I think they didn't expect Gio to stay out as long as they did. Alfa just used them to defend Raikkonen. After that his race was done and he went cruising. Should have been in the top 10.willmesquita wrote: ↑17 Mar 2019, 14:13The choice of red tires for Sainz was interesting. Maybe McLaren thought the car had pace to gain positions throught the field in the first 15-20 laps.
On another hand, I don't understand hard tires for Norris if he'll need to pass Alfa Romeo with old medium, the delta was against Norris.
Reality is hard.
Good mature response from Lando. In the past few years rookies have looked for anything and everything (tyres, engine, strategy, other drivers, weather, planetary alignment ...) to blame for their mistakes where Lando just holds his hands up. This bodes well for his development, if you don’t own the mistakes you make then you can’t really learn from them properly and you don’t progress (see Kvyat a couple of years ago).mclaren111 wrote: ↑17 Mar 2019, 12:08Norris:
“The team gave me a good car, with enough pace for me to be in the top 10 but I made a couple of mistakes which cost me any chance of scoring points, so I’m a little disappointed. But it’s cool to finish my first [F1] race and get it out of the way.
“I didn’t make the perfect start, struggled to get ahead of a slower car and then had a big lock-up so I need to work on these mistakes. I’m annoyed with myself as there was more potential. Now I focus and look forward to Bahrain.”
They've also been starved of upgrades, basically same car as day 1 of testing while others have brought several. If they were in Q3 for the 1st race then maybe they can be consistently 4th fastest from Spain. Renault seriously need to deliver though.
Not at all, but expect a small one. Remember with Goss and Morris gone, Peter P is the lead guy now and he has a very cautious approach to aero - i.e only adding small incremental parts throughout the season so that you're in control in terms of understanding the car - so don't expect a spectacular one soon. I think this a sensible strategy as well. They added new brake ducts this race so maybe turning vanes etc are next.
They are getting exact same engines and software as Renault, it’s in the regulations.ispano6 wrote:Sainz probably thinking why did I listen to Alonso and run away from Honda power...
Pretty lame to see him climbing out of a burning McLaren when he could have been in the other RB15.
Renault being the factory team might actually get better engines than McLaren. STR was getting PUs with used, 2nd rate parts. With Renault clearly out of the fight for 4th fastest team they will at least look to be ahead of their B-Team McLaren like they did to STR.
I believe that degradation was higher than expected and the move to Hard Tires was to ensure they could make it to the end... If you analyze Kvyat’s pace (which was also on hard tires), he had better pace that all the ones in front of him in the Medium tires.willmesquita wrote:The choice of red tires for Sainz was interesting. Maybe McLaren thought the car had pace to gain positions throught the field in the first 15-20 laps.
On another hand, I don't understand hard tires for Norris if he'll need to pass Alfa Romeo with old medium, the delta was against Norris.
Reality is hard.
STR will beg to differ. And the regulations aren't any different than end of 2017 when Renault leapfrogged them in the last race where the Renault engines in the STR were falling apart. Look up the article. Surely you didn't forget or selective memory?SmallSoldier wrote: ↑17 Mar 2019, 18:46They are getting exact same engines and software as Renault, it’s in the regulations.ispano6 wrote:Sainz probably thinking why did I listen to Alonso and run away from Honda power...
Pretty lame to see him climbing out of a burning McLaren when he could have been in the other RB15.
Renault being the factory team might actually get better engines than McLaren. STR was getting PUs with used, 2nd rate parts. With Renault clearly out of the fight for 4th fastest team they will at least look to be ahead of their B-Team McLaren like they did to STR.
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Qualifying is the actual performance indicator really. They're more or less 5th fastest, which is great. This track being notorious for high overtaking delta and Lando probably being told to turn the engine down after Sainz's blew up is what messed the race besides the bad start. Upcoming races should be better.Big Tea wrote: ↑17 Mar 2019, 19:00Well, thats the first real race out of the way, and lets hope much taken on board.
Can not blame Lando, stuck behind a car on duff tyres and the options were to pit and be behind other cars, behind the car he could not pass, or face it out.
If it was not his first race he may have had a dive, but I think he is too sensible to to throw away a finish on a worse than 50/50. (no points likely, or different gamble)
I think this race should be taken in isolation and used as a sighter. Not good, but fire apart, not a disaster.
