2019 Mclaren F1 Team - Renault

[diffuser]

No, we just have Haas and Torro Rosso back on form on a track where they won't struggle with car setup to get the tyres working. That might not be the case next race.
Actual raw qualifying pace looks similar to the start of the season, similar gaps to Ferrari, Red Bull, etc, but Merc seems to have gained more than most.
Long run pace looks like a good improvement though, probably better able to manage the front tyres.

Raising the inside top and lower the outside bottom it giving us more total wing , hence, DF. Hopefully we're still keeping the tire wake away. I believe that is where the progress needs to be. Eventually raising the outside top of the wing and maximizing the FW DF. I think the wing is a natural progression.

[diffuser]

Even despite the extensive upgrades the car clearly lacks a lot in slow and mid speed corners. I'm not sure this significant lack of mechanical grip can be recuperated till season's end or next year.

I still think they're lacking all around. FW and MW are still lacking. They need to be able to get their FW to look like RBR or Merc.

Also when Sainz pushed too hard in that Last Sector, the car understeared out onto the gravel.

To be honest I think suspension is what really keeps the top 3 ahead of the rest. Even if the others do catch up on aero like Haas somewhat has, the deficit in mechanical grip is seemingly insurmountable. This is further compounded by tyre management which is linked to the suspension. Just like Steiner says, a couple of tenths on the aero, a couple on the tyre and the chassis; add em up and you have your 1.5 sec gap. Even Ferrari with this year's car is loosing almost a full second to Merc in the finally sector reportedly because they couldn't bring the front suspension design trialed in pre-season.

I hope you're wrong. I don't think so

Mclaren has done great to catch up on aero especially given where they were last year, but Merc outspends them by about $250m every year and I'm not sure they can bridge the gap in such a predicament.

Yes they have. You can see that at the FW and the MW they're still trail all the front runners. Visually that's all we can really see. We can't see the difference in the Suspension. I'm sure both RBR and MerC are heavily into the revised FRIC.

[Espen84]

Ferrari is the only team gaining less than McLaren compared to last years qualy in Spain. Hope the new package suits better on other tracks.

[RS200E]

With a class A driver i think we will get a better result with this car

Probably, but we will never know... What is clear to me is that we have the right drivers for the current team’s situation... No need for a Class A driver when in recovery mode


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

We ar not in recovery mode anymore we are in goood shape now just behind the top 3 we need a top driver to push without silly mistakes

We definitely are in recovery mode and will continue to be for the next few years at least. There is no question about that.

Untill there is a massive rule change and a budget cap AND an engine capable of matching Merc and Ferrari, McLaren will always be recovering from the last 7 or so years of disappointment.

[DrDejan]

Probably, but we will never know... What is clear to me is that we have the right drivers for the current team’s situation... No need for a Class A driver when in recovery mode


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

We ar not in recovery mode anymore we are in goood shape now just behind the top 3 we need a top driver to push without silly mistakes

We definitely are in recovery mode and will continue to be for the next few years at least. There is no question about that.

Untill there is a massive rule change and a budget cap AND an engine capable of matching Merc and Ferrari, McLaren will always be recovering from the last 7 or so years of disappointment.

There was a major rule change this year and everyone, except Mercedes, are struggling. McLaren was not able to benefit from it.
In my opinion, McLaren should invest more in data science. It seems it takes them a lot of time to make conclusions and generate improvement ideas. Again as an example, Mercedes were racking up laps during the tests and practice sessions and almost always return with improvements.

[diffuser]

Probably, but we will never know... What is clear to me is that we have the right drivers for the current team’s situation... No need for a Class A driver when in recovery mode


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

We ar not in recovery mode anymore we are in goood shape now just behind the top 3 we need a top driver to push without silly mistakes

We definitely are in recovery mode and will continue to be for the next few years at least. There is no question about that.

Until there is a massive rule change and a budget cap AND an engine capable of matching Merc and Ferrari, McLaren will always be recovering from the last 7 or so years of disappointment.

tomato tomaato

You can't recover from something that hasn't taken place, hence, that would not be considered a recovery. They have somewhat recovered from the mistakes they made last year.

I agree the rule changes are required for all teams to be more competitive.

For all the good Brown has done he should have been able to correct the McLaren structure issues without getting rid of Honda. That resulted in making them even poor visa-vi the top three. What's done is done.

[M840TR]

Seidl:

Our preparation for qualifying was not ideal today as the two red flags and damage on Carlos’ car affecting his car balance didn’t give us perfect data.

Did they just mess up the setup?

https://www.mclaren.com/formula1/2019/s ... ualifying/

[SmallSoldier]

Seidl:

Our preparation for qualifying was not ideal today as the two red flags and damage on Carlos’ car affecting his car balance didn’t give us perfect data.

Did they just mess up the setup?

https://www.mclaren.com/formula1/2019/s ... ualifying/

We also need to consider that the team may have favored also a race setup... If they realized yesterday that regardless of the best Qualy setup, they would still be 9th and 10th in a best scenario (behind Haas) it would be smart to make sure the setup was the best possible for the race... Making sure that the setup is good for tire longevity since potentially will define the points position by the end of the race.

With that said, the car seemed to have enough for Q3 and that 9th - 10th position... Lando missed Q3 by relatively nothing and Carlos also seemed to have enough pace to get there... Simply, they didn’t got the lap together and missed it by very little.

The race will be interesting and I really hope the team takes full advantage of their tire choice, Lando starting in 10th with free tire choice is a great outcome and Carlos isn’t too far behind... Mediums would be my personal choice for the first stint, since they could go relatively long and push long on that tire, making a switch to hard later than the cars in front of them and also benefiting from the added pace from fresh rubber.

The team may choose to start on soft if they are concerned about losing positions in the first couple of laps, but I hope they take the risk... Barcelona is a hard track to make a pass because of the loss of time in S3 when following, so been able to jump the guys in front while they most probably will have to go through traffic (I don’t expect the field to open too much before the first pit stop window) should also be beneficial if they can stay on track and with potential clean air.

Looking forward to tomorrow’s race!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[SmallSoldier]

Ferrari is the only team gaining less than McLaren compared to last years qualy in Spain. Hope the new package suits better on other tracks.

Not really, if we consider the teams best sectors (which eliminate driver error), the following are the teams improvement over previous year Qualy at Spain:




Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[SmallSoldier]

We ar not in recovery mode anymore we are in goood shape now just behind the top 3 we need a top driver to push without silly mistakes

We definitely are in recovery mode and will continue to be for the next few years at least. There is no question about that.

Until there is a massive rule change and a budget cap AND an engine capable of matching Merc and Ferrari, McLaren will always be recovering from the last 7 or so years of disappointment.

tomato tomaato

You can't recover from something that hasn't taken place, hence, that would not be considered a recovery. They have somewhat recovered from the mistakes they made last year.

I agree the rule changes are required for all teams to be more competitive.

For all the good Brown has done he should have been able to correct the McLaren structure issues without getting rid of Honda. That resulted in making them even poor visa-vi the top three. What's done is done.

I disagree... Mclaren ditching Honda is proving so far to have been a good move for them, but no point in keep arguing about it.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Ground Effect]

OK, so yesterday the guys say they were happy with the upgrades. It’s highly doubtful that their opinion would change after today. It’s probably about fully understanding the car in its evolved form. Racing Point also had a fairly big upgrade and they seem to have gone backwards since Baku. Irrespective of how tomorrow goes, I’m sure they’ll gather lots of data and put in the miles during the 2 day test. I wish it was a 3 day test, we also have to give one day to a development driver. Lando should have done 2 days in Bahrain.

[proteus]

Margins were extremely small, so all this dissapoitment that some of the people here are expressing now is a bit silly. Less than 0,1sec to 8th in Q2 for Norris, means that everybody were extremely close together and that car is stil working as expected. It was strange to think that they will simply jump the rest of the field with some tweaks of the car. Those tweaks need to mature and when they will, the results will follow.

They got Norris in P10 and Carlos in P12, both with fresh rubber and good chances to progress during the race. On the other hand Groesjean and Kvyat are clustered together infront, which can be good or extremely bad. If they survive the start and if the engines work like they should, then points will be possible tommorow for both cars. I dare to say Haas will chew its tyres during the race, and Kvyat will lose his pace,

On the other hand, we might see a specatular crash like it happened last season right at the start. Hopefully both oranges come clean out of it, without cracks and bruises and their orange juice lasts for the whole race and provides them the vitamin C needed for overtaking on the straight.

[M840TR]

Margins were extremely small, so all this dissapoitment that some of the people here are expressing now is a bit silly. Less than 0,1sec to 8th in Q2 for Norris, means that everybody were extremely close together and that car is stil working as expected. It was strange to think that they will simply jump the rest of the field with some tweaks of the car. Those tweaks need to mature and when they will, the results will follow.

They got Norris in P10 and Carlos in P12, both with fresh rubber and good chances to progress during the race. On the other hand Groesjean and Kvyat are clustered together infront, which can be good or extremely bad. If they survive the start and if the engines work like they should, then points will be possible tommorow for both cars. I dare to say Haas will chew its tyres during the race, and Kvyat will lose his pace,

On the other hand, we might see a specatular crash like it happened last season right at the start. Hopefully both oranges come clean out of it, without cracks and bruises and their orange juice lasts for the whole race and provides them the vitamin C needed for overtaking on the straight.

It was a pretty substantial upgrade, almost a b-spec.

[Chicane]

Sometimes the answer is right in front and there is no point over analyzing. Lando lost out by a miniscule and he is a rookie albeit an impressive one but a rookie nonetheless. He did a decent job today but clearly there was time left in the car. His best lap in Q2 had a yellow first sector

Sainz has a good record here but he made a mistake in S2 and by his own admission made another mistake in S3 in pursuit of chasing lost time.

The midfield is tight and teams cannot afford to leave time on the table and move on to Q3. I am happy with the job Mclaren drivers have done so far this season but today was not to be. But sh*t happens and now they have fresh tyres and decent starting positions with good long run pace. If they keep their nose clean at the start points are possible.

[M840TR]

Sometimes the answer is right in front and there is no point over analyzing. Lando lost out by a miniscule and he is a rookie albeit an impressive one but a rookie nonetheless. He did a decent job today but clearly there was time left in the car. His best lap in Q2 had a yellow first sector

Sainz has a good record here but he made a mistake in S2 and by his own admission made another mistake in S3 in pursuit of chasing lost time.

The midfield is tight and teams cannot afford to leave time on the table and move on to Q3. I am happy with the job Mclaren drivers have done so far this season but today was not to be. But sh*t happens and now they have fresh tyres and decent starting positions with good long run pace. If they keep their nose clean at the start points are possible.

I think given the size of the upgrade many expected them to be a distant 4th quickest but they ended up 7th and hence the subverted expectations. It seems on tracks that suit the car like Bahrain the gains would be more apparent, but this volatility doesn't bode well. It's still a new car and maybe by mid season they'll hit their target of clear 4th but judging by deficits in mid speed corner DF on top of poor mechanical grip, it'll be a seemingly tall order to climb.