2019 Mclaren F1 Team - Renault

[mclaren111]

GPTechnical:

“It’s been a weekend to forget. I think we lost the MGU-K, which was a shame as the race was going well. I’d put yesterday behind me and I was feeling positive going into today. I’d done everything I wanted to do: I made a good start, overtaking four cars, getting in the fight for the points and starting to attack the cars in front. The car felt good, we had strong pace”, said Sainz.

At least the overall "signs" seems positive...

[marmer]

Well they didn't do better than last year they came 9th and 5th

Although Norris did qualify better than alonso so perhaps with better race luck and strategic calls they might have been up there

[SmallSoldier]

Well they didn't do better than last year they came 9th and 5th

Although Norris did qualify better than alonso so perhaps with better race luck and strategic calls they might have been up there

The race last year was very different... You had both Haas DNF, Verstappen spun and the VSC also helped the team... Very hard to compare the teams position... Probably the best analysis is in the Qualy timing, where McLaren improved more year on year than some of the other teams... That’s probably a more reasonable benchmark


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[Ground Effect]

I know this is late in the scheme of things, but why didn't McLaren put mediums for Lando during at his stop? Virtually everybody else did.

[SmallSoldier]

I know this is late in the scheme of things, but why didn't McLaren put mediums for Lando during at his stop? Virtually everybody else did.

Probably unsure if they would have last the whole race (they pit very early... About 5 laps earlier than predicted)... So, they played it safe and with Melbourne been a hard track to pass (and following cars using their tires more than the ones defending), it seemed a reasonable strategy... The fact is that the problem wasn’t the tire they picked, but not been able to pass GIO, it seems that even with Mediums, it would have been very hard to pull the move in Australia, so the end result would have been the same (or worse if his tires wouldn’t have last until the end of the race)


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[diffuser]

Well they didn't do better than last year they came 9th and 5th

Although Norris did qualify better than alonso so perhaps with better race luck and strategic calls they might have been up there

The race last year was very different... You had both Haas DNF, Verstappen spun and the VSC also helped the team... Very hard to compare the teams position... Probably the best analysis is in the Qualy timing, where McLaren improved more year on year than some of the other teams... That’s probably a more reasonable benchmark


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Actually the race was the same as last year, except the issues happened to different teams/drivers. Last year Alo benefited by a bunch of people getting stuck behind somebody (don't remember who). Max didn't spin this time but Gasty went out of Quali in Q1 because of what might have been a bad call. We only lost 1 Haas but we lost 1 McLaren...

[Ground Effect]

I know this is late in the scheme of things, but why didn't McLaren put mediums for Lando during at his stop? Virtually everybody else did.

Probably unsure if they would have last the whole race (they pit very early... About 5 laps earlier than predicted)... So, they played it safe and with Melbourne been a hard track to pass (and following cars using their tires more than the ones defending), it seemed a reasonable strategy... The fact is that the problem wasn’t the tire they picked, but not been able to pass GIO, it seems that even with Mediums, it would have been very hard to pull the move in Australia, so the end result would have been the same (or worse if his tires wouldn’t have last until the end of the race)


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Why I'm puzzled is that a couple of cars running in the top 10 stopped before him, and they all switched to mediums. Nico, KMag, Kimi, all switched to mediums. Most likely, if the team had done the same with him, he would have passed GIO much sooner, armed with a little extra grip.

[diffuser]

I know this is late in the scheme of things, but why didn't McLaren put mediums for Lando during at his stop? Virtually everybody else did.

Probably unsure if they would have last the whole race (they pit very early... About 5 laps earlier than predicted)... So, they played it safe and with Melbourne been a hard track to pass (and following cars using their tires more than the ones defending), it seemed a reasonable strategy... The fact is that the problem wasn’t the tire they picked, but not been able to pass GIO, it seems that even with Mediums, it would have been very hard to pull the move in Australia, so the end result would have been the same (or worse if his tires wouldn’t have last until the end of the race)


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Why I'm puzzled is that a couple of cars running in the top 10 stopped before him, and they all switched to mediums. Nico, KMag, Kimi, all switched to mediums. Most likely, if the team had done the same with him, he would have passed GIO much sooner, armed with a little extra grip.

Yep. They probably went on whites just wanting to stay ahead, play safe. Not thinking about GIO. I think they pitted to protect from the undercut.

The better option, for me, was to wait another 5 laps on the the softs.

[SmallSoldier]

Well they didn't do better than last year they came 9th and 5th

Although Norris did qualify better than alonso so perhaps with better race luck and strategic calls they might have been up there

The race last year was very different... You had both Haas DNF, Verstappen spun and the VSC also helped the team... Very hard to compare the teams position... Probably the best analysis is in the Qualy timing, where McLaren improved more year on year than some of the other teams... That’s probably a more reasonable benchmark


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Actually the race was the same as last year, except the issues happened to different teams/drivers. Last year Alo benefited by a bunch of people getting stuck behind somebody (don't remember who). Max didn't spin this time but Gasty went out of Quali in Q1 because of what might have been a bad call. We only lost 1 Haas but we lost 1 McLaren...

I guess it doesn’t make a lot of sense to argue, but I disagree... Very different races... Alonso ended up starting from 10th due to Bottas having a penalty, he then benefited from both Haas retiring, he also benefited from Sainz making a mistake (I believe in turn 9) and passing Sainz and finally passing Verstappen during the VSC... So, I don’t think that you can really compare both races and determine that the team is in a worst position than last year... You also need to consider that teams that today are contenders for the top 10 weren’t in that position last year (i.e. Sauber)... So many different variables during the race that making an assessment on the team progress just based on their finishing position isn’t probably the best way to do it.

The reality is that RBR improved year on year by 3 tenths, Ferrari and Mercedes improved by approximately 6-7 tenths and Mclaren improved year on year by 1.2 seconds... That means that Mclaren has effectively closed the gap to the front (only for Melbourne, not implying that it will be the same at every track)... Comparing apples to apples (lap times in Qualifying), the team is closer to the front than they were last year and that in itself is encouraging... From here on, we will see if they can outdevelop the ones in front and keep reducing that gap.


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[SmallSoldier]

I know this is late in the scheme of things, but why didn't McLaren put mediums for Lando during at his stop? Virtually everybody else did.

Probably unsure if they would have last the whole race (they pit very early... About 5 laps earlier than predicted)... So, they played it safe and with Melbourne been a hard track to pass (and following cars using their tires more than the ones defending), it seemed a reasonable strategy... The fact is that the problem wasn’t the tire they picked, but not been able to pass GIO, it seems that even with Mediums, it would have been very hard to pull the move in Australia, so the end result would have been the same (or worse if his tires wouldn’t have last until the end of the race)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Why I'm puzzled is that a couple of cars running in the top 10 stopped before him, and they all switched to mediums. Nico, KMag, Kimi, all switched to mediums. Most likely, if the team had done the same with him, he would have passed GIO much sooner, armed with a little extra grip.

There are 2 things to consider:

A) We don’t know how much more the Mclaren may be wearing it’s tires down compared to the ones that were in front of them, without that data we can’t really know if they would have made it ok to the end of the race... They have a lot of engineers looking at actual data that determined that the fastest way to the finish line was on Hards and not Mediums and I tend to believe that their decision was right when it was made.

B) Regarding passing GIO sooner... I don’t know if it would have been possible with the Mediums instead of the Hards (yes, common sense indicates that a softer compound could have gave him that additional edge he needed), but the race showed that a superior car with newer and softer compound couldn’t make a pass either (talking about Gasly with Kvyat... Gasly in newer and softer tires than Kvyat couldn’t stick a pass in a superior car)... We have to remember that even Verstappen couldn’t pass Alonso in this circuit last year under similar circumstances, so I don’t think that we can bet that he could have passed GIO sooner (my guess is that it wouldn’t have happened regardless of the compound and he would have been in a worst position at the end of the race after wearing his tires down trying to make the pass).

I believe that on the contrary, the team should have probably waited another 5 laps to pit him (last year, pit stops were around the 20 lap mark), which could have allowed him to build a gap towards those that would have been stuck behind GIO and actually come in with 5 lap fresher tires and been able to run them harder until the end.

Would love to have access to the team data to understand better why they made those decisions.


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[SmallSoldier]

Probably unsure if they would have last the whole race (they pit very early... About 5 laps earlier than predicted)... So, they played it safe and with Melbourne been a hard track to pass (and following cars using their tires more than the ones defending), it seemed a reasonable strategy... The fact is that the problem wasn’t the tire they picked, but not been able to pass GIO, it seems that even with Mediums, it would have been very hard to pull the move in Australia, so the end result would have been the same (or worse if his tires wouldn’t have last until the end of the race)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Why I'm puzzled is that a couple of cars running in the top 10 stopped before him, and they all switched to mediums. Nico, KMag, Kimi, all switched to mediums. Most likely, if the team had done the same with him, he would have passed GIO much sooner, armed with a little extra grip.

Yep. They probably went on whites just wanting to stay ahead, play safe. Not thinking about GIO. I think they pitted to protect from the undercut.

The better option, for me, was to wait another 5 laps on the the softs.

Agreed... Same thought process for me.


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[diffuser]

The race last year was very different... You had both Haas DNF, Verstappen spun and the VSC also helped the team... Very hard to compare the teams position... Probably the best analysis is in the Qualy timing, where McLaren improved more year on year than some of the other teams... That’s probably a more reasonable benchmark


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Actually the race was the same as last year, except the issues happened to different teams/drivers. Last year Alo benefited by a bunch of people getting stuck behind somebody (don't remember who). Max didn't spin this time but Gasty went out of Quali in Q1 because of what might have been a bad call. We only lost 1 Haas but we lost 1 McLaren...

I guess it doesn’t make a lot of sense to argue, but I disagree... Very different races... Alonso ended up starting from 10th due to Bottas having a penalty, he then benefited from both Haas retiring, he also benefited from Sainz making a mistake (I believe in turn 9) and passing Sainz and finally passing Verstappen during the VSC... So, I don’t think that you can really compare both races and determine that the team is in a worst position than last year... You also need to consider that teams that today are contenders for the top 10 weren’t in that position last year (i.e. Sauber)... So many different variables during the race that making an assessment on the team progress just based on their finishing position isn’t probably the best way to do it.

The reality is that RBR improved year on year by 3 tenths, Ferrari and Mercedes improved by approximately 6-7 tenths and Mclaren improved year on year by 1.2 seconds... That means that Mclaren has effectively closed the gap to the front (only for Melbourne, not implying that it will be the same at every track)... Comparing apples to apples (lap times in Qualifying), the team is closer to the front than they were last year and that in itself is encouraging... From here on, we will see if they can outdevelop the ones in front and keep reducing that gap.


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I wasn't speaking to Whether McLaren improved or not. Just that many of the same thing happened Last year just to different drivers. I agree with everything else.

[mclaren111]

Key starts on Monday...

[mwillems]

It will be interesting to see how we do in race trim at Barcelona and Monaco. Last year these tracks being less dependent on aero meant we performed better, like at Aus.
I expect us to be a bit better away from these tracks this year, unless fixes arrive.

[M840TR]

It will be interesting to see how we do in race trim at Barcelona and Monaco. Last year these tracks being less dependent on aero meant we performed better, like at Aus.
I expect us to be a bit better away from these tracks this year, unless fixes arrive.

Less dependent than which track? These are the top aero dependent tracks in the Calendar...