[ 2020 ] Mclaren F1 Team - Renault

[SmallSoldier]

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[RonDennis]

McLaren simply did a great job. I'm always looking at their pace compared to last year and they clearly gained on Mercedes and Red Bull, while not having any upgrades in Austria. It was P4 on pure pace.

[nacho]

New tires in the end helped Sainz, did Norris have the old tires?

Bottas was always in front of everyone so couldn't get a draft and DRS for S1.

I'm happy to see McLaren back and Norris do well.

[SmallSoldier]

New tires in the end helped Sainz, did Norris have the old tires?

Bottas was always in front of everyone so couldn't get a draft and DRS for S1.

I'm happy to see McLaren back and Norris do well.

Norris was also on a new set of Mediums for the last stint


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[Marc.W]

McLaren simply did a great job. I'm always looking at their pace compared to last year and they clearly gained on Mercedes and Red Bull, while not having any upgrades in Austria. It was P4 on pure pace.

They had a new diffuser and new front wing endplates

[SmallSoldier]

My takes of the weekend:

- The MCL35 is definitely an improvement over the MCL34 and so far seems to not have any “fundamental” issues, therefore providing a good base for future development and using resources for that path instead of trying to understand flaws in the concept.

- In Austria, the MCL35 look like the 3rd best car on the grid, but we have to be careful of assuming that it will be the trend / position of the car in upcoming races at different circuits... Austria may be showcasing the car’s strengths and there could be lingering issues (like slow speed corner pace) that could show themselves in circuits like Hungary or Spain.

- Interestingly, Lando’s car had some issues before the race even started and changes were made to his car before the race (of course under FIA supervision), luckily nothing serious that prevented them from running.

- The fact that team broke 3 front wings between Friday and Saturday and had to fly a couple more for the race means that their choice to focus on spares instead of development was a very good call.

- The different tyre strategies used by Mclaren and Racing Point may be hiding the real difference in performance between them... When on Mediums at RP and Hards at MCL, Perez was roughly 2 tenth a lap faster, if we were to consider that the expected delta between compounds was 0.5 seconds, it would give the MCL the advantage on pace, but RP could have easily have been taking care of his tires expecting a battle at the end of the race.

- Even when I appreciate the team letting Carlos and Lando race on track, with a handful of laps left, it almost gave me a hard attack watching them go wheel to wheel for position, luckily nothing to regret about it, but it seemed silly for the team not to intervene when they already knew about Hamilton’s penalty and the gap they needed to cut into, Lando was losing time during that battle.

- The intra team battle between Lando and Carlos might get spicy this year, Carlos will probably wants / needs to show why he was chosen by Ferrari and Lando probably wants to also cement himself as the next leader for Mclaren... As long as they don’t collide with each other, it will be awesome (although my heart will probably not appreciate it).

- If there were doubts that the MCL35 is a clear improvement over the MCL34, the fact that they manage to post the Fastest Lap of the race, without the use of DRS and match the fastest lap time set by Max/RBR last year is nothing more than impressive (considering that Red Bull was a contender and Max was getting everything out of that car in the 2019 Austria race).

- Too early to understand pecking orders, but the performance is definitely encouraging... The biggest point haul in more than 6 years is nothing more than amazing for a team that clearly is still clawing their way to the front... P4 is and should still be the target for the season and they couldn’t have had a better start towards achieving it.

- Forgot to add... Credit where credit is due... The Renault engine didn’t let us down this weekend and in a race with a lot of attrition, it was a very welcomed sight to have both cars cross the finish line with no mechanical issues... Wondering if going into full “beast mode” with the engine during the last lap may create a handicap for Lando later on, but even if it does, it was totally worth it!

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[the EDGE]

With Ferrari faltering McLaren must set their sights on 3rd and aim to take the fight to RB. Anything less is selling themselves short

It’s a tall order for sure but it is achievable with hard work & determination

[Macklaren]

With Ferrari faltering McLaren must set their sights on 3rd and aim to take the fight to RB. Anything less is selling themselves short

It’s a tall order for sure but it is achievable with hard work & determination

I'm certain that's their internal target but externally they are still keeping expectations in check, to be the underdog. I was baffled that Norris said that the Ferrari and RPs were much quicker than McL in race trim, when that was not the case

[Andres125sx]

Keep calm, do not overreact, Ferrari will solve their problems

And keep in mind Lecrerc finished 2nd despite the poor grid position and problems, so they may be far from Mercedes, but that does not mean McLaren can fight them

Without the safety cars, McLaren would have comfortably finished ahead of Ferrari

Not sure what are your arguments to claim this. Carlos didn´t pass Lecrerc even when he tried, and Lecrerc passed Lando on track, and then passed Perez much faster than Lando, so he finished 3 seconds ahead of Lando. SCs didn´t play any role on this

[Andres125sx]

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Wow, that is impressive

[Andres125sx]

With Ferrari faltering McLaren must set their sights on 3rd and aim to take the fight to RB. Anything less is selling themselves short

It’s a tall order for sure but it is achievable with hard work & determination

If we assume McLaren perfomance in this track will be the same for the rest of the season then yes. But if you ask me I´ll say that´s a bold assumption

[JRindt]

Forum battles are just an extension of the on track battles. I think Andres125sx is the first Ferrari team/driver supporter in the Mclaren thread in last 5-6 years. At least I don’t remember anyone other than RB-Honda and Renault supporters these last few years, in addition to the neutral ones of course. This just reinforces who Mclaren’s competitors are this season.

PS: Andres, I’m just assuming you’re a Ferrari/ Leclerc supporter based on your posts. Apologies if I’m mistaken.

[Andres125sx]

Forum battles are just an extension of the on track battles. I think Andres125sx is the first Ferrari team/driver supporter in the Mclaren thread in last 5-6 years. At least I don’t remember anyone other than RB-Honda and Renault supporters these last few years, in addition to the neutral ones of course. This just reinforces who Mclaren’s competitors are this season.

PS: Andres, I’m just assuming you’re a Ferrari/ Leclerc supporter based on your posts. Apologies if I’m mistaken.

Yes you´re mistaken, completely

I don´t support any particular driver since Alonso departure. I follow Carlos progress, but far from a hardcore fan. I also like watching Lewis, Max, Charles, Ricciardo...

About teams, Ferrari never was my favourite, not even in Alonso era. I do prefer McLaren and even RBR better than Ferrari. I like RBR philosophy, but hate RBR drivers managment philosophy. About McLaren, I´ve always like it, but lately it´s growing on a bit more, specially since Ron is no longer in the team. To me he´s the main responsible of 2007 disaster, not Alonso or Hamilton, it was Ron (lack of) managment

[the EDGE]

With Ferrari faltering McLaren must set their sights on 3rd and aim to take the fight to RB. Anything less is selling themselves short

It’s a tall order for sure but it is achievable with hard work & determination

If we assume McLaren perfomance in this track will be the same for the rest of the season then yes. But if you ask me I´ll say that´s a bold assumption

Well for a start they ran well Last year at the first 6 opening races of this year, but it’s more than that.

Ferrari have issues and it’s that which has handed them an opportunity. Not just them, but RP too

Ferrari don’t just have 1 issue, they have 3. Power, correlation & driver. Seb is all over the place right now and that relationship is only going to get sourer, the engine power is not an easy fix with restrictions & they need to fix the correlation before they finalise the upgrade

RP’s car looks good, in fact so good it looks like a Mercedes, but it’s already shown it’s not. They are unlikely to be able to develop at the same rate as McLaren because the idea of the copycat car was to allow them to concentrate on the new regs, plans may well have changed a while back now, but certainly not before the end of March and there’s been a period of shut-down since so I doubt they are too far along with this

If they keep their --- together they can capitalise on this while they have the opportunity & thanks their lucky stars (touch wood!)

[SmallSoldier]

With Ferrari faltering McLaren must set their sights on 3rd and aim to take the fight to RB. Anything less is selling themselves short

It’s a tall order for sure but it is achievable with hard work & determination

I'm certain that's their internal target but externally they are still keeping expectations in check, to be the underdog. I was baffled that Norris said that the Ferrari and RPs were much quicker than McL in race trim, when that was not the case

Norris based his assessment on Friday’s practice long runs, where both RP and Ferrari showed better pace than Mclaren... Just coming out of the race, he wouldn’t really have a chance to make such analysis


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