2019 Mclaren F1 Team - Renault

[Jambier]

The fact that he dominated F2 is irrelevant (see Vandorne who also dominated it and didn’t had an stellar time in F1)... Outpacing Ericsson wasn’t either an achievement on itself since Marcus was never considered a top talent in F1.

I wouldn’t call Leclerc’s season in Alfa Romeo stellar and the comparison to Gasly is a fair one in my opinion (both showing potential in their debut seasons and having average team mates last year)... There is no denying of Leclerc’s ability and skill, but I don’t think that Norris rookie season is of a lower rating than Charles


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I think Vandoorne was a good guy, only he was alongside Alonso... you can see with Albon, Gasly or even Bottas what it is to be alongside a killer.

Anyway for now drivers are OK for McLaren, Norris can progress, and we will see if he is a future killer or not.
If not they will have to hire one in the future

[SmallSoldier]

The fact that he dominated F2 is irrelevant (see Vandorne who also dominated it and didn’t had an stellar time in F1)... Outpacing Ericsson wasn’t either an achievement on itself since Marcus was never considered a top talent in F1.

I wouldn’t call Leclerc’s season in Alfa Romeo stellar and the comparison to Gasly is a fair one in my opinion (both showing potential in their debut seasons and having average team mates last year)... There is no denying of Leclerc’s ability and skill, but I don’t think that Norris rookie season is of a lower rating than Charles


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I think Vandoorne was a good guy, only he was alongside Alonso... you can see with Albon, Gasly or even Bottas what it is to be alongside a killer.

Anyway for now drivers are OK for McLaren, Norris can progress, and we will see if he is a future killer or not.
If not they will have to hire one in the future

Exactly! I believe his first season has been a good one... Time will tell if he deserves to be in the team long term... But, McLaren is missing a “house driver” and Norris also fits the bill in that regard.




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[_cerber1]

[Big Tea]

The last thing Mclaren need now is Alonso back. The 2 drivers are fine, as long as Lando does improve next year.
First reason, if Alonso was driving, they would need to improve the car as fast as they possibly could and would be constantly nagged and pushed by Alonso, which is only right, but a very slightly less urgent drive seems to be paying dividends by giving a fraction more headroom to check and compare new developments and not skip to the next but one step and take a wrong turn.

Second, if it was say Alonso and Sainz, it could either dishearten Carlos, or push him into making to many mistakes, and possibly losing confidence, and the team would not have a fair knowledge of the failings of the car as Alonso would drive around them.

I am not saying a top driver should not push, or that the team should 'take it easy' but we saw last year how tense things were and that is not a good atmosphere for a team on the way up.
Once they are in the top rank, yes it is needed to keep them sharp, but it is a different ethos then.
If there is a 'top driver' that could fi in as things are now, then it would be Kimi. Not sure about Danial, he keeps a lot of secrets.

[Alonso Fan]

The last thing Mclaren need now is Alonso back. The 2 drivers are fine, as long as Lando does improve next year.
First reason, if Alonso was driving, they would need to improve the car as fast as they possibly could and would be constantly nagged and pushed by Alonso, which is only right, but a very slightly less urgent drive seems to be paying dividends by giving a fraction more headroom to check and compare new developments and not skip to the next but one step and take a wrong turn.

Second, if it was say Alonso and Sainz, it could either dishearten Carlos, or push him into making to many mistakes, and possibly losing confidence, and the team would not have a fair knowledge of the failings of the car as Alonso would drive around them.

I am not saying a top driver should not push, or that the team should 'take it easy' but we saw last year how tense things were and that is not a good atmosphere for a team on the way up.
Once they are in the top rank, yes it is needed to keep them sharp, but it is a different ethos then.
If there is a 'top driver' that could fi in as things are now, then it would be Kimi. Not sure about Danial, he keeps a lot of secrets.

Agreed

[604gtir]

The last thing Mclaren need now is Alonso back. The 2 drivers are fine, as long as Lando does improve next year.
First reason, if Alonso was driving, they would need to improve the car as fast as they possibly could and would be constantly nagged and pushed by Alonso, which is only right, but a very slightly less urgent drive seems to be paying dividends by giving a fraction more headroom to check and compare new developments and not skip to the next but one step and take a wrong turn.

Second, if it was say Alonso and Sainz, it could either dishearten Carlos, or push him into making to many mistakes, and possibly losing confidence, and the team would not have a fair knowledge of the failings of the car as Alonso would drive around them.

I am not saying a top driver should not push, or that the team should 'take it easy' but we saw last year how tense things were and that is not a good atmosphere for a team on the way up.
Once they are in the top rank, yes it is needed to keep them sharp, but it is a different ethos then.
If there is a 'top driver' that could fi in as things are now, then it would be Kimi. Not sure about Danial, he keeps a lot of secrets.

not sure if i agree with this. this car was built upon both Alonso and Vandoorne's feedback. Sainz had no input and Norris had partial input with his test days.

[SmallSoldier]

The last thing Mclaren need now is Alonso back. The 2 drivers are fine, as long as Lando does improve next year.
First reason, if Alonso was driving, they would need to improve the car as fast as they possibly could and would be constantly nagged and pushed by Alonso, which is only right, but a very slightly less urgent drive seems to be paying dividends by giving a fraction more headroom to check and compare new developments and not skip to the next but one step and take a wrong turn.

Second, if it was say Alonso and Sainz, it could either dishearten Carlos, or push him into making to many mistakes, and possibly losing confidence, and the team would not have a fair knowledge of the failings of the car as Alonso would drive around them.

I am not saying a top driver should not push, or that the team should 'take it easy' but we saw last year how tense things were and that is not a good atmosphere for a team on the way up.
Once they are in the top rank, yes it is needed to keep them sharp, but it is a different ethos then.
If there is a 'top driver' that could fi in as things are now, then it would be Kimi. Not sure about Danial, he keeps a lot of secrets.

I’m a fan of Alonso and it will always be intriguing what he could do with the MCL34 and could have done with the MCL35... But that ship has sailed, it will be Lando and Carlos and that makes this discussion pointless


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[RonDennis]

What's with the Alonso hate? Did you guys forget all those amazing races? Yeah he is a character, but incredibly quick. He's still affiliated with McLaren, so it doesn't seem that they hate him does it. It's not like he designed the chassis and the engine. I would have loved to see him next to Sainz or Norris, because it's a bit hard to rate either of them right now.

[f1rules]

Spot on And im sure its the exact same assesment the team reached and therefore comitted early to their two drivers
(except the kimi part, i was his biggest fan, but he is long past his best and should just retire and give the seat to a youngster that would appreciate it)

The last thing Mclaren need now is Alonso back. The 2 drivers are fine, as long as Lando does improve next year.
First reason, if Alonso was driving, they would need to improve the car as fast as they possibly could and would be constantly nagged and pushed by Alonso, which is only right,t a very slightly less urgent drive seems to be paying dividends by giving a fraction more headroom to check and compare new developments and not skip to the next but one step and take a wrong turn.

Second, if it was say Alonso and Sainz, it could either dishearten Carlos, or push him into making to many mistakes, and possibly losing confidence, and the team would not have a fair knowledge of the failings of the car as Alonso would drive around them.

I am not saying a top driver should not push, or that the team should 'take it easy' but we saw last year how tense things were and that is not a good atmosphere for a team on the way up.
Once they are in the top rank, yes it is needed to keep them sharp, but it is a different ethos then.
If there is a 'top driver' that could fi in as things are now, then it would be Kimi. Not sure about Danial, he keeps a lot of secrets.

[mclaren111]

Carlos is coming into his own & will only improve as his confidence grows... His 1st season he was right up there with Max...

Give him a good car & support and he'll deliver...

Lando took the right approach - cautiousness before 1st corner crashes and it paid handsomely... McLaren advised & supported this approach... Well done as this would go against all his racing instincts...

[ALO_Power]

Sorry but the comments about Alonso putting negative pressure are simply absurd. First of all, Lando and Carlos had almost zero input to the 2019 car, it was expected that the team would start riding an upward curve from 2019 onwards (maybe nobody expected that much but it would be upwards for sure after 2018). The reason why the team is getting better is because their hard work of previous years and the new personnel and restructures just started to blend in together and this year we see the fruits of those things. McLaren of 2019 is very different to McLaren of 2015. As for Alonso putting pressure, whatever u wanna expect, u will have that pressure if you aiming to become a championship contender team, otherwise u're not going for it. We also see Ferrari and its drivers cracking under pressure repeatedly, I guess that's not thanks to Alonso. I really love the state McLaren is at the moment and the current driving duo but saying that Alonso would have a negative impact if he rejoined sounds just funny. As for Lando, yes, I hope as well that he improves and he has the fonts to do so, but obviously having a world class driver in your team would be a massive plus if u plan to challenge for the title.

[godlameroso]

Norris has good pace, but he doesn't know how to deal with other cars effectively. He's more tentative than Sainz is, and the race results show this. When they both finish, Sainz tends to finish ahead of Norris. When Norris does finish ahead of Sainz, he just outpaces him, when Sainz finishes ahead he takes advantage of the strategy and situation, his race craft lets him seize critical situations. This comes with experience, Norris has the pace, so the foundation is there, and with more race experience, he too will take advantage of those situations when they present themselves. Sure Sainz has his fair share of incidents and bad luck, but nothing ventured nothing gained, Sainz takes more risks and pays for them but also is rewarded. A podium and all those points show he did a good job this year.

His clashes with Verstappen in Bahrain etc show that he's willing to take risks and is aggressive, and sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn't. He manages to make it work for him more often than not.

[Jackles-UK]

Personally I think the difference between Lando and Carlos is being on top of the tyres. These Pirelli tyres are hideously complicated to understand and drivers with a few years experience behind them are able to push harder in certain areas and nurse them in others whilst losing less time as a whole.

James Allison had a brilliant story about Hamilton in Spain on BBC Sport last week about his treatment of the tyres in Spain; he knows the front left tyre gets hammered in the long fast right handers (T1, 3, 4, 9 & 15) so backs off a bit around there and then pushes harder around the left handers to achieve the same lap time but keep all four tyres at roughly the same condition and extending the life as a full set.

Lando has been pretty much as quick as Carlos in qualifying trim but tends to go backwards in the race, often needing two stops when Carlos can get away with one and this, for me anyway, indicates that tyres are the differential factor.

[Big Tea]

I do sometimes wonder what Lando's brief is. Is he told to try to get the car home, at the expense of some points? Normally I would not see it as a good plan, but Mclaren were struggling to understand (parts of) the car last year, so may still have some shadowy areas and race millage is very useful, especially with someone who spent so long in the sim.
Speaking of which (sim) perhaps he learned to drive fast in the sim, but not in real car to car elbowing?

Anyway, First year must always mean you are looking over your shoulder for the stick if you do something wrong, and winning, or indeed scoring, is all about tiny fractions.
I hope he will improve considerably next year.

[_cerber1]

Columnist Carlos Sainz

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