[ 2020 ] Mclaren F1 Team - Renault

[Darth-Piekus]

How is the Renault faring compared to Mercedes, Ferrari and Honda? Also how is our racing pace for tomorrow?

[Emag]

Renault is not bad at all right now. Very respectable in terms of power.

As for race pace, its pretty hard to predict. Based on free practice we weren't expecting that performance from McLaren in quali so I would say just wait for tomorrow to see the pace because any prediction right now won't be accurate.

[Macklaren]

If I remember right from pre season, Renault's only engine tweaks for the season were for driveability and race pace, so that's a good omen

[ThePapayaJaguar]

Does anyone have race pace data that's not from F1.com?

[Jackles-UK]

All four engines have begun to converge in qualifying mode so there’s very little between them. Worth noting that the Renault engine works particularly well at altitude (Mexico as a particular example) and the Austrian GP is at comparably high altitude so it stands to reason they should perform well here.

The much maligned Renault & Honda units seem to have pretty much caught up in terms of top-end power, the difference between PU’s now appears to be that the Mercedes lean modes in particular seem to be more powerful than their rivals and the engine can run in its above average modes for longer. I think this is why the long run pace of the Mercedes-engined teams seem better than their Renault/Honda rivals.

[genarro]

All four engines have begun to converge in qualifying mode so there’s very little between them. Worth noting that the Renault engine works particularly well at altitude (Mexico as a particular example) and the Austrian GP is at comparably high altitude so it stands to reason they should perform well here.

The much maligned Renault & Honda units seem to have pretty much caught up in terms of top-end power, the difference between PU’s now appears to be that the Mercedes lean modes in particular seem to be more powerful than their rivals and the engine can run in its above average modes for longer. I think this is why the long run pace of the Mercedes-engined teams seem better than their Renault/Honda rivals.

The hybrid era started in 2014 so its about time that that Renault/Honda cought up.

What about todays temperatures? I think its going to be slightly warmer than yesterday. Im not sure but i had the impression that RP couldnt improve on their times yesterday because of the rising temps in q3. Last year was very warm and we had tremendous pace during the race. Am i completely wrong?

[mclaren111]

[genarro]

Damn ferrari and Alfa Romeo

Great for us and williams

[mclaren111]

Norris:

“I made a mistake out of turn one on the first set of tyres, which caused a little issue which meant I couldn’t do my run. So I was maybe a little bit on the safe side going into my second run, especially to start the lap.

Some time left on the table...

[michl420]

Engine rankings based on last year are a bit risky because of the new measuring devices. What i see this weekend and in testing, i would say the Ferrari engine is the one which losses by far the most. Renault looks strong enought.

[Ground Effect]

From F1.com, the race pace is quite poor, I hope they’ve got it wrong like qualifying.

[BosF1]

From F1.com, the race pace is quite poor, I hope they’ve got it wrong like qualifying.

Yeah, well, we weren't 1.5 sec/lap slower as well, Racing Point isn't second fastest and Ferrari loose more than 0.7 sec/lap on qualypace. It shows how hard it is to make predictions like these and that you got to take them with a whole jar of salt.

https://www.formula1.com/content/dam/fo ... /image.png

[FittingMechanics]

Does anyone have race pace data that's not from F1.com?

Soymotor has it. It's in spanish but I am sure you can read the numbers.
https://soymotor.com/articulos/analisis ... int-977770

To simplify, by their numbers McLaren is behind Racing Point of Perez by about 2-3 tenths on softs in race trim (10 or so laps). Stroll is slightly slower in the simulation and around the time Sainz and Norris did (within a tenth). Interestingly if this is accurate, Albon is slower than both McLaren, Renault and Racing Point on softs and Verstappen is not far off either. Could it be that we have someone else challenge for a podium?

On mediums, Norris was half a second slower than Perez (3 tenths slower than Stroll). He was slower than Ricciardo as well by 3 tenths so not sure how accurate this sim was.

In my opinion, take all of those analysis with a huge grain of salt, race will be almost certainly soft to hard and very few teams did hard sims. Not only that, but McLaren came alive on Saturday after a night of analysis. It's quite possible they found a solution for a couple of issues and are now ahead of Racing Point on race pace. We'll see in 5 or so hours.

[FittingMechanics]

Norris:

“I made a mistake out of turn one on the first set of tyres, which caused a little issue which meant I couldn’t do my run. So I was maybe a little bit on the safe side going into my second run, especially to start the lap.

Some time left on the table...

Let's say 2 tenths for P3?

[McFAN]

Analysis by Gary Anderson of the relative performance gains/losses versus 2019

"PERFORMANCE SWING
MCLAREN: GAINED 0.714%
Good effort by the team. When you consider it is still using the Renault power unit, it’s basically all down to the chassis and a reorganised technical structure.

RACING POINT: GAINED 0.701%
Don’t think we expected anything different. As everyone says, Racing Point is running a pink version of last year’s Mercedes. It was good in testing and has continued that through to the start of the season. The big question is does the team have any direction for development?

WILLIAMS: GAINED 0.588%
Again, by regrouping Williams has moved forward – probably not as much as it would have expected but now at least it is fighting at the back of that midfield bunch as opposed to being off the back of it."

https://the-race.com/formula-1/gary-and ... -for-2020/