2026 McLaren Mastercard F1 Team

[Macklaren]

LET'S GO boys and girls.,.. Miami is going to be SPICY

[Darth-Piekus]

And Oscar today shut the mouths of everyone if he can be a new Verstappen. Super drive beating much faster cars.

[mwillems]

Go Mclaren. Not bad for a plain and less developed car

[matt_b]

Without the SC Kimi and George fight while Oscar builds a lead, looks like this team have the potential to close the gap, bravo. The next round of upgrades in Miami will be exciting.

[Darth-Piekus]

I was right thinking that if we gained half a second over the upgrades of Miami we could be unstoppable.

[Ground Effect]

GG.... very impressive performance by both guys. Oscar was great, losing and retaking the lead from George and then keeping him in check was brilliant. There may have been a potential battle between George and Kimi over P2, which could have favoured Oscar.... what might have been. Looking forward to Miami, hopefully the team delivers a big step.

[Ground Effect]

And Oscar today shut the mouths of everyone if he can be a new Verstappen. Super drive beating much faster cars.

I have no idea what you're referring to, but doesn't make sense comparing Oscar and Max, why would you?

[BMMR61]

Randy Singh strikes again. Yeah what was the strategy behind pitting early when maintaining strong pace (especially Oscar)??? Being undercut wasn't a valid reason. The risk of a safety car, which happened, would scupper any possible reason. Getting into clean air? Having to get past Max and Pierre is never a nice clean slam dunk. Come on McLaren strategy team. When is Courtenay going to finish gardening leave and kick the essential ass to be a professional outfit in every department. Great work Oscar, something out of nothing.

[Darth-Piekus]

And Oscar today shut the mouths of everyone if he can be a new Verstappen. Super drive beating much faster cars.

I have no idea what you're referring to, but doesn't make sense comparing Oscar and Max, why would you?

Im refering to all those idiots who called Oscar a mid driver that was delivering due to the car and never overachieved with a slower car like Max. We can safely say without a shadow of a doubt that this chapter is now closed as Piastri lost a victory due to an unlucky safety car.

[Macklaren]

Randy Singh strikes again. Yeah what was the strategy behind pitting early when maintaining strong pace (especially Oscar)??? Being undercut wasn't a valid reason. The risk of a safety car, which happened, would scupper any possible reason. Getting into clean air? Having to get past Max and Pierre is never a nice clean slam dunk. Come on McLaren strategy team. When is Courtenay going to finish gardening leave and kick the essential ass to be a professional outfit in every department. Great work Oscar, something out of nothing.

It made all the sense in the world. If the safety car happened 30 seconds later, he would have been hailed as a genius

[BMMR61]

You didn't give your reasons, after all this is a forum.

[Emag]

Seems like they need a net gain of about 5-6 tenths on Mercedes to be on top. I guess Australia gave me quite a pessimistic view on McLaren's chances. Would have been interesting to see how China would have turned out if they could race there.

It's still going to be hard because there's no reason why Mercedes would stand still this month, so technically McLaren would need to find 7-8 tenths (optimistically) in one upgrade package in Miami. If Mercedes also has a huge upgrade coming, they probably need to gain 9 tenths to a second. Still a tall order but they seem confident. There's some things that bring "free laptime" with regards to race pace once you iron out some issues with the car so they seem in a good position from that point of view.

[Ground Effect]

And Oscar today shut the mouths of everyone if he can be a new Verstappen. Super drive beating much faster cars.

I have no idea what you're referring to, but doesn't make sense comparing Oscar and Max, why would you?

Im refering to all those idiots who called Oscar a mid driver that was delivering due to the car and never overachieved with a slower car like Max. We can safely say without a shadow of a doubt that this chapter is now closed as Piastri lost a victory due to an unlucky safety car.

Oscar is a quality driver, has some ways to go, as proved last year. These guys, especially at this stage improve year on year, so there's nothing conclusive about him now, just like there wasn't last year. Though he was a fair shout for the win and could very well have pulled it off, Kimi's pace was also incomparable with anyone else, not impossible for him to have come through, especially if Mercedes ordered George to move aside.

[BMMR61]

Seems like they need a net gain of about 5-6 tenths on Mercedes to be on top. I guess Australia gave me quite a pessimistic view on McLaren's chances. Would have been interesting to see how China would have turned out if they could race there.

It's still going to be hard because there's no reason why Mercedes would stand still this month, so technically McLaren would need to find 7-8 tenths (optimistically) in one upgrade package in Miami. If Mercedes also has a huge upgrade coming, they probably need to gain 9 tenths to a second. Still a tall order but they seem confident. There's some things that bring "free laptime" with regards to race pace once you iron out some issues with the car so they seem in a good position from that point of view.

There's plenty of opportunity at the early stages of a new rules cycle. Of course it can turn the other way but we should trust this engineering team with their track record since mid 2023. In spite of a dodgy energy philosophy by "the powers that be" I'm encouraged enough to give it three more weekends.

[FittingMechanics]

Randy Singh strikes again. Yeah what was the strategy behind pitting early when maintaining strong pace (especially Oscar)??? Being undercut wasn't a valid reason. The risk of a safety car, which happened, would scupper any possible reason. Getting into clean air? Having to get past Max and Pierre is never a nice clean slam dunk. Come on McLaren strategy team. When is Courtenay going to finish gardening leave and kick the essential ass to be a professional outfit in every department. Great work Oscar, something out of nothing.

I think Courtenay started.

IMO this strategy call can be understood. It made sense at the time. Russell would be able to easily undercut Piastri and then you hope for a SC with the window open just for a few laps or Leclerc will undercut you.

It was just super unlucky timing, not a major strategy mistake.

Bad strategy would be to allow the undercut and then pit immediately after.