norris manages to get the title I don't feel like celebrating because it should have been a title with over 60 points difference. Unless Mclaren becomes a dominating force in every single area my heart can't take the stress. It was less stressful when the team was competing for the occasional point.

[jumpingfish]

Why is Norris listed as having a championship? Piastri has zero so this is not his before F1 career titles count.



https://www.formula1.com/en/drivers/lando-norris

[mwillems]

Simply put, the instruction should have been either to pit or at least to follow max, with the pit ready for both drivers anyway in case either made their own call.

As i said yesterday, I have a feeling that they might have perceived a risk to Lando release in the pit lane as others piled in, and so vetoed both stops.

They may have thought they had the pace to catch Max, and miscalculated, but it's not really the point for me. Oscar would have clearly been 1st and faster than everyone else.

There was no additional risk there.

[FittingMechanics]

Simply put, the instruction should have been either to pit or at least to follow max, with the pit ready for both drivers anyway in case either made their own call.

As i said yesterday, I have a feeling that they might have perceived a risk to Lando release in the pit lane as others piled in, and so vetoed both stops.

They may have thought they had the pace to catch Max, and miscalculated, but it's not really the point for me. Oscar would have clearly been 1st and faster than everyone else.

There was no additional risk there.

Yeah, this seems most likely but I'm not sure that they thought they have pace to catch Verstappen, I think they expected many more to stay out, if Verstappen was in a DRS train with 7 midfield cars the outcome could be very different.

Another huge issue was that hard was a good race tire, better than medium for 25 laps. Not sure how they couldn't see that as they prefered strategy before the weekend was a one stopper (so surely a long stint on a hard). Verstappen and the rest of the field effectively ran a one stopper against McLaren on a two stopper. So by using a medium in the middle stint they failed to increase the gaps to the field and exposed them to ANT/SAI.

It's just a huge mistake all around and to cap it off, they pitted Norris out of the way for Verstappen. Piastri winning would be better for Norris and Piastri. I know they may have been worried about Antonelli and Sainz but I think they made a mistake by not defending until Max overtakes.

[Watto]

Big question now, if Max is leading, a Oscar is third and Lando fourth, do McLaren ask Oscar to swap positions?

Would Oscar comply is another matter. I think he does, because he's the bigger man and would basically lose any trust between himself and the team if he doesn't, but I know others will disagree.

I think Oscar would. But I think Oscar would likely try change down Max and only yield very late if he couldn't get it done too to make them sweat

[Juzh]

Why is Norris listed as having a championship? Piastri has zero so this is not his before F1 career titles count.

https://i.imgur.com/eQgKtZX.png

https://www.formula1.com/en/drivers/lando-norris

Whole thing is rigged, clear as day. /s

They probably got this pushed on a timer, expecting him to clinch it, but then he didn't and someone forgot to revert the change, or they had time off (sunday).

[De Wet]

Has Mclaren hired Ferrari strategists that we are not aware of ?