2026 McLaren Mastercard F1 Team

[mwillems]

Brown doesn’t seem as concerned as Toto regarding Red Bulls pace.

‘Brown, speaking before McLaren's Norris had replaced Verstappen at the top of the timesheet, told Sky Sports F1: "I think we can't come to any firm conclusions. If I had to go Vegas (to bet on it), it looks like the big four are the big four, kind of hard to tell in what order.

"Mercedes were very strong in Spain. Max has done some great lap times around here. But it kind of looks like the grid is in a similar position’

https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12433 ... ses-rivals

That's an old quote as I put it up several days ago.

Wether we shoud be concerned or not, I don't know. My point was more around LionsHearts belief that teams would not be able to have single lap deployment consistently in race laps, in regards to how fast these cars will be.

Any car that can deploy single lap equivalent energy over every race lap is not going to be close to 2016 cars.

But who knows, Toto may just be playing games in the "equalisation battle"

[venkyhere]

There is no way to differentiate between :
'slightly more deployment than recharge every lap, leading to steady decrease in SoC over N laps'
vs
'tyre deg'

This is just the first time they are running actual stints, they haven't optimized their PU strategies, they are just collecting data. Too early to make inferences about things like 'tyre deg'.

[venkyhere]

Any car that can deploy single lap equivalent energy over every race lap is not going to be close to 2016 cars.

it's simply not possible. All the energy for a race (or stint in this case) comes from 'petrol in the tank' + 'fully charged battery from garage'. Over a stint, they have to decide how much to deploy every lap and how much to recharge. In this case (short stints) they can (theoretically) deploy more and recharge less over every single continuous lap, until all the charge in the battery is finished and run to garage (taking advantage of the 'initial full charge' from the garage) and call it 'stint has ended'.
In a typical race situation, when the garage can only change tyres, the 'initial full charge from garage' will make no difference, the entire 50/70 lap race has to be run in such a way that the battery is equally deployed and recharged by the same amount - how they distribute this, is upto each team, race situation, etc. Some may choose to keep it equal every single lap for the entire race. Some may choose more deployment in first stint, then more recharge over second stint etc. Some may even choose to differentiate deploy/recharge across different laps in same stint etc.

No way that a Q-lap like 'single lap equivalent energy' can be deployed 'over every race lap'. That's not possible.

[FittingMechanics]

There is no way to differentiate between :
'slightly more deployment than recharge every lap, leading to steady decrease in SoC over N laps'
vs
'tyre deg'

This is just the first time they are running actual stints, they haven't optimized their PU strategies, they are just collecting data. Too early to make inferences about things like 'tyre deg'.

There is, SoC decrease will level out (once you are out of "initial charge") and tyre deg will usually continue to deteriorate.

In qualifying, they will start with 4 MJ already stored and they need to only recover 4.5 MJ during the lap to make it full 8.5 MJ that they can use. This should be doable on every track and I'd say probably with no major issue. Maybe in some cases this recharging is not beneficial and teams opt not to really recharge. Maybe we get this kiind of information in the future.

In races, if you want to use your full 8.5 MJ you need to recover 8.5 MJ every lap. This is where strategy will come into play, if you are much more efficient at recovery this should mean you have better long run pace than other cars (as you have more charge and/or lose less recharging). Maybe we end up seeing Red Bull much faster on race pace because of it. Who knows.

What I do know that at this moment it is fully expected that Toto and Mercedes will sandbag. And what a surprise, Toto realizes RBPT is the best engine.

[CjC]

Brown doesn’t seem as concerned as Toto regarding Red Bulls pace.

‘Brown, speaking before McLaren's Norris had replaced Verstappen at the top of the timesheet, told Sky Sports F1: "I think we can't come to any firm conclusions. If I had to go Vegas (to bet on it), it looks like the big four are the big four, kind of hard to tell in what order.

"Mercedes were very strong in Spain. Max has done some great lap times around here. But it kind of looks like the grid is in a similar position’

https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12433 ... ses-rivals

That's an old quote as I put it up several days ago.

Wether we shoud be concerned or not, I don't know. My point was more around LionsHearts belief that teams would not be able to have single lap deployment consistently in race laps, in regards to how fast these cars will be.

Any car that can deploy single lap equivalent energy over every race lap is not going to be close to 2016 cars.

But who knows, Toto may just be playing games in the "equalisation battle"

It is, I first heard it at the car launch on Monday.
The article suggests he said the same again this afternoon.

Another interesting quote is from Marshall:
‘At the moment we're really trying to understand the characteristics of the car without trying to dial it in, just how do you get the best out of them’

Could be pay walled: https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/what- ... /10796811/

They are just trying to figure out how best to use the car without actually trying to get its peak performance out of it.

Not bad considering where they where on the time sheets

[mwillems]

Any car that can deploy single lap equivalent energy over every race lap is not going to be close to 2016 cars.

it's simply not possible. All the energy for a race (or stint in this case) comes from 'petrol in the tank' + 'fully charged battery from garage'. Over a stint, they have to decide how much to deploy every lap and how much to recharge. In this case (short stints) they can (theoretically) deploy more and recharge less over every single continuous lap, until all the charge in the battery is finished and run to garage (taking advantage of the 'initial full charge' from the garage) and call it 'stint has ended'.
In a typical race situation, when the garage can only change tyres, the 'initial full charge from garage' will make no difference, the entire 50/70 lap race has to be run in such a way that the battery is equally deployed and recharged by the same amount - how they distribute this, is upto each team, race situation, etc. Some may choose to keep it equal every single lap for the entire race. Some may choose more deployment in first stint, then more recharge over second stint etc. Some may even choose to differentiate deploy/recharge across different laps in same stint etc.

No way that a Q-lap like 'single lap equivalent energy' can be deployed 'over every race lap'. That's not possible.

We'll see, at the moment Toto is suggesting they are able to do it, or close to it.

[Matt2725]

Any car that can deploy single lap equivalent energy over every race lap is not going to be close to 2016 cars.

it's simply not possible. All the energy for a race (or stint in this case) comes from 'petrol in the tank' + 'fully charged battery from garage'. Over a stint, they have to decide how much to deploy every lap and how much to recharge. In this case (short stints) they can (theoretically) deploy more and recharge less over every single continuous lap, until all the charge in the battery is finished and run to garage (taking advantage of the 'initial full charge' from the garage) and call it 'stint has ended'.
In a typical race situation, when the garage can only change tyres, the 'initial full charge from garage' will make no difference, the entire 50/70 lap race has to be run in such a way that the battery is equally deployed and recharged by the same amount - how they distribute this, is upto each team, race situation, etc. Some may choose to keep it equal every single lap for the entire race. Some may choose more deployment in first stint, then more recharge over second stint etc. Some may even choose to differentiate deploy/recharge across different laps in same stint etc.

No way that a Q-lap like 'single lap equivalent energy' can be deployed 'over every race lap'. That's not possible.

We'll see, at the moment Toto is suggesting they are able to do it, or close to it.

Then they would be quite obviously cheating if that were the case, as there is a limit to how much energy you can harvest. I don't think for a second they're that much quicker and able to harvest a push lap worth of energy every lap...whilst also pushing on said lap. It's just not possible.

[mwillems]

it's simply not possible. All the energy for a race (or stint in this case) comes from 'petrol in the tank' + 'fully charged battery from garage'. Over a stint, they have to decide how much to deploy every lap and how much to recharge. In this case (short stints) they can (theoretically) deploy more and recharge less over every single continuous lap, until all the charge in the battery is finished and run to garage (taking advantage of the 'initial full charge' from the garage) and call it 'stint has ended'.
In a typical race situation, when the garage can only change tyres, the 'initial full charge from garage' will make no difference, the entire 50/70 lap race has to be run in such a way that the battery is equally deployed and recharged by the same amount - how they distribute this, is upto each team, race situation, etc. Some may choose to keep it equal every single lap for the entire race. Some may choose more deployment in first stint, then more recharge over second stint etc. Some may even choose to differentiate deploy/recharge across different laps in same stint etc.

No way that a Q-lap like 'single lap equivalent energy' can be deployed 'over every race lap'. That's not possible.

We'll see, at the moment Toto is suggesting they are able to do it, or close to it.

Then they would be quite obviously cheating if that were the case, as there is a limit to how much energy you can harvest. I don't think for a second they're that much quicker and able to harvest a push lap worth of energy every lap...whilst also pushing on said lap. It's just not possible.

it means their fast lap is faster than 2016 times without using all of their deployment.

[FittingMechanics]

it's simply not possible. All the energy for a race (or stint in this case) comes from 'petrol in the tank' + 'fully charged battery from garage'. Over a stint, they have to decide how much to deploy every lap and how much to recharge. In this case (short stints) they can (theoretically) deploy more and recharge less over every single continuous lap, until all the charge in the battery is finished and run to garage (taking advantage of the 'initial full charge' from the garage) and call it 'stint has ended'.
In a typical race situation, when the garage can only change tyres, the 'initial full charge from garage' will make no difference, the entire 50/70 lap race has to be run in such a way that the battery is equally deployed and recharged by the same amount - how they distribute this, is upto each team, race situation, etc. Some may choose to keep it equal every single lap for the entire race. Some may choose more deployment in first stint, then more recharge over second stint etc. Some may even choose to differentiate deploy/recharge across different laps in same stint etc.

No way that a Q-lap like 'single lap equivalent energy' can be deployed 'over every race lap'. That's not possible.

We'll see, at the moment Toto is suggesting they are able to do it, or close to it.

Then they would be quite obviously cheating if that were the case, as there is a limit to how much energy you can harvest. I don't think for a second they're that much quicker and able to harvest a push lap worth of energy every lap...whilst also pushing on said lap. It's just not possible.

You can harvest 8.5 MJ every lap if you want to, but it may not be the fastest way to run a race. Maybe you end up getting 6 MJ for little time loss but the remaining 2.5 MJ loses you more time than you gain by deploying 2.5 MJ.

[haza]

[johnnycesup]

There is no way to differentiate between :
'slightly more deployment than recharge every lap, leading to steady decrease in SoC over N laps'
vs
'tyre deg'

This is just the first time they are running actual stints, they haven't optimized their PU strategies, they are just collecting data. Too early to make inferences about things like 'tyre deg'.

For us looking at laptimes, no. The teams have the GPS data (actual GPS data, not the F1 live timing data app scraping we get), so they can know whether another car is deploying battery or not.

[mwillems]

The better a car is at harvesting energy, the less that additional 4mj will make a difference relative to laptimes. It would seem Toto is suggesting that the way RB can deploy, they are able to maintain straight speeds similar to their fast laps.

It may be that their fast laps haven't fully pushed yet, but Toto seems to think he can see this.

Push laps will no doubt be faster,but no one here realistically understands yet how close a push lap is to a race lap, just yet.

[FittingMechanics]

I really think Toto is cherrypicking Verstappen deploying on main straight instead of later in the lap as proof of some big Red Bull advantage.

One thing that is interesting is that those longer stints Verstappen did are close to race stints from 2025. So either Verstappen is on low fuel stint (10ish laps), or the car is as fast as those in 2025 on race pace.

[AR3-GP]

I really think Toto is cherrypicking Verstappen deploying on main straight instead of later in the lap as proof of some big Red Bull advantage.

One thing that is interesting is that those longer stints Verstappen did are close to race stints from 2025. So either Verstappen is on low fuel stint (10ish laps), or the car is as fast as those in 2025 on race pace.

It is as predicted by Pirelli. Cars will match 2025 race pace in Bahrain. They are not as fast in T11,T12, but they accelerate much faster.

“But on some tracks at the beginning of the season, the cars will be on a similar race pace to what they had in 2025. On others, they may be a few seconds behind, it will vary. But the teams are already preparing updates. So I have no doubt that in a few months, the teams will have already made up that margin compared to 2025.”

One of the tracks that Monchaux’s colleague Mario Isola, director of Pirelli Motorsport, reckons could bring similar levels to 2025 is Bahrain.

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/f1-2 ... /10796649/

[Emag]

A couple of things to note here. If the right bar on the steering wheel is the available energy for deployment then :

• He had more energy available at the start/finish straight, so if he kept deploying it's likely he would have reached 330

• If he had done that, it's hard to know how the rest of the lap transpires. From half a bar before T1 breaking to an empty bar before T1 breaking probably makes a big difference in how you can drive the rest of the lap.

• There was nothing left at the end there. In fact the battery runs out quite quickly. The bit he used after the final corner was entirely harvested in the braking zone of that last (technically penultimate) corner.

I think if you dump the battery in the start/finish straight then you likely have almost nothing to deploy on the back straight at the end of the lap.

Edit: Because of this situation where battery level is a big performance indicator, is really hard to judge how close to the limit this lap is. Also if you end the lap with zero energy and zero available in the bank, it seems like you're going to have a rough time the following lap. What Toto said about the RedBull being able to harvest and deploy more consistently could be a huge variable (if it is true). I hope RedBull ends up the fastest tomorrow so we can get an onboard from them and judge the difference.