2025 McLaren F1 Team

[FittingMechanics]

Listening to Lando post finish onboard, Will told him "No burnouts" .

[geogate]

McLaren are a 2 times on the trot constructor champion - some people dont think they would know if they only had two mediocre drivers? Think they would pay top rates for mediocre drivers?
Max is out on his own, i dont think anyone argues that - but Norris, Piastri, Leclerc, Russell - they all sitting there on the tier below. They could all beat each other on their day. They all capable of bad days too, drop off in form. Piastri maybe stands out as having more headroom for growth - maybe

[Seanspeed]

McLaren are a 2 times on the trot constructor champion - some people dont think they would know if they only had two mediocre drivers? Think they would pay top rates for mediocre drivers?
Max is out on his own, i dont think anyone argues that - but Norris, Piastri, Leclerc, Russell - they all sitting there on the tier below. They could all beat each other on their day. They all capable of bad days too, drop off in form. Piastri maybe stands out as having more headroom for growth - maybe

Delusional, if you ask me. The Mclaren was absolutely dominant this year with basically no weaknesses. It's insane the title was even remotely close, let alone coming down to just two points. Norris was super underwhelming for most of the season. Putting either of these guys on the level as Leclerc and Russell seems wildly undeserved. Either of them likely would have walked away with the title a long time ago.

[mwillems]

McLaren are a 2 times on the trot constructor champion - some people dont think they would know if they only had two mediocre drivers? Think they would pay top rates for mediocre drivers?
Max is out on his own, i dont think anyone argues that - but Norris, Piastri, Leclerc, Russell - they all sitting there on the tier below. They could all beat each other on their day. They all capable of bad days too, drop off in form. Piastri maybe stands out as having more headroom for growth - maybe

Delusional, if you ask me. The Mclaren was absolutely dominant this year with basically no weaknesses. It's insane the title was even remotely close, let alone coming down to just two points. Norris was super underwhelming for most of the season. Putting either of these guys on the level as Leclerc and Russell seems wildly undeserved. Either of them likely would have walked away with the title a long time ago.

No weaknesses?

Bumps, kerbs, high energy braking into tigh turns, one of the bigger ones was that it was unable to replicate race pace in Q for some time, as well as a lack of feedback at the front. The car was also not great at low downforce circuits.

Despite the obvious strengths, it certainly had issues.

[Darth-Piekus]

Seanspeed you should just give a GG to Lando Norris and admit defeat with dignity instead of trying to undermine his success. Don't be a sore loser mate.

[littlebigcat]

McLaren are a 2 times on the trot constructor champion - some people dont think they would know if they only had two mediocre drivers? Think they would pay top rates for mediocre drivers?
Max is out on his own, i dont think anyone argues that - but Norris, Piastri, Leclerc, Russell - they all sitting there on the tier below. They could all beat each other on their day. They all capable of bad days too, drop off in form. Piastri maybe stands out as having more headroom for growth - maybe

Delusional, if you ask me. The Mclaren was absolutely dominant this year with basically no weaknesses. It's insane the title was even remotely close, let alone coming down to just two points. Norris was super underwhelming for most of the season. Putting either of these guys on the level as Leclerc and Russell seems wildly undeserved. Either of them likely would have walked away with the title a long time ago.

No weaknesses?

Bumps, kerbs, high energy braking into tigh turns, one of the bigger ones was that it was unable to replicate race pace in Q for some time, as well as a lack of feedback at the front.

Despite the obvious strengths, it certainly had issues.

As well as a team that was, shall we say, suboptimal in race day execution, legality, strategy and pit stops.

[Ben1980]

McLaren are a 2 times on the trot constructor champion - some people dont think they would know if they only had two mediocre drivers? Think they would pay top rates for mediocre drivers?
Max is out on his own, i dont think anyone argues that - but Norris, Piastri, Leclerc, Russell - they all sitting there on the tier below. They could all beat each other on their day. They all capable of bad days too, drop off in form. Piastri maybe stands out as having more headroom for growth - maybe

Delusional, if you ask me. The Mclaren was absolutely dominant this year with basically no weaknesses. It's insane the title was even remotely close, let alone coming down to just two points. Norris was super underwhelming for most of the season. Putting either of these guys on the level as Leclerc and Russell seems wildly undeserved. Either of them likely would have walked away with the title a long time ago.

No weaknesses?

Bumps, kerbs, high energy braking into tigh turns, one of the bigger ones was that it was unable to replicate race pace in Q for some time, as well as a lack of feedback at the front.

Despite the obvious strengths, it certainly had issues.

I do wonder if people watch what they thrn talk about. The car has been great, and clearly class apart for majority of the season. But it surely wasnt perfect, and it was clearly a difficult car to drive at times

The anti dive stuff supposedly made it numb at the front, and considering lando, max and Charles like the same style, I'm not sure any would have just jumped in and blitzed it.

[mwillems]

Delusional, if you ask me. The Mclaren was absolutely dominant this year with basically no weaknesses. It's insane the title was even remotely close, let alone coming down to just two points. Norris was super underwhelming for most of the season. Putting either of these guys on the level as Leclerc and Russell seems wildly undeserved. Either of them likely would have walked away with the title a long time ago.

No weaknesses?

Bumps, kerbs, high energy braking into tigh turns, one of the bigger ones was that it was unable to replicate race pace in Q for some time, as well as a lack of feedback at the front.

Despite the obvious strengths, it certainly had issues.

As well as a team that was, shall we say, suboptimal in race day execution, legality, strategy and pit stops.

There are many ways a team needs to execute, the one that cumulutively does them best will win. As a team it wasnt even close.

[Macklaren]

Not to mention development that was stopped halfway through the season, execution mishaps like Vegas and Qatar and RBR continuing to develop and giving Max a new engine and teammate tows. But yeah sure McL drivers were subpar...some people really need to grow up

[Macklaren]

No weaknesses?

Bumps, kerbs, high energy braking into tigh turns, one of the bigger ones was that it was unable to replicate race pace in Q for some time, as well as a lack of feedback at the front.

Despite the obvious strengths, it certainly had issues.

As well as a team that was, shall we say, suboptimal in race day execution, legality, strategy and pit stops.

There are many ways a team needs to execute, the one that cumulutively does them best will win. As a team it wasnt even close.

this is more understandable than your previous driver claim

[Darth-Piekus]

People have no idea what real dominance looks like but I wouldn't blame them if their whole F1 history is the last 5 years. The current Mclaren was nowhere near the dominance of the MP4-1 from 1984, the MP4-4 of 1988 which lost only 1 race by sheer luck, the MP4-13 of Hakkinen and Coulthard who lapped the whole field in Melbourne 1998, the Mercedes of 2014-2020 who lapped almost everyone and of course the RB of 2022 and 2023 who lost one race. All those time periods have one thing in common. Best car, good drivers and best execution. 2025 was leagues away from that performance. The car was good, not best to be able to lap the whole field, top drivers but terrible execution as they stopped development very early while the opposition continued and childish mistakes which the drivers paid for it without having any fault as their performances were excellent.

[mwillems]

As well as a team that was, shall we say, suboptimal in race day execution, legality, strategy and pit stops.

There are many ways a team needs to execute, the one that cumulutively does them best will win. As a team it wasnt even close.

this is more understandable than your previous driver claim

Eh?

What claim?

[Mansell89]

Congratulations Lando Norris.

Congratulations McLaren.

It has been some journey.

I think I joined this community when Alonso joined McLaren Honda and I desperately wanted him and McLaren to give Mercedes something to race against. I longed for that guy to be back in the big picture to race Lewis, Nico, and Seb etc for world titles.

Obviously that never worked out and we had to endure the slow McLaren rebuild through both Renault and eventually Mercedes customer engines, until the restructure and influence of Andrea Stella eventually let the talent shine through, including Peter Prodromous aero work.

I remember Alonso saying McLaren was in great hands with Lando and we saw the signs of it in 2021 with that heartbreak in Sochi.

We saw Max take a WDC with Honda that year and many people doubted McLaren would ever scale the heights again.

Yet here we are.

The mighty Red Bull and Mercedes have been toppled, and Lando has held off Max Verstappen and Oscar for his WDC.

Many people will debate what is deserved and what isn’t. Look- who you think is genuinely the best driver in the world is, frankly, irrelevant. WDCs are given to the driver car combo that accumulate the most points over a season. It’s always been that way and that doesn’t bend because you don’t like it.

In the past 26 years, 22 WDCs were split between 4 drivers - Michael grabbed 5, Fernando gained 2, Seb grabbed 4, Lewis grabbed 7, and Max grabbed 4.

Jenson, Kimi, Nico and now Lando have also
joined the famous list. That’s how hard it is to break through against those established champions and their dominant cars and eras.

All of those drivers had the fastest or equal fastest cars - it’s how the sport works and that has never been any different. 5 years ago people would say Lewis is a possible GOAT- maybe things are different now? 12 years ago they thought the same about Seb Vettel. Again, maybe things feel different now.

Let the boy Lando have his moment. In 3 months the circus restarts and the button resets.

The only constant in Formula 1 is the show going on. I’ve enjoyed watching McLaren rebuild, but now everyone starts again.

F1 is never truly about the best individuals - it needs the car and team alongside too.

Once you accept that, it is a lot less taxing on you as a fan Let it be, let it shake out as it shakes out.

Enjoy this moment Macca fans, it’s been a long time coming.

[Darth-Piekus]

Its been a long time indeed Mansell and thanks for puting some sense to the forum.

[Zynerji]

2026

Oscar to Ferrari, and Lewis comes home for 1 season and retires...