2025 McLaren F1 Team

[FittingMechanics]

Good choices.

For me.
Austin (P2), Mexico (P1), Brazil (P1) - this 3 race stretch won him the championship, Oscar was P5 in all 3 with Max P1, P3, P3.

[the EDGE]

For me, it’s his consistency… this sums it up perfectly…

Top Seasons for record Podiums:
21: Max Verstappen (2023)
18: Lando Norris (2025)
18: Max Verstappen (2021)
17: Michael Schumacher (2002), Sebastian Vettel (2011), Lewis Hamilton (2015, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2021)

[Ben1980]

He had a car failure in Zandvoort that was not his fault. That cost him 18 pts. One could also Verstappen lost 15pts in Austria because of another driver crashing into him. Lando Norris also had a car failure in Las Vegas, but one could counter this with the fact that Verstappen had to drive a potato in Hungary where he should have scored P3 in a normal car instead of P9.

I would have to counter that with LN 18pts lost Zandvoort, while Max gained 3 (moved from 3rd to 2nd). Max potentially lost 15 points in Austria, while Lando lost 7 (possibly 8 ) in COTA sprint due to Oscar crashing him out (& again possibly more in the GP as their car wasn't setup ideal due to lack of data from no cars running in the sprint). Lando lost 18 in Vegas, not sure driving a potato counts as a point loss

So Lando lost 43(possibly a few more as noted), Max 12

A car that was normally 2nd (season average) turning into a cucumber for 2 race weekends (Hungary/Bahrain) is an extraordinary circumstance imo. Just as much outside of the control of the driver as a burst oil line. Therefore, I classify them as points losses which were not preventable. A normal 2nd fastest car would have finished 3rd in both races. Lando Norris never had to experience this, but it got balanced out by his 0 points in Zandvoort and Las Vegas. Since I feel that it was a fair rebalancing of the points, then Lando Norris was never entitled to wrapping up the championship with rounds to go. That's only realized by selectively taking into account Lando's no-fault failures, while ignoring Verstappen's (Hungary, Austria, Bahrain).

The only no fault failures for Lando/ team was Netherlands and Austin sprint. Which was what 24 points? Not sure how many Max lost in Austria buy at best 15?

Setup is all down to the team and isn't remotely bad luck, including Vegas for Mclaren.

Though with bad luck comes good luck and Max got that in Netherlands, also got it in Australia when Oscar went spinning.

It all works out in the end.

[AR3-GP]

Setup is all down to the team and isn't remotely bad luck, including Vegas for Mclaren.

Drivers don't set ride heights and they don't control the simulations/correlation. Teams arrive at the track with the setup that they believe is best from the simulator. Therefore, I do not think the drivers should share the blame with the team.

[Darth-Piekus]

I would put Australia also on top 5 for Norris holding Max in the rain with a damaged car.

[AR3-GP]

Splashing water on the track during the Brazil sprint deserves a mention.

[Ben1980]

Setup is all down to the team and isn't remotely bad luck, including Vegas for Mclaren.

Drivers don't set ride heights and they don't control the simulations/correlation. Teams arrive at the track with the setup that they believe is best from the simulator. Therefore, I do not think the drivers should share the blame with the team.

No but its a team sport, drivers don't design the cars or generally make the strategy calls but get credit when it works. Collective blame and success.

[Quantum]

Its Lando's fault when he lost points, and It's Red Bull's fault that lost Max points.

See how it works?

[bauc]

Its Lando's fault when he lost points, and It's Red Bull's fault that lost Max points.

See how it works?

They way some fans of Max are going about it, he will soon get his own category in the adult movie industry

Jokes aside, the truth is usually somewhere in the middle, everyone makes mistakes here and there, but this is a team sport, drivers mistake affects the team, and vice versa.

Norris did make mistake, so did Mclaren (ex Vegas) so it is what it is, like Zak says, we will and lose as a team, that is all.

[Ground Effect]

Congrats to Lando, I guess it's nice to see a "homegrown" talent rise through the ranks and win the title. Someone on here, (apologies can't remember who) put it really well by likening it to a Football Academy player making it to the senior team and winning trophies. I personally didn't really care who won, to be honest, it did surprise me that so many people did, which is fine. But this Taylor Swift vs Katy Perry-like fandom blows my mind. The way some folks passionately do the Lando vs Oscar, Lando vs Max thing is quite amusing! Imagine drawing up an alternate Championship of "If McLaren was fair" or "If Red Bull's first upgrade worked". Someone here was frothing in the mouth and calling Lando a brat and referencing that his dad is wealthy? Like Nicholas Latifi? Lance Stroll? He said this or that about Lewis etc... getting all red eyed over people you probably never met? Incredible! Carry on though, free speech and all that.

[Emag]

This wasn’t Lando’s best year, though you could argue there’s a bit of a positive spin in that he still ended up champion. Of course, plenty of people will just point to the car being strong enough to carry him anyway.

Looking back, there's a lot of points he cost himself.

- Crashing in Saudi when he seemed the quicker McLaren of the weekend up until then (Oscar won).
- In my opinion he also could have won Miami had he been a little bit more patient with Max. The move was valid and it would have worked against any other driver, but he should have expected Max to close that door on his face.
- Amateur mistake at the start in Bahrain and the eventual badly managed kerfuffle with Charles cost him P2 in the race.
- Canada is rather self explanatory. I have no idea what the hell he was even thinking when he went left right into a wall when there was quite literally zero space available.
- Could have won Belgium with a better restart. He slid badly on the exit of T1.
- In Baku, I felt like he was very very timid. Almost scared to take any risks in making moves. Horrible restart. No "oomph" at all considering the golden chance to take points away from his teammate. In any case, I don't want to put the entire blame on Lando. The weekend was badly managed by McLaren as well. They really screwed him with how Q3 was handled. Used tires and worse track conditions as well by putting him out early. Lando was the one who made the mistake in the end, but with a better managed session, could have started (and probably finished) P2. Slow stop on the race also cost him, but he was also not trying anything outside the conventional moves against weaker cars.

There's almost 40 points that he cost himself through mistakes or bad management in general. This doesn't even include the unlucky mechanical problems and team-related issues that probably cost him another 40 at least.

And I am not really putting outlandish expectations here, just races where he could have realistically been a couple of steps higher. Of course if you think he should have won every race because he had the best car, then there's plenty of more points in the table. However I don't think that's a realistic expectation at all, because Oscar stepped it up this year. The races he won, I think he deserved to win pretty much all of them.

[Quantum]

They way some fans of Max are going about it, he will soon get his own category in the adult movie industry

Jokes aside, the truth is usually somewhere in the middle, everyone makes mistakes here and there, but this is a team sport, drivers mistake affects the team, and vice versa.

Norris did make mistake, so did Mclaren (ex Vegas) so it is what it is, like Zak says, we will and lose as a team, that is all.

Max hardcore: The Empire Strikes from the Back

It wasn't a mistake free season. Don't think we saw any drivers have a mistake free season. I also think that given the same situation next year, Lando(and Oscar) will be more complete in terms of errors.
They have a title challenge year under their belt now. The assumption by some that 2 drivers leading the championship for their first time in their lives, while racing each other, will not be making mistakes is.....revelatory.
Vastly more experienced drivers would love to know how anyone could come to that conclusion....Senna/Prost, Rosberg/Ham.
When viewed from the prism of a team that only backs one driver, I guess its easy to say it.

Also easy to forget that Max is a 4 time world champion that has zero worries about any intra team politics or rivalry, and has a team solely focused on his chances.

But when McLaren weren't as fast as Red Bull at a variety of races this year due to erroneous set ups or the car not having the actual race pace. These instances weren't credited to either Lando or Norris as "unlucky". But for Max they were. I mean...

[SmallSoldier]

One thing that didn't settle well with me was the discourse surrounding Lando's bad luck. He had a car failure in Zandvoort that was not his fault. That cost him 18 pts. One could also Verstappen lost 15pts in Austria because of another driver crashing into him. Lando Norris also had a car failure in Las Vegas, but one could counter this with the fact that Verstappen had to drive a potato in Hungary where he should have scored P3 in a normal car instead of P9.

Therefore Lando Norris was not more affected by bad luck than Max Verstappen. It was relatively equal parts bad luck for both. The championship standings ahead of Abu Dhabi actually reflected that fairness. I'll leave out whether having to drive an inconsistent RB21 was even greater bad luck....

A DNF and a racing incident are different circumstances… You seem to ignore completely the Austin sprint point loss where Lando was taken out… Unsure the point of the post though.

At the end Max could have had it, if only he would have been a bit more mature and didn’t ram Russell in Spain, he would have won the Championship by at least 6 points if everything else (bad luck included) remained equal and he can only look in the mirror for that one

[SmallSoldier]

Setup is all down to the team and isn't remotely bad luck, including Vegas for Mclaren.

Drivers don't set ride heights and they don't control the simulations/correlation. Teams arrive at the track with the setup that they believe is best from the simulator. Therefore, I do not think the drivers should share the blame with the team.

Drivers shouldn’t take the blame for a bad setup, but should take the credit when the setup is on point?… Interesting take

[AR3-GP]

A DNF and a racing incident are different circumstances… You seem to ignore completely the Austin sprint point loss where Lando was taken out… Unsure the point of the post though.

At the end Max could have had it, if only he would have been a bit more mature and didn’t ram Russell in Spain, he would have won the Championship by at least 6 points if everything else (bad luck included) remained equal and he can only look in the mirror for that one

The point of the post is people say Lando should/would have wrapped up the title races ago if not for Zandvoort and Las Vegas. However they only correct Lando's points and not anyone else's, nevermind the elephant in the room which is the difference in car performance over the season that made it possible. That's not a problem, a WDC is won by team and driver. I just think it's wrong to think Lando was entitled to the championship any sooner than Abu Dhabi.