2026 McLaren Mastercard F1 Team

[FittingMechanics]

Laptime wise Norris is a tenth behind Russell at the moment Russell lifts. And looking at the speed traces McLaren doesn't seem to use much more energy in the first two sectors. The difference shows up because Mercedes ends up having more energy on the longest straight.

[FittingMechanics]

Norris told the stewards he was not on a full push lap (said "pushing warmup lap") so Antonelli keeps his P2.

Norris remains a good guy.

[Emag]

I've posted this in the race thread, but I think it's useful to see here as well.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HDR2NjCa0AA ... ame=medium

I've checked the same. You can see how much earlier Russell lifts in T11. Both Russell and Antonelli lift on that straight well before the end of it. This gives them more energy for the back straight and they reach higher top speed gaining a lot of time. Rest of the lap between Norris and Mercedes looks very similar deployment wise, big difference is that Mercedes lift to T11.
https://i.postimg.cc/HLBCMNNP/image.png

What is interesting is that both McLaren and Ferrari have differences between the drivers (this is reason Leclerc had less speed on that straight). Cars don't use the same amount of energy on the same straights and this leads to differences.
https://i.postimg.cc/2jBSpzMN/image.png

Telemetry data is screwed by the way. Especially on the long straight. That flatline is BS. It corrupts the braking zone as well. It's likely most of the time lost in the last sector is due to McLaren super clipping way earlier than Mercedes. Not in the braking zone.

[FittingMechanics]

Telemetry data is screwed by the way. Especially on the long straight. That flatline is BS. It corrupts the braking zone as well. It's likely most of the time lost in the last sector is due to McLaren super clipping way earlier than Mercedes. Not in the braking zone.

You can see that the top speed is different and that they are out of energy and depleting. This part is before the glitch.

But the difference on turn to T11 is quite clear.

[Mcl_G10]

So does that mean that getting a little more on top of the engine side of things has helped them through the corners also?
Maybe the chassis not too bad overall and was simply not being optimised.

[_cerber1]

[Emag]

First indication that McLaren's gear ratio choice might be the wrong one for this power unit. I suspected after Australia it might have been an issue. I don't know if it's rectifiable within the season.

Maybe they can win Monaco with this car this year

[michl420]

Much closer deployment wise to mercedes as expected but only 70% of the way done.
Long straights still a factor.
Main problems I see are early trottle phase (ferrari better) and hard braking. Driver seems somehow unsure hat to do there (lift and cost/or not).
But the car overal seems good. Some kilos away, a good upgrade, even better understanding of the engine and then we are there.

[Macklaren]

Norris told the stewards he was not on a full push lap (said "pushing warmup lap") so Antonelli keeps his P2.

Norris remains a good guy.

Very happy to see this. Papaya Rules part of team culture now

[Macklaren]

First indication that McLaren's gear ratio choice might be the wrong one for this power unit. I suspected after Australia it might have been an issue. I don't know if it's rectifiable within the season.

Maybe they can win Monaco with this car this year

are ratios locked for the season this year as well? seems insane in a year where the engine learning and development curve is going to be so steep? Makes Merc's initial lack of sharing data even more unforgiveable

[BMMR61]

The "power spikes" which have already caught out numerous drivers don't appear to be happening with either of the Mercedes drivers. Toto says "the car is on rails" and you can see it, the McLaren looked a little more composed here than Australia but is still skittish like a go kart. Something Merc are doing with deployment is doing most of it for them, not to knock a chassis that's working well. Also the so called "super-clipping" didn't look very "super" on both McLarens on the long straight - so work to do there.

0.6 at this very early stage isn't as bad as it looks to casual viewers.

[CrazyCarperF1]

First indication that McLaren's gear ratio choice might be the wrong one for this power unit. I suspected after Australia it might have been an issue. I don't know if it's rectifiable within the season.

Maybe they can win Monaco with this car this year

are ratios locked for the season this year as well? seems insane in a year where the engine learning and development curve is going to be so steep? Makes Merc's initial lack of sharing data even more unforgiveable

I believe they are allowed one change of gear ratios this season, so I imagine they will want a good understanding of the pu before they change it, so its unlikely they will change it soon.

[CjC]

First indication that McLaren's gear ratio choice might be the wrong one for this power unit. I suspected after Australia it might have been an issue. I don't know if it's rectifiable within the season.

Maybe they can win Monaco with this car this year

The ‘Joker’ gear change is for one gear only isn’t?
So they can’t just make the 8th gear longer as the rest of the ratios in the box would be too short from an optimal point of view?

[genarro]

First indication that McLaren's gear ratio choice might be the wrong one for this power unit. I suspected after Australia it might have been an issue. I don't know if it's rectifiable within the season.

Maybe they can win Monaco with this car this year

are ratios locked for the season this year as well? seems insane in a year where the engine learning and development curve is going to be so steep? Makes Merc's initial lack of sharing data even more unforgiveable

i dont know if the rules have changed but i think that a team can change gear ratios once a year.

Does anybody know if this is true?

[geogate]

Does anybody know if this is true?

I dont "know" it is true, but it was for 2022, and i have read it is true for 2026.
There is a document on reddit, but not sure where it is from
https://www.reddit.com/r/F1Technical/co ... nt_set_of/