2019 Mclaren F1 Team - Renault

[dr_cooke]

Now the question is: Will Mclaren win WCC before or in Suzuka?

;-DDDDDD

[Sieper]

Actually, best 3rd was done by Hamilton on a nearly 3s slower lap

very true. But he used the old layout for that blistering S3.

If he did the time would've been canceled and his s3 would've been 3sec quicker.

He did. Why is it so hard to believe. Mercedes have even tweeted to confirm he did. Totally off topic though.

[Ground Effect]

Now the question is: Will Mclaren win WCC before or in Suzuka?

;-DDDDDD

Let's just hope for a clean title decider between Carlos and Lando, not what happened in '89 between Prost and Senna

[GoranF1]

Perez said midfield will be fast and close together...he seems ti be right.

[FittingMechanics]

Pretty decent day. Even with an issue in the morning, Norris managed to do 80 laps. McLaren returned to doing a few hotlaps at the end of the day like they did on Day 1 and 2. Good times.

[Jackles-UK]

If Lando’s lap today was:

a) set with a race legal car,
b) devoid of any missed chicanes etc. and,
c) set on the C4 tyres as reported by Pirelli,

then it bodes well for the team. 0.7s faster than the “glory laps” they set on the C4 tyre last week and around 0.8-1s faster than the Haas, Toro Rosso and Alfa times on similar tyres today. I don’t for one minute believe that Mclaren are actually one second ahead of Alfa but still very a encouraging sign (reliability gremlins notwithstanding)

[McG]

I'm reading absolutely nothing into the Norris time. Still hopeful though.

Some great replies though
@Ground Effect
@dr_cooke

[_cerber1]

1 sector is the fastest, 2 sector, second place, in 5 days of tests.

[Marc.W]

The car looks pretty identical to what they ran last week so the times seem pretty good, hopefully they can get a nice Melbourne upgrade package ready to go since the upgrades don't seem to be making their way to testing

[M840TR]

Norris:

On the whole, good day. We lost the hydraulics this morning so we didn’t get to do as much running as we wanted. We’ve improved the car on last week though, especially with long runs.

[Mansell89]

Well if the C4 correction is right then that bodes much better, albeit a comfortable cushion to Red Bull who look very well placed with Ferrari (both seriously quick on C3)

Mercedes comfortably banging in nice laps on C2 as well, so they’ll be joining the Ferrari and Red Bull party soon.

If McLaren head the midfield then they will have done a serious job this winter, but I still think it’s super tight.

[FittingMechanics]

To be honest, last week we saw people comparing apples and oranges. McLaren obviously had more pace than they showed on Day 1 and 2, and this could be seen when you looked at their race sim pace or pace with harder tires. Being #1 today means little, but it shows that McLaren probably is not 9th team on the grid. My guess would be midfield, meaning 5-6th position although I wouldn't be surprised to be 4th or 7th as it looks that midfield is really close. Optimistic about the future. McLaren should be able to unlock even more potential as they are the team that probably made the biggest change to last year.

What are the journalists saying? What was the name of that Brazilian journalist with 2 second off the desired pace comment?

[willmesquita]

To be honest, last week we saw people comparing apples and oranges. McLaren obviously had more pace than they showed on Day 1 and 2, and this could be seen when you looked at their race sim pace or pace with harder tires. Being #1 today means little, but it shows that McLaren probably is not 9th team on the grid. My guess would be midfield, meaning 5-6th position although I wouldn't be surprised to be 4th or 7th as it looks that midfield is really close. Optimistic about the future. McLaren should be able to unlock even more potential as they are the team that probably made the biggest change to last year.

What are the journalists saying? What was the name of that Brazilian journalist with 2 second off the desired pace comment?

Julianne Cerasoli (@jucerasoli)

[McG]

To be honest, last week we saw people comparing apples and oranges. McLaren obviously had more pace than they showed on Day 1 and 2, and this could be seen when you looked at their race sim pace or pace with harder tires. Being #1 today means little, but it shows that McLaren probably is not 9th team on the grid. My guess would be midfield, meaning 5-6th position although I wouldn't be surprised to be 4th or 7th as it looks that midfield is really close. Optimistic about the future. McLaren should be able to unlock even more potential as they are the team that probably made the biggest change to last year.

What are the journalists saying? What was the name of that Brazilian journalist with 2 second off the desired pace comment?

Ferrari and Mercedes probably still haven't went full bananas though, assuming McLaren went full bananas today (it did seem to break something).
Maybe we will see the top teams have a real go by the end of this test.

Not sticking up for that journalist, but I wouldn't be so sure. She's obviously just another person with a prediction pulled out of thin air that could be right or wrong.

[godlameroso]

McLaren hasn't gone faster than last year, in fact its roughly the same lap time Alonso laid down on his glory lap, and qualifying last year. So we know at least the MCL34 is as fast as last year's car. It has already matched the best the MCL33 could do. This is good, it means they can only improve from here. 16's may not be possible for them but even if low 17's are possible its a clear step forward from last year.