2025 McLaren F1 Team

[bauc]

A quick look at the early days for Zak at McLaren:

When I heard him say back in 2017/18 we aim to win in 2025 I though it was PR thing and to calm down the nerves of the fans, like it will takes us a lot of time to get back in the top 3... and now it happened. wow,.... what a vision what a dedication, well done Zak

[Emag]

Do we know what happened with Andreas Seidl by the way? He just kind of drifted away from the sport slowly until he completely disappeared. I don't really put much blame on Seidl for the 2022 and early 2023 hiatus, I honestly just think James Key is a mid tier TD. He had the same resources McLaren had available when developing their Austria-spec MCL60, yet he managed to build barely midfield cars 2 years straight. Especially the 2022 launch spec. Such an uninspired car for what McLaren was, even back then. The blandest looking car in the midfield, let alone compared to the top 3. The only saving grace being the somewhat intriguing rear suspension which to be fair we don't really know how good it was even for the time since things changed a lot with the new technical leadership.

But nevermind that, I am pretty sure Seidl was quite highly rated by Zak right? The only reason why Stella had to take over was because Seidl was offered a high-level role at Audi which he accepted. But so soon after that, he was just dropped by Audi, with them retaining James Key as a TD which honestly seems weird to me considering his track record. Was there any indication that McLaren also didn't like Seidl's work? Publicly at the time, it seemed like they were painting him as the one who was pushing for those infrastructure upgrades that McLaren is enjoying the advantage off right now.

[Slahinki]

Do we know what happened with Andreas Seidl by the way? He just kind of drifted away from the sport slowly until he completely disappeared. I don't really put much blame on Seidl for the 2022 and early 2023 hiatus, I honestly just think James Key is a mid tier TD. He had the same resources McLaren had available when developing their Austria-spec MCL60, yet he managed to build barely midfield cars 2 years straight. Especially the 2022 launch spec. Such an uninspired car for what McLaren was, even back then. The blandest looking car in the midfield, let alone compared to the top 3. The only saving grace being the somewhat intriguing rear suspension which to be fair we don't really know how good it was even for the time since things changed a lot with the new technical leadership.

But nevermind that, I am pretty sure Seidl was quite highly rated by Zak right? The only reason why Stella had to take over was because Seidl was offered a high-level role at Audi which he accepted. But so soon after that, he was just dropped by Audi, with them retaining James Key as a TD which honestly seems weird to me considering his track record. Was there any indication that McLaren also didn't like Seidl's work? Publicly at the time, it seemed like they were painting him as the one who was pushing for those infrastructure upgrades that McLaren is enjoying the advantage off right now.

IMO, apart from helping secure the needed investments into the simulator and wind tunnel etc., Andreas Seidl seemingly didn't do much. He failed to take steps when Key started sidelining the aero department and Peter Prodromou, and didn't act even after multiple failed updates. My honest opinion is that if he hadn't resigned to move to Audi, where he got fired, he would have been fired by McLaren also to make room for Stella.

[Ground Effect]

Seidl let Key run amok, which was very frustrating. Key had given interviews that they had basically thought about concepts that were being run by the front runners, but chose to go in another direction. When the idea of returning to a more harmonious version of the matrix system, Key kicked against it and Seidl supported him. He's got his administrative strengths and clearly knows how to build a team. He also pushed for Oscar,so there's that. But it was the right decision to release him early, even though he offered to stay till the end of his contract in 2025.

[bauc]

Seidl let Key run amok, which was very frustrating. Key had given interviews that they had basically thought about concepts that were being run by the front runners, but chose to go in another direction. When the idea of returning to a more harmonious version of the matrix system, Key kicked against it and Seidl supported him. He's got his administrative strengths and clearly knows how to build a team. He also pushed for Oscar,so there's that. But it was the right decision to release him early, even though he offered to stay till the end of his contract in 2025.

Seidl played a key role in persuading the board to invest in new equipment and he was pivotal in getting the Mercedes Engine deal back on, as for the rest it is difficult to say, and Zak was happy to let him go early. Key was the biggest disappointment, he played it safe, and even it that scenario he made a terrible error so getting rid of him was a blessing in disguise for Mclaren who are now back to back constructors champions in F1, and having won the drivers title for the first time in 17 years.

[bauc]

Great retrospective by F1's YouTube channel.

[Emag]

Was looking into the results of past championships and noticed there's some parallelisms between Jenson's first title and Lando's.

They both started the year with cars that were quite clearly better than the competitors. Both teams stopped developing their respective cars early compared to the rest and they both had a RedBull closing down on them. Jenson had a really strong start to the season, while having a pretty "meh" second half. Even though Brawn was no longer the best car once the others caught up, he was getting beaten by Rubens quite often as well. Lando had it the other way around. Very very scruffy first half, but managed to turn it around with some critical performances in the 2nd half. In a way you could say they both had one very good half and one not so good half of the season.

In the end, the saving grace for Jenson was the fact that 2009 had way less races than what we have nowadays, so his early advantage was enough to cling to the title. Not quite true for Lando, because he would need those "extra" races to beat his teammate.

[Macklaren]

Do we know what happened with Andreas Seidl by the way? He just kind of drifted away from the sport slowly until he completely disappeared. I don't really put much blame on Seidl for the 2022 and early 2023 hiatus, I honestly just think James Key is a mid tier TD. He had the same resources McLaren had available when developing their Austria-spec MCL60, yet he managed to build barely midfield cars 2 years straight. Especially the 2022 launch spec. Such an uninspired car for what McLaren was, even back then. The blandest looking car in the midfield, let alone compared to the top 3. The only saving grace being the somewhat intriguing rear suspension which to be fair we don't really know how good it was even for the time since things changed a lot with the new technical leadership.

But nevermind that, I am pretty sure Seidl was quite highly rated by Zak right? The only reason why Stella had to take over was because Seidl was offered a high-level role at Audi which he accepted. But so soon after that, he was just dropped by Audi, with them retaining James Key as a TD which honestly seems weird to me considering his track record. Was there any indication that McLaren also didn't like Seidl's work? Publicly at the time, it seemed like they were painting him as the one who was pushing for those infrastructure upgrades that McLaren is enjoying the advantage off right now.

Zak has said in interviews that he accelerated Andreas" exit from the team when the Audi opportunity came to him because he was not happy with the direction of the team. Zak has also said that he gave the TP job to Andrea before Andreas but Andrea did not take the job the first time, because he felt like he was not ready for it

[AR3-GP]

It's a highlights video by FOM.

[CjC]

Wow.

Lando WDC 2025 was only ranked 6th best Driver. Oscar 7th… in the Autosport awards.

There are some salty people out there

https://www.autosport.com/general/news/ ... /10785428/

Full list:

https://www.autosport.com/general/

[Jambier]

Wow.

Lando WDC 2025 was only ranked 6th best Driver. Oscar 7th… in the Autosport awards.

There are some salty people out there

https://www.autosport.com/general/news/ ... /10785428/

Full list:

https://www.autosport.com/general/

This mix all sports, makes no sense and even HAM is ahead of BEA.
Ridiculous thing

[CjC]

Wow.

Lando WDC 2025 was only ranked 6th best Driver. Oscar 7th… in the Autosport awards.

There are some salty people out there

https://www.autosport.com/general/news/ ... /10785428/

Full list:

https://www.autosport.com/general/

This mix all sports, makes no sense and even HAM is ahead of BEA.
Ridiculous thing

Mixing of disciplines is fine for me but not taking into account the achievements of a World champion seems odd to me.
It even looks like Alex Palou just scraped it in to the top 3…
I’m not surprised at Max’ position, I’m sensing the feeling he can do no wrong at the moment but Russell to be ahead of the F1, Indy car and Rally WDCs is ridiculous to say the least and then there’s Leclerc ahead of Lando in the order just to top it off…

[Matt-A]

It has Dan Ticktum one place higher than Carlos Sainz.

Sainz 9th in Formula 1, Ticktum 11th in Formula e.

Absolute joke of a list.

[mwillems]

It rewards consistency and regard in the court of public opinion.

There's no way to see how much time drivers are leaving on the table as the only reference point is the fastest driver, so its no surprise to see the three F1 drivers ahead who have dominated their team mates.

Lando and Oscar have both shown gaps in their capabilities this year and because they dont struggle in the same way, this contrast highlights the individual struggles further, so they are paying for that.

[bauc]

It has Dan Ticktum one place higher than Carlos Sainz.

Sainz 9th in Formula 1, Ticktum 11th in Formula e.

Absolute joke of a list.

It is created for us to kill time debating how bad it is so the new season can come faster