2025 McLaren F1 Team

[Darth-Piekus]

What i am realising, is that the fight from being near the bottom is probably more fun than actually being at the pinnacle.

I watch the Williams Carlos Sainz videos, and you can see it forming there, the joy of 3rd and the plans of an upward trajectory.

While Mclaren is sniping and infighting.

But I'm a Wycombe Wanderers fan so never used to following a dominant team!

Speaking of Sainz, I haven't seen the journalists giving him any masterclass driving praise for bringing an actual crap car to the podium two times starting from the back.

[SilviuAgo]

Just a short reminder, no matter the Sunday result...this team, with better and less ok, is the world champion for the second time in a row. That needs to be appreciated. and maybe next year the strategy team will be at the level of the engineering and design team.

[Jambier]

Speaking of Sainz, I haven't seen the journalists giving him any masterclass driving praise for bringing an actual crap car to the podium two times starting from the back.

Sainz is spanish, it is not helping for praise - except in Spain were they over praise -
But yes he is an underrated driver.
He is slow to adapt to a new team and car (But when you see Ham...) but then he delivers.
At Mclaren, Ferrari and now Williams he was always solid, and finally at Toro Rosso back then he was not ridiculous compare to VER

[venkyhere]

https://racingnews365.com/mclaren-intro ... le-decider

McLaren will not change anything regarding the rules of engagement of their drivers. In fact, the drivers will have complete independence to play their own cards, as RacingNews365 understands there will not be any exchange of set-up data between the two drivers. After the Qatar race, several simulations were run at the Woking factory, including the dynamic simulation to determine the two basic set-ups chosen by the drivers and the possible variations to optimise them. A factor that is different from previous races, however, is that an effort to avoid giving either driver any advantage, all data from the dynamic test bench and the simulator have been kept deliberately separate, and provided only to the respective race engineers. It has also been decided that this approach will be maintained throughout the weekend - or at least, until the set-up for qualifying is finalised. There will therefore be no technical exchanges at all during the technical briefings, which will be held completely separately in the team's hospitality with their own engineers. This kind of rule has never been introduced at McLaren before, but the team has a clear reason: to provide both drivers with the best conditions to get the most out of their own cars. In terms of team orders, RacingNews365 understands there will be no interventions after the start of the race, and this will remain the case if - and only if - Piastri is not in a position to win the championship in the final stint. McLaren is keen to give both of its drivers enough opportunity to seal the title this weekend - but it is unafraid to make a call late in the race in order to ensure it ends the season with the drivers' championship in hand.

In the special 'title contenders only' media briefing, both McLaren drivers said they didn't talk about any team orders, didn't they ?

This is 'absolute cinema' , they are even confused about who should say what. Why doesn't Mclaren as a whole just say "we discuss all that internally" and stop the Question from proceeding any further ? Apart from the 'race operations team', even the 'PR preparation team' deserve to be fired, looks like.

[FittingMechanics]

That is so stupid. So instead of finding the best setup they will each try and find it and risk being exposed by Verstappen.

I hope whoever is driving these decisions is ready to take the fall if Verstappen beats them.

What an idiotic approach.

[Slahinki]

It's like they refuse to learn some times.

[basti313]

This is 'absolute cinema' , they are even confused about who should say what. Why doesn't Mclaren as a whole just say "we discuss all that internally" and stop the Question from proceeding any further ? Apart from the 'race operations team', even the 'PR preparation team' deserve to be fired, looks like.

No, I think this is an absolute no. There is no better PR team in F1 than with McLaren. They kept it clean all season in a perfect way, stated several times this year. And the press release about data sharing and interventions is again the same example, sounds super nice like racing and covers all aspects, even the last minute intervention like the micro management they had all season.

I think rather the above is again an example of the strict management. They do not need to talk about anything with the drivers. They have their coded comms and clear instructions on when to stand down. The drivers just do what the pit wall is saying, so nothing to talk about.

That is so stupid. So instead of finding the best setup they will each try and find it and risk being exposed by Verstappen.

I hope whoever is driving these decisions is ready to take the fall if Verstappen beats them.

What an idiotic approach.

I think this is overreacting...for three reasons:
- I think this is a nice attempt to look good on PR. But the big question behind is still if they wanted "to avoid giving either driver any advantage", why didn't they do the same mid season when just driving against each other? Why this late PR stunt?
- Merc went from a completely open data strategy to some restrictions when Ham and Ros were only battling each other for WDC. It basically did not have any bad influence on anything.
- Running the same sim on the same rig...in the end running the same car, the same floor and wings...why should there in any case be a big difference? These guys know what they do and have the same technical help in the factory in the background. Setting up these cars goes much deeper than just the race engineers. Another Nothingburger.

Edit: I need to correct a bit the point on stupidity. You are right: Piastri is not driving in FP1. Not sharing the data is not only stupid, but highly unfair given that this is the only race where they change the approach. So you are right...this is absolutely nothing you do on the last race.

[FittingMechanics]

It may be an overreaction but with how small the gaps are, are they really that happy to potentially leave a couple of tenths on the table if they can't nail the setup? What happens if they are couple of tenths slower than Mercedes and end up P4 and P5?

I hope that reporting is not accurate. It seems to be speculation as there are no sources named and no quotes. So I hope they are not really doing this "no data sharing".

Example of ROS/HAM is a bad one as they were not just 12 points ahead of a competitor in the last race of the season.

[basti313]

It may be an overreaction but with how small the gaps are, are they really that happy to potentially leave a couple of tenths on the table if they can't nail the setup? What happens if they are couple of tenths slower than Mercedes and end up P4 and P5?

Why do you think gaps are small? Gaps were never small on a normal track this season.

I hope that reporting is not accurate. It seems to be speculation as there are no sources named and no quotes. So I hope they are not really doing this "no data sharing".

I bet they do it different if needed if they are nowhere after FP2 with any of the cars.

Example of ROS/HAM is a bad one as they were not just 12 points ahead of a competitor in the last race of the season.

You did read my post? "why didn't they do the same mid season "
MID SEASON. When they had 100 points over Ver, not now that they screwed up big time and have only 12 left.

[MTudor]

As a MCLAREN fan,I don't care who wins the pilots WC,all I care is that Mclaren is a back to back WCC!!!

[basti313]

Who cares about the WCC? ...........................................MTUDOR DOES!!!

[mwillems]

You've really got you're knickers in a twist lol

I'm also preferring the WCC, and I'd love to see if Mclaren can get close to Ferrari numbers.

WDC is nice, particularly if it is a British driver (For me) but I'm not as fussed as I used to be, years ago, about which driver wins.

[Xero]

Strong pace from Lando, he looks locked in like last year. Single lap and race pace is on point, good start. Oscar slightly on the back foot, but has 1 more session to dial in.

[Darth-Piekus]

The car seems to be the fastest by far for now but there's a lot of work to do especially for Piastri. We need to be able to do a Mclaren 1-2 by qualifying with straight car performance.

[FittingMechanics]

You've really got you're knickers in a twist lol

I'm also preferring the WCC, and I'd love to see if Mclaren can get close to Ferrari numbers.

WDC is nice, particularly if it is a British driver (For me) but I'm not as fussed as I used to be, years ago, about which driver wins.

Agreed, plus it is always hard to fight a team with a clear number 1 driver when you have two equal drivers.