2018 McLaren F1 Team - Renault

[RonDennis]

McLaren was running 19th and 20th during parts of the race. Looked like a 9th best car on the grid. At times Williams looked stronger and STR certainly were faster before Vandoorne's desperation move prevented Gasly from being able to show their true pace. Surprised if Vandoorne doesn't get points off his license as that was a far more blatant and poor decision than Hartley getting cut off by Perez at Bahrain.

Alonso started from the pitlane, Vandoorne had a heavily damaged car after the second corner. Not completely fair. I have been highly critical of McLaren, but this race they did everything right.

[diffuser]

McLaren was running 19th and 20th during parts of the race. Looked like a 9th best car on the grid. At times Williams looked stronger and STR certainly were faster before Vandoorne's desperation move prevented Gasly from being able to show their true pace. Surprised if Vandoorne doesn't get points off his license as that was a far more blatant and poor decision than Hartley getting cut off by Perez at Bahrain.

Looked like a racing incident to me. I don't remember hearing anything about him having to see the Stewart's.

[techman]

good job on alonso to get the points. but i believe the toro rosso is a better overall car compared to mclaren. looking at friday practice and qualy pace so far in the last few races. They are tad bit unlucky with vandorne hitting gasly in the opening lap bending his suspension, and when we see top team retire ,they fail to capitalize, gasly driver is ok but the other is struggling rookie.

[zoroastar]

McLaren was running 19th and 20th during parts of the race. Looked like a 9th best car on the grid. At times Williams looked stronger and STR certainly were faster before Vandoorne's desperation move prevented Gasly from being able to show their true pace. Surprised if Vandoorne doesn't get points off his license as that was a far more blatant and poor decision than Hartley getting cut off by Perez at Bahrain.

so you deduce that both STR's and Williams were faster until the 3rd corner? when vandorne damaged his car? thats a very shakey observation. id have to say that there is absolutely no way anyone can know that. sure GAS did qualify ahead of vandorne but HAR didnt. if were talking qualifying, perez was behind alonso. nobody is screaming about FI being the next williams. alonso started from the pits and passed both hartley and gasley, and both williams. i think you are stretching the truth into what you want it to be. mclaren arent doing that good in qualifying, but the race takes place on sunday. they arent the 9th slowest car YET.

[techman]

so you deduce that both STR's and Williams were faster until the 3rd corner? when vandorne damaged his car? thats a very shakey observation. id have to say that there is absolutely no way anyone can know that. sure GAS did qualify ahead of vandorne but HAR didnt. if were talking qualifying, perez was behind alonso. nobody is screaming about FI being the next williams. alonso started from the pits and passed both hartley and gasley, and both williams. i think you are stretching the truth into what you want it to be. mclaren arent doing that good in qualifying, but the race takes place on sunday. they arent the 9th slowest car YET.

Even in race pace simulation, gasly is a quicker than the mclaren in the last few races. Not hartley, he is being rumoured to be replaced soon, so he is terribly underperforming. TR is a one driver team. If GAS has issues then no points for TR. Vandorne is a quick driver just not alonso level but much better than hartley. if mclaren decides to drop vandorne for norris. i would be happy to see vandorne take hartley seat. i think vandorne is a future star, he just need some experience.

[ispano6]

Gasly's pace was severely limited yet Alonso barely got by at the end. Without the damage Gasly would have been in the clear fighting Force Indias. Williams also had a car out qualify both McLarens.

Alonso was just simply lucky to get help from other's misfortune and also Vandoorne crippling Gasly who would have finished 8th in Alonso's stead had he not had a rallycar with a bent suspension and missing floor sections.

So to answer the question seems like the midfield team order in terms of recent car performance is Haas, Renault, Force India, STR/Sauber, Mclaren, Williams.

[diffuser]

so you deduce that both STR's and Williams were faster until the 3rd corner? when vandorne damaged his car? thats a very shakey observation. id have to say that there is absolutely no way anyone can know that. sure GAS did qualify ahead of vandorne but HAR didnt. if were talking qualifying, perez was behind alonso. nobody is screaming about FI being the next williams. alonso started from the pits and passed both hartley and gasley, and both williams. i think you are stretching the truth into what you want it to be. mclaren arent doing that good in qualifying, but the race takes place on sunday. they arent the 9th slowest car YET.

Even in race pace simulation, gasly is a quicker than the mclaren in the last few races. Not hartley, he is being rumoured to be replaced soon, so he is terribly underperforming. TR is a one driver team. If GAS has issues then no points for TR. Vandorne is a quick driver just not alonso level but much better than hartley. if mclaren decides to drop vandorne for norris. i would be happy to see vandorne take hartley seat. i think vandorne is a future star, he just need some experience.

I'd trade Vandoorne for Gasley in a heart beat. We know McLaren weakness is low to medium DF tracks

[techman]

I'd trade Vandoorne for Gasley in a heart beat.

the think you need to consider is who are you comparing with
Vandorne is compared to alonso
Gasly is compared to a hartley.

Vandorne if you look at his race simulation on friday practice, he is almost matching him. and if he doing that compared to alonso he is pretty good.
gasly on the other hand , his race simulation are much better to hartley. but hartely is struggling. he is quite old for f1 now and if you want to know, he was a reject of the redbull young driver program. he went to WEC , which is an endurance racing and did well to get back to f1. for f1 you need to be quick every lap, hartley is not, he is more suited to endurance racing. so it is obvious that gasly who is a gp2 champion will be much quicker than hartley. let say if gasly is quicker than norris in a TR, then i would say gasly is special talent.

[Singabule]

Great driving and strategy from Alo side, and they tune the car safe enough to complete the race. I think less aggressive approach this season going well for them.

[diffuser]

Gasly's pace was severely limited yet Alonso barely got by at the end. Without the damage Gasly would have been in the clear fighting Force Indias. Williams also had a car out qualify both McLarens.

Alonso was just simply lucky to get help from other's misfortune and also Vandoorne crippling Gasly who would have finished 8th in Alonso's stead had he not had a rallycar with a bent suspension and missing floor sections.

So to answer the question seems like the midfield team order in terms of recent car performance is Haas, Renault, Force India, STR/Sauber, Mclaren, Williams.

You know that he wasn't even .1 faster in Qualifying right ? ALO 1:04.965 and Gasley 1:04.874.

You could argue that Alonso was severely handicapped by running a 2017 front wing.


In the graph below you see the Gasely loosing pace starting on lap 46, not on lap 1. He never seems to recover after being lapped.

[M840TR]

Team is now 6th in WCC. Wouldn't be surprised if they're 7th by this weekend since Force India is only 2 points back and are bringing an upgrade there too. What a disaster.

[Soichiro]

They all had to run the same number of laps. McLaren didn't destroy it's tires, it deserved to finish ahead."FULL STOP".

Personal, I don't care about the Honda PUs. I'd be happy to NEVER talk about Honda again in this forum. I know techman comes in here and takes swipes at McLaren, so I swipe back. Simple.

I gave credit to Alonso, he did great. But that doesn't prove McLaren has a better car. A better strategy and driver perhaps, he also had less fights on the track before last couple of laps, a damaged floor on the STR, etc. You only need to look at Max vs Ricciardo tyre management to see that. The "FULL STOP" comment is a bit childish.

P.S.: Giving me "minus one" for my post with explanation >>"for destroying the tyres". nopes, one of them managed better.<< is pathetic too - not sure it was you though, but could have just written >>I don't like your post<<.

[Soichiro]

In the graph below you see the Gasely loosing pace starting on lap 46, not on lap 1. He never seems to recover after being lapped.

At that point tyres just had enough, there is probably more than one reason why. On lap one, his race was probably compromised, but we should take this into an other thread if you want to discuss it further.

[GrayGreat]

Gasly's pace was severely limited yet Alonso barely got by at the end. Without the damage Gasly would have been in the clear fighting Force Indias. Williams also had a car out qualify both McLarens.

Alonso was just simply lucky to get help from other's misfortune and also Vandoorne crippling Gasly who would have finished 8th in Alonso's stead had he not had a rallycar with a bent suspension and missing floor sections.

So to answer the question seems like the midfield team order in terms of recent car performance is Haas, Renault, Force India, STR/Sauber, Mclaren, Williams.

We haven't seen a single picture showing the damage on Gasly's car. Vandoorne didn't do it, because he only touched his rear tyre. If it happened as a contact with someone else, we don't know.

[Thunder]

Ok this whole McLaren / STR "who ruined the others Race more" stops here.

If you want to discuss the Race, do it here: viewtopic.php?f=13&t=27403
If you want to discuss STR related things, here you go --> viewtopic.php?f=15&t=26882