2021 Mclaren F1 Team

[mwillems]

Ferrari being better is no news. They have been better since Barcelona. Not sure if its worth it developing this car given next year is more important.

Guess we have to settle for 4th.

Yeah, the Ferrari seems to be an all round good car, but it wouldn't surprise me if they pushed the engine mode for the weekend given that the track needs power to be quick, so it may bight them at somepoint if it goes bang. But that is just conjecture.

I think I mentioned after the last race, my opinion that the Ferrari is outright faster than the Mclaren and that we need DR to get up to speed to have a chance at 3rd. but it looks like it could get away from us.

That said, all it takes is for a Ferrari to have a mishap and for us to finish in the points and we are 3rd again.

As far as developments, I think Mclaren had said there were more things coming up until the summer break, and then it stops, unless they spot some low hanging fruit.

I'm happy with 4th for this year, it's a throwaway year and the team is still making good progress, plus, I don't mind the extra development time for the second year of the new regulations.

Exactly - I think people forget the team adopted a new PU architecture to a less than ideal chassis, whilst lack of tokens for other more urgent changes required for the car

Besides that I'm not complaining fun racing, I think it will still be very close, the drivers might need to work harder on a Sunday - but the pace is there

We are in with a shout for making progress and on this track you can make easier progress. If we can get close to a car then we should have enough straight line speed to make a pass, inclding Ferrari, and possibly have enough to hold others off.

But as everything this year, it all depends on the tyres, and this year it seems like we set up to look after them in the race a little better so.... fingers crossed... the car has the pace to do the job tomorrow.

DRS alround tomorrow, plenty of overtakes in the race tomorrow and the front row is going to be hard racing.

[SmallSoldier]

I believe Hamilton made a comment that they were expecting rain for tomorrow, wondering if the team setup the car with that in mind


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[CjC]

I believe Hamilton made a comment that they were expecting rain for tomorrow, wondering if the team setup the car with that in mind


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Not sure if that will favour Mclaren or not, most of their main opposition- especially Ferrari can turn their tyres on a lot quicker than Mclaren- hence Mclarens lacklustre Qualifying performances. Which is key for wet weather performance.

Edit

In fact if it does rain my prediction is that Ferrari will challenge for the podium, as they did in Turkey last season with an PU deficit

[SmallSoldier]

I believe Hamilton made a comment that they were expecting rain for tomorrow, wondering if the team setup the car with that in mind


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Not sure if that will favour Mclaren or not, most of their main opposition- especially Ferrari can turn their tyres on a lot quicker than Mclaren- hence Mclarens lacklustre Qualifying performances. Which is key for wet weather performance.

Edit

In fact if it does rain my prediction is that Ferrari will challenge for the podium, as they did in Turkey last season with an PU deficit

You may be right, but if the team went with additional downforce, it could play well in the race.

I also wonder if the change in pressures for the tires has had a negative effect for the team… Like every change, some will benefit from it while others may suffer, hopefully the team is not in the group that is negatively affected by the higher pressures.


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[Macklaren]

Team summary implying race pace is better than quali pace so that's a good sign

[f1rules]

Lets see, they said that many times and seldom materialized, very dissapointed in this team right now, incredible ferrari where able to pass mclaren and be in the position we wanted to be in, their car just seem overall better and easy to hit the setup sweetsport while mclaren dont seem to have any real strengths at all

[mwillems]

Lets see, they said that many times and seldom materialized, very dissapointed in this team right now, incredible ferrari where able to pass mclaren and be in the position we wanted to be in, their car just seem overall better and easy to hit the setup sweetsport while mclaren dont seem to have any real strengths at all

I understand why you say that, but I guess I'm more glass half full. We were lucky in a way that last year Ferrari had such an off year because of their engine, otherwise we'd still have been fourth. The fact they have powered ahead is I suspect because they developed a fundamental issue into their car last year which undermined the speed of all the rest of the good aero and packaging, as well as having a poor engine. Once the issue was sorted they have just bounced back, plus they spent near on two years developing this engine. They were also getting on the tail of the front of midfield by the end of the season, so the jump from the end of last season to the start of this is not as extreme as the start of last season to the start of this.

If you ignore Ferraris enormous bounceback over 12 months, I think McLaren's development has been strong and they have made good progress again this year. In terms of points, it's easy to forget that if Daniel Ricciardo was up to snuff earlier in the season, we'd still be 3rd and pushing Ferrari harder than what we are.

My take is Ferrari's up and down is an outlier, but compared to the rest of the field, we have made strong progress. But maybe I'm just trying to put a bias on it without realising.

Other than Mclaren v Ferrari, what else bothers you about the progress of the team?

[CjC]

I have to agree mwillems

Speaking for myself and probably a lot of other fans it’s natural to always want to look forward and improve. Finishing third was a great achievement for Mclaren last season but we we’re always going to think what could be better? Ok beating Red Bull and Mercedes is out of the question but when the prospect arose in testing and at the Bahrain race that Mclaren could be the genuine third quickest and still beat a resurgent Ferrari to third it lit the new fire for this season and now it’s not panning out that way us fans find it frustrating.

Like mwillems also alluded to Ferrari have got their act together- they had a very decent car in 2019, even Lando said that they have a good car in the corners and only lacked PU power last season also I think us Mclaren fans (I) forget that Ferrari would have spent money like a top 3 team last season developing this car where as Mclaren would have spent the fifth highest amount and time and time again it shows that money talks in F1.

Personally I’m going to re-evaluate my expectations and aim for 4th in the constructors, Mclaren have done a better job with this package than Renault have with their own and who also have a larger budget, it’s a package of Mclarens making rather than a copy concept.
If you look at it that way Mclaren are dominating the midfield and its Ferrari doing a bad job as a top 3 team who sometimes fall back into Mclarens clutches al a Gasly and Albon when they drove for Red Bull in their respective seasons.

[M840TR]

Some of you guys are really clutching at straws. The Ferrari is just working better at the moment. If not in the race then definitely qualifying. Team has just got to come up with a faster car to challenge for p3, especially given the buffer Alpha Tauri & Alpine etc are helping Ferrari create. Gonna be a long race.

[Ground Effect]

The team has clearly gone backwards, not sure there’s a glass half full perspective. From being one sector away from pole in Imola, to nearly half a second behind the faster Ferrari, with an AT also quicker. Earlier in the season, bad luck and poor execution were hindering our Q3 performance, today we simply lack pace. More puzzling is last time out in Paul Ricard, McLaren we’re quite strong. The race for P3 is still very much on….. for now, but we need a quicker car.

[f1rules]

Maybe they should try the old floor…

[McL-H]

I said last race, that Ferrari had surpassed us. I were made out to be a fool, basing it on one qualifying session. I were not. Others, especially Ferrari, have improved. While McLaren’s progress appears to have stopped. With a slower car than Ferrari, all teams shifting focus on next year’s car, and a weaker driver pair, we can forget about P3. I expect we won’t be troubled for P4, as AT has one very weak driver (so far) and our advantage in points to them is too big. I also think we have a better car than them overall.

The team should just focus on the new car so we can fight the top teams next year. This year, just maximise with what we’ve got. Top 8 finishes for both cars and luck in when Ferrari screws up.

[mwillems]

Some of you guys are really clutching at straws. The Ferrari is just working better at the moment. If not in the race then definitely qualifying. Team has just got to come up with a faster car to challenge for p3, especially given the buffer Alpha Tauri & Alpine etc are helping Ferrari create. Gonna be a long race.

I'd rather they didn't to be honest. I don't think we will drop below fourth and I'd rather we develop for next year and not waste any more time on this car.

But yeah, there seems to be an unwillingness to see that Ferrari have a faster car right now, and possibly will do for the rest of the season as development winds down.

[mwillems]

I said last race, that Ferrari had surpassed us. I were made out to be a fool, basing it on one qualifying session. I were not. Others, especially Ferrari, have improved. While McLaren’s progress appears to have stopped. With a slower car than Ferrari, all teams shifting focus on next year’s car, and a weaker driver pair, we can forget about P3. I expect we won’t be troubled for P4, as AT has one very weak driver (so far) and our advantage in points to them is too big. I also think we have a better car than them overall.

The team should just focus on the new car so we can fight the top teams next year. This year, just maximise with what we’ve got. Top 8 finishes for both cars and luck in when Ferrari screws up.

Yeah I got a few remarks from some upset fans when I suggested the same. The writing was on the wall two races ago that Ferrari had made a big leap, and even if the car was more competitive, without a competitive DR, it doesn't matter.

[Emag]

There's really nothing to suggest. Portimao was the last race where McLaren was equal to Ferrari.

You can sugar-coat it however you like, but the fact of the matter is that they simply have the better car (since Barcelona).