2021 Mclaren F1 Team

[Ground Effect]

DR needs to get up to speed quickly. No easy settling in period for him. Lando showed him up properly today, especially considering they were P5 and P9 on lap one with DR in front.

Carlos is showing him how to adapt.

I'm starting to think that Dani is struggling with how the car drives and it may take a good while for him to catch on.

Landos superb driving is compounding it though.

Not defending Ricciardo or taking anything away from Carlos, but he did have some time in older Ferrari cars, every little chance helps. Ricciardo just has to trust the process, he’ll come good. Importantly, he’s keeping it on the road and scoring points while getting up to speed.

[Darth-Piekus]

I can't say I agree. He was controlling the race all the time. I am not sure Leclerc was coming close enough everytime as he was gaining ground after that Imola straight. However I agree that puting Hamilton as a shield helped.

Landos tyres would have gone i think and the Ferraris would have had him. Hamilton wasn't a shield, he just pulled the Ferraris back a bit and killed their tyres, by that point the Ferraris were done as they had lost the DRS too.

Maybe yes,maybe no. We will never know but in any case good choice to have Hamilton between us and the Ferrari.

[diffuser]

Yeah, not good for Daniel. He had the damage last weekend, but here there are no excuses for this one. He ended the race with the same gap to Lando as Lando had to Max. (Actually more than that, my god it was probably more than a second per lap slower)

It's gonna take a while for him to get from 98% to 100% comfortable in the car.

[mwillems]

DR needs to get up to speed quickly. No easy settling in period for him. Lando showed him up properly today, especially considering they were P5 and P9 on lap one with DR in front.

Carlos is showing him how to adapt.

I'm starting to think that Dani is struggling with how the car drives and it may take a good while for him to catch on.

Landos superb driving is compounding it though.

Not defending Ricciardo or taking anything away from Carlos, but he did have some time in older Ferrari cars, every little chance helps. Ricciardo just has to trust the process, he’ll come good. Importantly, he’s keeping it on the road and scoring points while getting up to speed.

Yeah I'm not knocking Dani, he's class. I'm just pleased for Carlos.

[JRindt]

Awesome job by both the team for choosing an aggressive strategy and Lando for the drive. I think, If he wasn’t hitting his clutch with his kneecap, he could’ve had a shot at holding Hamilton back. For that lap exactly, Lewis got a tiny bit closer out of last turn and got the job done.

I hope this podium will make him comfortable in his own skin and allows him to dial down his defensive attitude towards Ricciardo.

Before anybody starts writing Ricciardo off, this is just his second race at a punishing track and he was never really that good in changing conditions (as opposed to Carlos)

[godlameroso]

Lando has taken a big step up from last year. Uno has made him strong.

[Darth-Piekus]

Maybe he wants to get more followers for his Twitch channel.

[Emag]

Payback for yesterday, but today was a very chaotic race. Very hard to read anything into pace differentials between Ferrari and McLaren. I feel like they were probably a bit quicker here but the safety car helped tremendously to close the big gap after the first wet stint. There are positives to take in the sense there weren't any substantial upgrades for McLaren here, so there's more potential to unlock on this car. Overall, I am happy with how these two races have went, but Ferrari is definitely a major threat as they are being quite consistent with both drivers.

[McFAN]

From BBC coverage

Fan favourite
Lando Norris has been voted Driver of the Day by the fans for his heroics at Imola this afternoon.

His response to the news?

"They did? I didn't think I had any fans, but thank you."

[mythr-ran-dire]

I'm sure Ricciardo will get there eventually, but as a team we have nothing to worry about. He's scoring points and avoiding mistakes while he gets used to the car and settles in. All the while Lando is performing brilliantly, leading the charge.

It's a good time to be a Mclaren fan.

[Herr_Koos]

From BBC coverage

Fan favourite
Lando Norris has been voted Driver of the Day by the fans for his heroics at Imola this afternoon.

His response to the news?

"They did? I didn't think I had any fans, but thank you."

He made some new ones today, that's for sure.

[blastdoman]

Extraodinary race of Lando. Can't put a single but. Perhaps the only thing to improve is the start, which has again lost places. Otherwise, a 10.

I don't want to be too hard but Daniel's race deserves it. He has to start improving urgently. His race is not worthy of a driver of his talent and even less comparing his pace with that of Lando. Carlos is starting to be missed.

[bauc]

What a great race by Lando today, he was super quick and he defended well against the Ferraris & Hamilton so well deserved P3. Daniel is still work in progress, I think he will need one or two more races to come to Lando's level but a good solid result for him today as well.

The battle for 3rd with Ferrari will be fierce this season.

[Ground Effect]

Anybody heard anything about gear sync issue for Daniel? Someone mentioned it on the Autosport forum

[Big Tea]

Lando now seems to have the mindset of deserving to be among the leaders, both as a driver himself and a deserving car. He has been a good driver, but sometimes slightly lacking in the head to head confidence against the perceived 'top guys'. He considers himself one of them now, so different game.