2018 McLaren F1 Team - Renault

[zeph]

So McLaren is slower than Renault, Haas and Force India.

Ouch.

[diffuser]

The sector times weren't good in any of the 3 sectors.

[johnny vee]

...but faster than Torro Rosso

[Bisonas]

The car has a pace hidden somewhere in there, conditions do affect their performance too much. I still believe in them for their updates and a stronger pace.

The pace is hidden on the new nose
The car is a little draggy in did atm. We can't hide from it.
The rumor is, as Ted and croft said on skysport, and it was obvious for many people , that the S duct redesign and implementation needed a a new nose. That nose has not yet pass the crash test. We can see the air inlets of the S duct on some pictures but no exits yet. The word is that the new nose will definitely have an S-duct exit.
So the new nose, the s-duct and the finalization of the updates around the new nose, should make the car a lot more efficient and a lot less draggy.

So as i said before the pace, and the top speed is hidden on the new nose

Well i hope that is the case at least. Because if the new nose comes, the s-duct comes, and Mclaren still is on the bottom of TOP speed charts on almost all tracks, then i would be really disappointed.

[Dr.mclaren]

McLaren car has too much downforce and drag!

[NL_Fer]

Seems McLaren is a bad qualifier. I hope they are good on the tyres during the race, races were sweet even after VanDoorne’s bad start in Bahrain.

[RonDennis]

Todays result not really a surprise, the only good thing is that the Honda still isn't as magical as people wanted me to believe in Bahrain. It's clear that something really went wrong in the winter and it explains why Alonso said he doesn't expect much until the second half of the season. Disappointing, but what can you do.

[nirvaand]

The car is far too draggy. The new package 'T2' that's speculated to come at Spain should hopefully reduce drag and improve the aero efficiency - it includes a new nose (which will include a S-duct outlet), and perhaps more parts to the sidepod and bardgeboard areas. The sidepod and bardgeboard area are key to low drag and high aero efficiency, so still a lot of performance to be unlocked for McLaren, it's just how fast they can unlock it. And Alonso seems quiet optimistic this year despite the slow pace of the McLaren, that does suggest the T2 package will contain a huge array of upgrades, but I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Although it's speculated to arrive at Spain, Spanish sources believe McLaren will be bringing it 1 race early to Baku.

As for tomorrow's race, McLaren has had really good race pace this year, so hopefully that trend continues for tomorrow's race. And if Alonso can pick up a few places at the start, he could well be in the points, especially since the Renaults, Perez and Grosjean are most probably doing a 2 stopper, and Alonso most likely doing a 1 stopper.

[McL-H]

Embarrassing.. some people should be sacked for such bad performance at the first 3 races of this season. This is not worthy of McLaren and I’m tired of hearing all the team’s excuses.

They were going to leave the midfield after Melbourne.. going to attack Red Bull.. yet they are all the way back in midfield and are 7 tenths off Red Bull, with US vs S. McLaren’s chassis is draggy as hell, showing it probably wasn’t all due to Honda that they lacked top speed last year, as many folks pointed at their draggy chassis last year as well..

Boullier, Brown and Alonso show a lot of empty talk.. meanwhile McLaren hasn’t shown anything to be proud of in the last 6 years. Yes, 3rd in the championship now, due to Alonso being a superb driver and other teams failing big time at crucial moments. Not because of McLaren having their sh** straight.

Boullier is incompetent. Prodromou is not even a shadow of his great master. And Brown would do better selling burgers at McDonalds. The team lacks a true leader, THEIR leader.. Ron Dennis.

[GhostF1]

Todays result not really a surprise, the only good thing is that the Honda still isn't as magical as people wanted me to believe in Bahrain. It's clear that something really went wrong in the winter and it explains why Alonso said he doesn't expect much until the second half of the season. Disappointing, but what can you do.

No one has said the Honda is "magical" or implied it's the number one engine. What's implied is, it obviously was not the only issue here and the huge sacrifice to change engines looks pointless now, they'd have no disadvantage runing a Honda this year. They are faster than TR, who have novice drivers, one with zero experience here, but only slightly faster here... That is not good. This team should be well ahead of TR but it's proving they aren't.

[Ground Effect]

The thing is, they don't sound too sure of where the problem is. They are way off where they thought they would be, but the question is why? If they had an answer to this then it would be a question of when it gets fixed. I don't know how much performance they're expecting from the new nose, but surely it can't be sufficient enough to be on Red Bull's pace.

[RonDennis]

Todays result not really a surprise, the only good thing is that the Honda still isn't as magical as people wanted me to believe in Bahrain. It's clear that something really went wrong in the winter and it explains why Alonso said he doesn't expect much until the second half of the season. Disappointing, but what can you do.

No one has said the Honda is "magical" or implied it's the number one engine. What's implied is, it obviously was not the only issue here and the huge sacrifice to change engines looks pointless now, they'd have no disadvantage runing a Honda this year. They are faster than TR, who have novice drivers, one with zero experience here, but only slightly faster here... That is not good. This team should be well ahead of TR but it's proving they aren't.

I'm just saying that it shows that the McLaren chassis is crap and that it isn't anything else that is holding them back.

[NL_Fer]

A crap chassis does not end in point finishes for oth drivers in both races. They are bad qualifiers at the moment and it with it was percieved that this car would come alive with a powerfull engine. This years Renault is not underpowered, but the car still is kinda slow.

[diffuser]

Can't say I'm very happy.

[McMika98]

Strange how such a draggy car cant pull a lap in quali. Its going to be painful as they will be sitting ducks in the straights with the speed deficit.