2021 Mclaren F1 Team

[SmallSoldier]

Did McLaren fall back in Austria 2 last year really? Race 1 was P3/P5 > Race 2 was P5/P9. But if you account for Max, Lewis and Albon's issues in Race 1, the Race 2 result was pretty representative?

Really hard to tell in all honesty, since there were very different races:

In Austria 1, Lewis grid penalty allowed Lando to start higher on the grid, Verstappen DNF’ed, we had the Albon / Lewis situation which netted 2 positions for the team (at least for Lando) and out of the direct competitors, Stroll DNF’ed and there was a Safety Car midway through the race that bunched the grid (Perez by then was more than 5 seconds ahead of Lando and with good pace)…

While in Austria 2 the team was lucky and unlucky… Lando benefited from Perez’ wing front wing damage to gain the position a couple of corners from the finish, but before Perez clash with Albon, they were a good 15 seconds ahead of Lando with 4-5 laps to go, while Carlos had a very bad pitstop that made him lose several positions and just couldn’t recover after that

Very hard to make an assessment, but we need to keep in mind that while the Racing Point was a brand new concept and they were probably still understanding it, the MCL35 was an evolution of the MCL34 and McLaren probably had an small advantage in terms of car understanding for those first few races.


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[mwillems]

I like Austria as a track, a lot, a fun little track. There's quite a lot of steering under braking here though, so I don't know if the driveability issues might come back to haunt DR.

It's a track that Charles likes too. He finished 2nd in last years Austrian and 2nd in 2019s GP. He had a DNF in the Syrian last year as I think he had a bump with Vettel, or something like that? Even with Sauber he was in the top ten I think (Don't think it was Alpha Romeo in 2018).

So it's a track where we can do well I think, but I do think it will be a battle with Ferrari again and we need DR to be on top form, because I'm sure Charles and Carlos will give it good showing.

[SmallSoldier]

I like Austria as a track, a lot, a fun little track. There's quite a lot of steering under braking here though, so I don't know if the driveability issues might come back to haunt DR.

It's a track that Charles likes too. He finished 2nd in last years Austrian and 2nd in 2019s GP. He had a DNF in the Syrian last year as I think he had a bump with Vettel, or something like that? Even with Sauber he was in the top ten I think (Don't think it was Alpha Romeo in 2018).

So it's a track where we can do well I think, but I do think it will be a battle with Ferrari again and we need DR to be on top form, because I'm sure Charles and Carlos will give it good showing.

The weather could be the biggest challenge for Daniel… If we will have rain as predicted, the perceived lack of confidence on the car may make things trickier for him


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[SmallSoldier]

It’s interesting how small factors can make such a big difference in lap time… The video below shows the Q2 vs Q3 lap for Lando last year, very small differences in the lines accounted for a bit more than 3 tenths differences between the laps:




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[mwillems]

I like Austria as a track, a lot, a fun little track. There's quite a lot of steering under braking here though, so I don't know if the driveability issues might come back to haunt DR.

It's a track that Charles likes too. He finished 2nd in last years Austrian and 2nd in 2019s GP. He had a DNF in the Syrian last year as I think he had a bump with Vettel, or something like that? Even with Sauber he was in the top ten I think (Don't think it was Alpha Romeo in 2018).

So it's a track where we can do well I think, but I do think it will be a battle with Ferrari again and we need DR to be on top form, because I'm sure Charles and Carlos will give it good showing.

The weather could be the biggest challenge for Daniel… If we will have rain as predicted, the perceived lack of confidence on the car may make things trickier for him


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Possibly, you don't tend to brake into corners in the rain, or at least not with any aggression, so it will be interesting to see how he does if it does rain, see if the issues are elsewhere, corner exit maybe, in which case yes it could get worse for him.

[the EDGE]

It’s interesting how small factors can make such a big difference in lap time… The video below shows the Q2 vs Q3 lap for Lando last year, very small differences in the lines accounted for a bit more than 3 tenths differences between the laps:




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might be an idea to send this video link to Lando... just incase hes forgotten

[_cerber1]

[CjC]

Back to back weekends in Austria- looking forward to this as it’s a short circuit with very close lap times and no room for error in qualifying.

Race day will be all about tyres - intrigued to see how this one plays out.

I’m very intrigued to see how Mclaren perform at the second event in particular. Last season I thought they were slower at the second events compared to the first ones at Austria and Silverstone.

I got the impression last year that, in these instances, they hit the ground running with setup while others took longer to find their optimum.

Agreed. It was something I first noticed back in the Lewis/ Jenson and even Heikki ( ) days, Mclaren seemed to have a very solid base set up and would look good on a Friday but once Red Bull/ Ferrari analyse their days running, they’d catch up to and usually surpass Mclaren come the Saturday and Sunday

[SmallSoldier]

It’s interesting how small factors can make such a big difference in lap time… The video below shows the Q2 vs Q3 lap for Lando last year, very small differences in the lines accounted for a bit more than 3 tenths differences between the laps:




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might be an idea to send this video link to Lando... just incase hes forgotten

Hahaha! Absolutely!

I’m very intrigued about this weekend… The ones that I thought were going to be great for the team weren’t as good and the ones were I thought they would struggle have been better than expected… Hard to know what to expect, but it makes every weekend exciting at least!


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[the EDGE]

I’m very intrigued to see how Mclaren perform at the second event in particular. Last season I thought they were slower at the second events compared to the first ones at Austria and Silverstone.

I got the impression last year that, in these instances, they hit the ground running with setup while others took longer to find their optimum.

Agreed. It was something I first noticed back in the Lewis/ Jenson and even Heikki ( ) days, Mclaren seemed to have a very solid base set up and would look good on a Friday but once Red Bull/ Ferrari analyse their days running, they’d catch up to and usually surpass Mclaren come the Saturday and Sunday

they always seem to over-perform in race 1 each season... or perhaps everyone else just under-performs

[Macklaren]

I like Austria as a track, a lot, a fun little track. There's quite a lot of steering under braking here though, so I don't know if the driveability issues might come back to haunt DR.

Also add that its a very short lap so with a tight midfield (or even at the front) hundredth of a second could mean a gap of 2-3 places on the grid

[CjC]

Did McLaren fall back in Austria 2 last year really? Race 1 was P3/P5 > Race 2 was P5/P9. But if you account for Max, Lewis and Albon's issues in Race 1, the Race 2 result was pretty representative?

Really hard to tell in all honesty, since there were very different races:

In Austria 1, Lewis grid penalty allowed Lando to start higher on the grid, Verstappen DNF’ed, we had the Albon / Lewis situation which netted 2 positions for the team (at least for Lando) and out of the direct competitors, Stroll DNF’ed and there was a Safety Car midway through the race that bunched the grid (Perez by then was more than 5 seconds ahead of Lando and with good pace)…

While in Austria 2 the team was lucky and unlucky… Lando benefited from Perez’ wing front wing damage to gain the position a couple of corners from the finish, but before Perez clash with Albon, they were a good 15 seconds ahead of Lando with 4-5 laps to go, while Carlos had a very bad pitstop that made him lose several positions and just couldn’t recover after that

Very hard to make an assessment, but we need to keep in mind that while the Racing Point was a brand new concept and they were probably still understanding it, the MCL35 was an evolution of the MCL34 and McLaren probably had an small advantage in terms of car understanding for those first few races.


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There’s much more effort in this reply than what I’d post
I agree with you, there’s more to what the actual race result would suggest. A few things went Mclarens way in the first event as you mentioned.

In the second event I felt Tracing Point had loads more pace than Mclaren only a wet quali session dumped the Pink Mercs out in Q2 which scuppered a great result for them and Mclaren managed a the second row start with Sainz.

Same happened at the 2 events a Silverstone.
Mclaren had very decent pace till Sainzs front tyre blew out in the first event. Danny Ric was arguably marginally quicker in his Renault.
Event 2 Tracing Point were miles quicker than Mclaren.

As I say I’m very keen to see what Mclaren do these next 2 weekends, it’ll be great to see them making a step forward in the second event rather than their rivals

[CjC]

I got the impression last year that, in these instances, they hit the ground running with setup while others took longer to find their optimum.

Agreed. It was something I first noticed back in the Lewis/ Jenson and even Heikki ( ) days, Mclaren seemed to have a very solid base set up and would look good on a Friday but once Red Bull/ Ferrari analyse their days running, they’d catch up to and usually surpass Mclaren come the Saturday and Sunday

they always seem to over-perform in race 1 each season... or perhaps everyone else just under-performs

I think back then to the time I’m reffering to, Mclaren was one of the grandee teams and I think their simulator was one point.... it’s a shame they are probably using the same simulator today

[the EDGE]

Agreed. It was something I first noticed back in the Lewis/ Jenson and even Heikki ( ) days, Mclaren seemed to have a very solid base set up and would look good on a Friday but once Red Bull/ Ferrari analyse their days running, they’d catch up to and usually surpass Mclaren come the Saturday and Sunday

they always seem to over-perform in race 1 each season... or perhaps everyone else just under-performs

I think back then to the time I’m reffering to, Mclaren was one of the grandee teams and I think their simulator was one point.... it’s a shame they are probably using the same simulator today

Not for long… A knew SIM was definitely on the shopping list, and hopefully up and running soon

[mwillems]

Lando is number 2 in the power rankings

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