2021 Mclaren F1 Team

[SmallSoldier]

Can I ask- Is it pretty much confirmed by Seidl that they basically had a clear plan of how to place resources this year ready for the switch to 2022 focus?

They haven’t deviated from that as far as anyone knows have they?

As far as we know, they haven’t deviated from the plan… At this point I would venture to say that most design work is probably done for the season… The updates that we will see in the following weeks are those that are already in the pipeline and that are been build right now (since the manufacturing team probably doesn’t have a lot of 2022 parts to make from an aero perspective).

I would expect a few bits and pieces still coming to the car until the summer break.


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[SmallSoldier]

It wasn't spoken about much on here, that I noticed at least (!), but of course the new rules for Flexi wings began to get introduced in France.

Is this part of the reason Ferrari looked weaker at Paul Ricard? It didn't seem to cause Red Bull an issue...

Edit: Just googled for articles on it and I could find one:

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/flex ... e/6580838/

So given the hoo-ha about flexi wings, it seems to have died a death in the news.

Red Bull run a very low downforce wing compared to the rest of the field, that may have masked any issues from the stricter rear wing tests.

Ferrari’s struggles were more related to tire behavior than outright straight line speed… While their tires were working, Sainz was maintaining pace at the front of pack and fending off the AT behind them… Daniel was pitted early to perform the undercut and get out from the DRS train.


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[SmallSoldier]

Daniel’s and Lando’s overtake on Fernando:




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[mwillems]

1) It could be choice battery usage but the strength of the Honda engine in the AT, when Lando was alongside with DRS open, was very impressive.
2) Ferrari looking very nice in the lower speed corners, but eaten alive on the straights

1) Gasly had DRS as well and additionally he had a slipstream from a Ferrari ahead.

Good point, I somehow completely missed that. I think the sentimental part of me wanted the Honda to be really mighty again lol

[mwillems]

It wasn't spoken about much on here, that I noticed at least (!), but of course the new rules for Flexi wings began to get introduced in France.

Is this part of the reason Ferrari looked weaker at Paul Ricard? It didn't seem to cause Red Bull an issue...

Edit: Just googled for articles on it and I could find one:

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/flex ... e/6580838/

So given the hoo-ha about flexi wings, it seems to have died a death in the news.

Red Bull run a very low downforce wing compared to the rest of the field, that may have masked any issues from the stricter rear wing tests.

Ferrari’s struggles were more related to tire behavior than outright straight line speed… While their tires were working, Sainz was maintaining pace at the front of pack and fending off the AT behind them… Daniel was pitted early to perform the undercut and get out from the DRS train.


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Yes but without a more flexible wing do they have to lower rear DF to get some more speed and therefore compromise their tyre management and tyre life?

[mwillems]

Lando overtaking 6 cars in 6 laps… He overtook Daniel and Stroll a couple laps later:




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Fascinating video. Two things stood out on that for me.

1) It could be choice battery usage but the strength of the Honda engine in the AT, when Lando was alongside with DRS open, was very impressive.
2) Ferrari looking very nice in the lower speed corners, but eaten alive on the straights

What caught my attention the most is how much of a difference the tire delta made… Those additional 6-8 laps made a huge difference in the end.

I was surprised that the AT struggled as much to make the overtake on the Ferrari… On Lando’s overtake of Gasly, both cars were with DRS (and the AT had also slip stream from the Ferrari ahead), which makes it surprising how easy Lando’s overtake was.


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Yes it did, it was what, nine laps if I recall? That's a lot fresher to be honest, although there are diminishing returns as the race goes on, but if we look after our tyres and others destroy them than that gap only widens, and it seems that is what happened here.

[SmallSoldier]

It wasn't spoken about much on here, that I noticed at least (!), but of course the new rules for Flexi wings began to get introduced in France.

Is this part of the reason Ferrari looked weaker at Paul Ricard? It didn't seem to cause Red Bull an issue...

Edit: Just googled for articles on it and I could find one:

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/flex ... e/6580838/

So given the hoo-ha about flexi wings, it seems to have died a death in the news.

Red Bull run a very low downforce wing compared to the rest of the field, that may have masked any issues from the stricter rear wing tests.

Ferrari’s struggles were more related to tire behavior than outright straight line speed… While their tires were working, Sainz was maintaining pace at the front of pack and fending off the AT behind them… Daniel was pitted early to perform the undercut and get out from the DRS train.


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Yes but without a more flexible wing do they have to lower rear DF to get some more speed and therefore compromise their tyre management and tyre life?

I agree with you, their problems with tires could very well be a consequence of running a lower downforce configuration… Been said that, they were already struggling with tires in a few GP’s before this one when the bendy wings were still in full use.

Track temperature and probably more important, the fact that the track was greener after the rain the night before may have been a bigger factor.

My point was that “straight line speed” wasn’t really the issue for Ferrari, it was the fact that they may have prioritized it that made their tires struggle and the graining / degradation is what ultimately made them lose a lot of pace.

On tracks where tire degradation is not that high, Ferrari will have a better showing… The Championship will be interesting, there is still not a very defined pattern of where teams will struggle and where they will have great pace.


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[_cerber1]

See how much more confident Lando is in turns 10 and 11.

[SmallSoldier]

Fascinating video. Two things stood out on that for me.

1) It could be choice battery usage but the strength of the Honda engine in the AT, when Lando was alongside with DRS open, was very impressive.
2) Ferrari looking very nice in the lower speed corners, but eaten alive on the straights

What caught my attention the most is how much of a difference the tire delta made… Those additional 6-8 laps made a huge difference in the end.

I was surprised that the AT struggled as much to make the overtake on the Ferrari… On Lando’s overtake of Gasly, both cars were with DRS (and the AT had also slip stream from the Ferrari ahead), which makes it surprising how easy Lando’s overtake was.


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Yes it did, it was what, nine laps if I recall? That's a lot fresher to be honest, although there are diminishing returns as the race goes on, but if we look after our tyres and others destroy them than that gap only widens, and it seems that is what happened here.

He had an 8 lap delta to Daniel and a 7 lap delta to Sainz and Gasly… But yes, the difference was huge it seems.

What surprised me the most is that during the latter part of the second stint, Norris was doing very comparable laps to both Mercedes… To put things in perspective, by the time Norris did his pitstop, he was 52 seconds from Hamilton in first, by the end of the race he was 64 seconds from Max (62 seconds from Hamilton)… For him to only lose approximately 10 seconds to Hamilton during the whole second stint is actually pretty good (and we have to consider that he had to still make all of the overtakes that he needed to get back to P5) and you could argue that after the last overtake on Stroll he started to manage his pace to the end of the race.


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[mwillems]

Red Bull run a very low downforce wing compared to the rest of the field, that may have masked any issues from the stricter rear wing tests.

Ferrari’s struggles were more related to tire behavior than outright straight line speed… While their tires were working, Sainz was maintaining pace at the front of pack and fending off the AT behind them… Daniel was pitted early to perform the undercut and get out from the DRS train.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Yes but without a more flexible wing do they have to lower rear DF to get some more speed and therefore compromise their tyre management and tyre life?

I agree with you, their problems with tires could very well be a consequence of running a lower downforce configuration… Been said that, they were already struggling with tires in a few GP’s before this one when the bendy wings were still in full use.

Track temperature and probably more important, the fact that the track was greener after the rain the night before may have been a bigger factor.

My point was that “straight line speed” wasn’t really the issue for Ferrari, it was the fact that they may have prioritized it that made their tires struggle and the graining / degradation is what ultimately made them lose a lot of pace.

On tracks where tire degradation is not that high, Ferrari will have a better showing… The Championship will be interesting, there is still not a very defined pattern of where teams will struggle and where they will have great pace.


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Agreed, it wasn't there issue per se, but I suspect it is all tied together.

In the article that f1rules kindly posted about Ferrari's issues, they blame the green track a little, which makes sense for the first set of tyres. But after that the track was not green, it had had 20 cars doing 18 laps each, by the next stint even more, yet they still went backwards like a steam train in reverse.

Thinking about straight line speed though, I would still have expected more from Ferrari by the end of that straight and it seems or feels more than just tyre issues. Yeah you'd expect them to be slow to get up to speed, but given enough straight, of which there was plenty, they should still be pretty fast even on knackered tyres, don't you think? At least faster than where they were. I dunno, I just feel like there is something else. Something to do with deployment perhaps.

[mwillems]

What caught my attention the most is how much of a difference the tire delta made… Those additional 6-8 laps made a huge difference in the end.

I was surprised that the AT struggled as much to make the overtake on the Ferrari… On Lando’s overtake of Gasly, both cars were with DRS (and the AT had also slip stream from the Ferrari ahead), which makes it surprising how easy Lando’s overtake was.


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Yes it did, it was what, nine laps if I recall? That's a lot fresher to be honest, although there are diminishing returns as the race goes on, but if we look after our tyres and others destroy them than that gap only widens, and it seems that is what happened here.

He had an 8 lap delta to Daniel and a 7 lap delta to Sainz and Gasly… But yes, the difference was huge it seems.

What surprised me the most is that during the latter part of the second stint, Norris was doing very comparable laps to both Mercedes… To put things in perspective, by the time Norris did his pitstop, he was 52 seconds from Hamilton in first, by the end of the race he was 64 seconds from Max (62 seconds from Hamilton)… For him to only lose approximately 10 seconds to Hamilton during the whole second stint is actually pretty good (and we have to consider that he had to still make all of the overtakes that he needed to get back to P5) and you could argue that after the last overtake on Stroll he started to manage his pace to the end of the race.


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Yeah I think it is fantastic. I don't care what happens with Ferrari in terms of how it impacts my view of the teams progress, year on year progress has been tremendous. And I think those with a bit of common sense knew that the tiny gaps between us and RB/Merc would grow as the season moved on. But we are still closer and we have still made progress and it's definitely worth applauding.

[Wouter]

WDC 4th place ahead of Bottas in a Mercedes!

[the EDGE]

Go back to last year and its actually 8 top 5 finishes in 10 races

He’s also scored points in the last 12 races

[Xero]

He's been outstanding! I think you'd struggle to find anyone who still doesn't believe in his ability and potential. And he's far from the finished article, that's the most exciting part.

[runningmanz]

Given Daniels early pit stop, when compared to Lando, he did a fab job today to finish 6th & so close to Lando

It’s certainly time for people to stop knocking him now

Yep and Dan said he is still not yet fully comfortable in the car so still more performance to unleash. Was a great race by him given he was pulling away from Lando on the same tyres at the start of the race and made some good passes including the hard work on Alonso opening the door for Lando to pass while Alonso's battery was empty.