It's certainly possible, could also just be the conditionsSoulPancake13 wrote: ↑20 Feb 2026, 17:49My guess is that he is simming a stint 2 and stint 3. Otherwise McLaren is a second ahead of everyone right now.
Mclaren has shorter gear ratios to the other Mercedes cars. So it can allow them to keep the revs higher and avoid the turbo lag after they let the clutch out.HungarianRacer wrote: ↑20 Feb 2026, 18:08Massive improvement for Mercedes-powered cars at race starts.
Hopefully we'll get acceleration figures, but Norris looked best of all there.
Because "quali sims" are hard to read. I already predicted McLaren could do 32s and possibly 31s by extrapolating from guesstimated fuel loads last week. It came true today with Ferrari, but we have no idea how much more left they had in the tank.FittingMechanics wrote: ↑20 Feb 2026, 17:55How do you reach this conclusion? Norris had very little running today, he immediately entered into a qualy sim, did 3 runs and ended up 2 tenths slower than Leclerc on a lap where he had multiple oversteer moments in S1.Emag wrote: ↑20 Feb 2026, 17:48Unless McLaren are heavily sandbagging, I think they’re at least 2 tenths down on Ferrari at the moment. Mercedes is hard to read, they’ve been rather cryptic in their runs.
I stand to my first prediction regarding the pecking order.
It’s Mercedes/Ferrari (and I would bet for Ferrari in Melbourne at the moment), then McLaren/RedBull.
The gaps in Australia could give us a sense of how realistic a 4-team fight would be later in the season.
Leclerc on other hand had the whole day, did more C3 runs in the evening and had many more C3s than Norris.
Honestly, to me Norris being 2 tenths off at the same time on same tire on the day like he had today is very positive sign for McLaren.
At least in qualifying trim. Race sims I couldn't really follow as I haven't been at home, but it was a McLaren strength last year.
hold your horses. Mclaren is overweight and will have weight reductions in Melbourne. I don't believe that is the case for Ferrari or Mercedes. viewtopic.php?p=1328489#p1328489Emag wrote: ↑20 Feb 2026, 18:18In any case, from those samples we had, Leclerc was mighty today with a very very hot track. The fact that McLaren only matched Ferrari's first stint while being 3-4 tenths faster on the second stint on a track which was 15C cooler, immediately sets them back by at least 7 tenths (and probably more actually). Then you factor in the fact that Ferrari had less deg with a 47C track than what Lando had now with a 27C track, then I honestly wouldn't be surprised to see the best McLaren finish 20 seconds behind the best Ferrari in Melbourne.
The quote says that you can make weight reductions even when you are already at the limitAR3-GP wrote: ↑20 Feb 2026, 18:19hold your horses. Mclaren is overweight and will have weight reductions in Melbourne. I don't believe that is the case for Ferrari or Mercedes. viewtopic.php?p=1328489#p1328489Emag wrote: ↑20 Feb 2026, 18:18In any case, from those samples we had, Leclerc was mighty today with a very very hot track. The fact that McLaren only matched Ferrari's first stint while being 3-4 tenths faster on the second stint on a track which was 15C cooler, immediately sets them back by at least 7 tenths (and probably more actually). Then you factor in the fact that Ferrari had less deg with a 47C track than what Lando had now with a 27C track, then I honestly wouldn't be surprised to see the best McLaren finish 20 seconds behind the best Ferrari in Melbourne.
The full quote reads to me that they're not overweight, but will find balance benefits from reducing furtherThe weight reduction operations of the car never end, even when you are within the limits.
Autoracer previously reported that Mclaren is overweight. So I don't think they are at the weight limit.organic wrote: ↑20 Feb 2026, 18:21The quote says that you can make weight reductions even when you are already at the limitAR3-GP wrote: ↑20 Feb 2026, 18:19hold your horses. Mclaren is overweight and will have weight reductions in Melbourne. I don't believe that is the case for Ferrari or Mercedes. viewtopic.php?p=1328489#p1328489Emag wrote: ↑20 Feb 2026, 18:18In any case, from those samples we had, Leclerc was mighty today with a very very hot track. The fact that McLaren only matched Ferrari's first stint while being 3-4 tenths faster on the second stint on a track which was 15C cooler, immediately sets them back by at least 7 tenths (and probably more actually). Then you factor in the fact that Ferrari had less deg with a 47C track than what Lando had now with a 27C track, then I honestly wouldn't be surprised to see the best McLaren finish 20 seconds behind the best Ferrari in Melbourne.
Stella:The full quote reads to me that they're not overweight, but will find balance benefits from reducing furtherThe weight reduction operations of the car never end, even when you are within the limits.
I mean, yes, but how much weight can McLaren lose to reduce a deficit like that... they have a pretty massive deg problem right now IMO, you can't just fix that with weight reduction although it will helpAR3-GP wrote: ↑20 Feb 2026, 18:19hold your horses. Mclaren is overweight and will have weight reductions in Melbourne. I don't believe that is the case for Ferrari or Mercedes. viewtopic.php?p=1328489#p1328489Emag wrote: ↑20 Feb 2026, 18:18In any case, from those samples we had, Leclerc was mighty today with a very very hot track. The fact that McLaren only matched Ferrari's first stint while being 3-4 tenths faster on the second stint on a track which was 15C cooler, immediately sets them back by at least 7 tenths (and probably more actually). Then you factor in the fact that Ferrari had less deg with a 47C track than what Lando had now with a 27C track, then I honestly wouldn't be surprised to see the best McLaren finish 20 seconds behind the best Ferrari in Melbourne.
Lando Norris explained the degradation problem:SoulPancake13 wrote: ↑20 Feb 2026, 18:23I mean, yes, but how much weight can McLaren lose to reduce a deficit like that... they have a pretty massive deg problem right now IMO, you can't just fix that with weight reduction although it will helpAR3-GP wrote: ↑20 Feb 2026, 18:19hold your horses. Mclaren is overweight and will have weight reductions in Melbourne. I don't believe that is the case for Ferrari or Mercedes. viewtopic.php?p=1328489#p1328489Emag wrote: ↑20 Feb 2026, 18:18In any case, from those samples we had, Leclerc was mighty today with a very very hot track. The fact that McLaren only matched Ferrari's first stint while being 3-4 tenths faster on the second stint on a track which was 15C cooler, immediately sets them back by at least 7 tenths (and probably more actually). Then you factor in the fact that Ferrari had less deg with a 47C track than what Lando had now with a 27C track, then I honestly wouldn't be surprised to see the best McLaren finish 20 seconds behind the best Ferrari in Melbourne.
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/land ... /10798914/Things worked better, and then we could drive quicker. At the minute, we're a little bit off. So to match the race pace of some of the others, we have to push a bit more, and then we have more degradation.
The push laps are really nothing to write home about, they have never truly mattered in pre season testing. What is more representative is the long runs, where McLaren has consistently showcased quite bad deg. I do think they are more compromised than the other 3 big teams due to their dominance last season, but I think they will need a couple races to remove some weight and add some load.FittingMechanics wrote: ↑20 Feb 2026, 18:32To me it looks like McLaren unlocked a lot of speed in second Bahrain test. In first test they looked decent, pace was easy to find but here I think they are really stepping it up. This is why all those earlier comments (like the one above) are probably somewhat misleading.
Mercedes (Russell) and Red Bull (Verstappen) couldn't beat Lando's lap today and that was on a day he was compromised and had only 2 hours of running.
We have no idea how overweight McLaren are though. If it's 10kg then that's significant. If it's 5kg then not so much. In any case, this test has been much harder than last year to take things away from. There's also this huge question mark looming over the whole thing with regards to the Mercedes PU. If what Max said last week about them potentially hiding 20 HP in this test, then that could change the picture significantly for the Mercedes-powered teams when we start proper racing.AR3-GP wrote: ↑20 Feb 2026, 18:25Lando Norris explained the degradation problem:SoulPancake13 wrote: ↑20 Feb 2026, 18:23I mean, yes, but how much weight can McLaren lose to reduce a deficit like that... they have a pretty massive deg problem right now IMO, you can't just fix that with weight reduction although it will helpAR3-GP wrote: ↑20 Feb 2026, 18:19
hold your horses. Mclaren is overweight and will have weight reductions in Melbourne. I don't believe that is the case for Ferrari or Mercedes. viewtopic.php?p=1328489#p1328489https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/land ... /10798914/Things worked better, and then we could drive quicker. At the minute, we're a little bit off. So to match the race pace of some of the others, we have to push a bit more, and then we have more degradation.
I don't know where Mclaren will be in melbourne, but in theory they will be a little bit better if they can lighten the car.
How can it be 39.04 for LEC? I think I remember most of his times to be in the 1:38.5 in his first stint this morning and only marginally lower with the 2nd stint. LEC also had practically no deg in either so he was probably driving to a delta given the balmy 44C.SoulPancake13 wrote: ↑20 Feb 2026, 18:09Looking at what I charted, I think LEC's first 10 laps on C3 in the morning are around what Norris did in his (I have a 39.04 for Charles and 38.94 for Norris). I guess I thought the times were stronger than they were. Norris's next stint is a 38.34 on 15 laps compared to 38.68 for Charles on 13.
Their S2 performance has been quite strong throughout both tests so I don't think it's load that they're missing.SoulPancake13 wrote: ↑20 Feb 2026, 18:36The push laps are really nothing to write home about, they have never truly mattered in pre season testing. What is more representative is the long runs, where McLaren has consistently showcased quite bad deg. I do think they are more compromised than the other 3 big teams due to their dominance last season, but I think they will need a couple races to remove some weight and add some load.FittingMechanics wrote: ↑20 Feb 2026, 18:32To me it looks like McLaren unlocked a lot of speed in second Bahrain test. In first test they looked decent, pace was easy to find but here I think they are really stepping it up. This is why all those earlier comments (like the one above) are probably somewhat misleading.
Mercedes (Russell) and Red Bull (Verstappen) couldn't beat Lando's lap today and that was on a day he was compromised and had only 2 hours of running.
