2021 Mclaren F1 Team

[Seerix]

The car wasn’t going to win any Championships because the gap to the front was simply too big, not because of their current design philosophy… As you well mention, Daniel was comfortable last season in the Renault, that didn’t made it a Championship contender.

McLaren decided for a philosophy this year (with all the compromises that the Token system implied and the fact that they had to use all their tokens to integrate a new PU) in order to have the best shot at been competitive in the most amount of races… Yes, the car was going to be underperform in 4-5 races as you mention, but if that meant that it was going to be competitive at the sharp end of the midfield in the other 18-19 races, it was the right call.

I’m sure McLaren didn’t expect Daniel to suffer as much as he is adapting to the car… And no, the team shouldn’t build the car around a driver… The team should build the fastest car they can build… It’s up to the drivers to maximize the equipment they are given… The disappointment with Daniel is that even on those races where the car has pace, he isn’t able to extract it, if he would, McLaren would be in a clear 3rd position right now.

In regards to the last race, the call was the right one… Lando had a clear pace advantage over Daniel, part because he is more comfortable in the MCL35M and part because he was in a different strategy… The team goal is to maximize points and Lando had the best possible chance of making that happen, after they changed positions Lando created a gap of 6 seconds over Daniel in a handful of laps… Truth is that it wasn’t enough, once he got into Ocon’s dirty air he just couldn’t attack and therefore the end result was the same, but if there was one driver with potential for more points in Zandvoort, it was Lando, not Daniel and the team make the right call… It is McLaren Formula 1 after all and they have to make the decisions that are the best for the team, not for a particular driver.

Dan was told to back the pack up deliberately before Norris' pitstop to help him with traffic. It must have been more than 5 seconds, probably closer to 10. That's a lot.

It's not guaranteed Norris could have made up the seconds, overtaken some other cars and then overtaken Dan fair and square if they were actually racing yesterday.

And that's without Dan pulling one of Norris' "if you pass me I'll just run you wide" trade mark by now moves.

The only thing Mclaren managed to achieve last race was Norris finishing ahead of Ricciardo by once place which would have been the exact same result (with positions switched) had Mclaren not told Dan to intentionally slow. Was it worth it? No. But what they did manage to achieve is pissing Dan off and making their driver disgruntled for zero benefit. Suspect Dan will have some words with the team and its unlikely we will see this again anytime soon.

2022 cant come fast enough. This car is absolute cancer for Daniel.

I was watching the Team Stream during the race and can’t recall the team asking Daniel to hold down the pack for Norris… Where did you get that information from?

By the time Norris pitted, he was already 5.7 seconds behind Ocon and Norris was 6 seconds behind Ricciardo… And Norris marginally came back on track behind him (1 second), which with much newer Hard Tires (I believe it was roughly 12 laps newer tires) it just made sense to swap drivers at that point since if any of the 2 drivers had a chance of overtaking the cars in front, it was Norris who had the chance… Why would you purposely delay Norris overtake of Ricciardo with much fresher rubber, on different strategies and with a driver that had effectively more pace? Norris pitted in lap 44, team orders came in and in lap 47 they switch places by lap 52 (5 laps later), Norris was 7 seconds ahead of Ricciardo… That’s a massive pace advantage… Again, I don’t see why you state that Daniel was intentionally slowed to back the pack for Norris, he simply didn’t had the pace.

Yes, ultimately Norris only finish ahead of Daniel and potentially they could have swapped places by the end of the race, but by the end of the race Norris was 12 seconds ahead of Daniel, Daniel was way too far back to change places between them… At the end, it’s hard to fault McLaren, they needed the most amount of points they could get out of the race and Norris was giving them the best chance for that, it didn’t materialize at the end, but is better than not trying.

Lap 39:
Tom: Daniel, if you do 1.17,2 could you hold up Russel and Stroll?
Ric: I can try.
Tom: Target 1.17,2 do not get overtaken.

Lap 43, Daniel complaining:
Ric: I need to push, it's affecting my rhythm. I am making myself vulnerable.
Tom: We need one more lap.

[CjC]

I must disagree. The only way mclaren has to beat ferrari for third place is give opportunity to ricciardo to improove and make important points. For this sake the psycologixal factor is very important and there was at that point of race nothing to gain anymore.

I think they have missed the boat to beat Ferrari.
The lack of points not scored by Daniel in the first half of the season will cost Mclaren.
(For the record I’m a fan of Daniel)

Is there any point in changing the car to suit Daniel this season? Not really
Will it be beneficial to sacrifice Daniel with the car and strategy to help the productive driver? Yes, just ask Bottas, Massa, Coulthard, Barrichello, etc..... do I agree with team strategy in this way- no.

[Emag]

There are still races left this season, so I still have hope we might get 3rd. But if we don't, we just have to admit that Ferrari did a better job. They have had a more consistent car, but most importantly, a far more consistent lineup.

[mclaren111]

The team is certainly not making Daniel feel any better. They completely compromised his race to benefit Lando and in the end it didnt work out.

In any case, I hope this track showed that this design philosophy needs to be binned. When its strong its strong but there will be 4-5 tracks of the year (maybe more) where the car goes MIA and that doesnt win you a championship. They should stop twiddling their thumbs try and as Renault did to suit the car more to Dan's style, we saw this in the 2020 season Daniel was extremely strong that season because he was comfortable with the car, going in week after week with what he had in mind set up wise. At McLaren he just looks lost. Its obvious it doesn't blend in AT ALL with his driving style. Lets hope these are ironed out for 2022 if this isn't possible he should part ways at the end of next season. Perhaps even a return to RBR is on the cards.

The car wasn’t going to win any Championships because the gap to the front was simply too big, not because of their current design philosophy… As you well mention, Daniel was comfortable last season in the Renault, that didn’t made it a Championship contender.

McLaren decided for a philosophy this year (with all the compromises that the Token system implied and the fact that they had to use all their tokens to integrate a new PU) in order to have the best shot at been competitive in the most amount of races… Yes, the car was going to be underperform in 4-5 races as you mention, but if that meant that it was going to be competitive at the sharp end of the midfield in the other 18-19 races, it was the right call.

I’m sure McLaren didn’t expect Daniel to suffer as much as he is adapting to the car… And no, the team shouldn’t build the car around a driver… The team should build the fastest car they can build… It’s up to the drivers to maximize the equipment they are given… The disappointment with Daniel is that even on those races where the car has pace, he isn’t able to extract it, if he would, McLaren would be in a clear 3rd position right now.

In regards to the last race, the call was the right one… Lando had a clear pace advantage over Daniel, part because he is more comfortable in the MCL35M and part because he was in a different strategy… The team goal is to maximize points and Lando had the best possible chance of making that happen, after they changed positions Lando created a gap of 6 seconds over Daniel in a handful of laps… Truth is that it wasn’t enough, once he got into Ocon’s dirty air he just couldn’t attack and therefore the end result was the same, but if there was one driver with potential for more points in Zandvoort, it was Lando, not Daniel and the team make the right call… It is McLaren Formula 1 after all and they have to make the decisions that are the best for the team, not for a particular driver.

Dan was told to back the pack up deliberately before Norris' pitstop to help him with traffic. It must have been more than 5 seconds, probably closer to 10. That's a lot.

It's not guaranteed Norris could have made up the seconds, overtaken some other cars and then overtaken Dan fair and square if they were actually racing yesterday.

And that's without Dan pulling one of Norris' "if you pass me I'll just run you wide" trade mark by now moves.

Total Nonsense... Lando's penalties in these cases were totally wrong...

The FIA are idiots half the time, if not more...

[djos]

Total Nonsense... Lando's penalties in these cases were totally wrong...

The FIA are idiots half the time, if not more...

Agreed, that was a total charlie foxtrot of epic proportions!

[SmallSoldier]

Dan was told to back the pack up deliberately before Norris' pitstop to help him with traffic. It must have been more than 5 seconds, probably closer to 10. That's a lot.

It's not guaranteed Norris could have made up the seconds, overtaken some other cars and then overtaken Dan fair and square if they were actually racing yesterday.

And that's without Dan pulling one of Norris' "if you pass me I'll just run you wide" trade mark by now moves.

The only thing Mclaren managed to achieve last race was Norris finishing ahead of Ricciardo by once place which would have been the exact same result (with positions switched) had Mclaren not told Dan to intentionally slow. Was it worth it? No. But what they did manage to achieve is pissing Dan off and making their driver disgruntled for zero benefit. Suspect Dan will have some words with the team and its unlikely we will see this again anytime soon.

2022 cant come fast enough. This car is absolute cancer for Daniel.

I was watching the Team Stream during the race and can’t recall the team asking Daniel to hold down the pack for Norris… Where did you get that information from?

By the time Norris pitted, he was already 5.7 seconds behind Ocon and Norris was 6 seconds behind Ricciardo… And Norris marginally came back on track behind him (1 second), which with much newer Hard Tires (I believe it was roughly 12 laps newer tires) it just made sense to swap drivers at that point since if any of the 2 drivers had a chance of overtaking the cars in front, it was Norris who had the chance… Why would you purposely delay Norris overtake of Ricciardo with much fresher rubber, on different strategies and with a driver that had effectively more pace? Norris pitted in lap 44, team orders came in and in lap 47 they switch places by lap 52 (5 laps later), Norris was 7 seconds ahead of Ricciardo… That’s a massive pace advantage… Again, I don’t see why you state that Daniel was intentionally slowed to back the pack for Norris, he simply didn’t had the pace.

Yes, ultimately Norris only finish ahead of Daniel and potentially they could have swapped places by the end of the race, but by the end of the race Norris was 12 seconds ahead of Daniel, Daniel was way too far back to change places between them… At the end, it’s hard to fault McLaren, they needed the most amount of points they could get out of the race and Norris was giving them the best chance for that, it didn’t materialize at the end, but is better than not trying.

Lap 39:
Tom: Daniel, if you do 1.17,2 could you hold up Russel and Stroll?
Ric: I can try.
Tom: Target 1.17,2 do not get overtaken.

Lap 43, Daniel complaining:
Ric: I need to push, it's affecting my rhythm. I am making myself vulnerable.
Tom: We need one more lap.

Thank you! I definitely missed it!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[SmallSoldier]

There are still races left this season, so I still have hope we might get 3rd. But if we don't, we just have to admit that Ferrari did a better job. They have had a more consistent car, but most importantly, a far more consistent lineup.

Exactly… I do also believe that 3rd is in the cards and that we will fight for it… But, if at the end of the season Ferrari comes out on top, they simply did a better job and had 2 drivers performing and delivering most often than not.

It’s a bit early to throw the towel… Let’s take it one race at a time, Monza, Sochi and Cota could be good races for the team, let’s see how we fair there.

[mwillems]

All it takes is one bad race for Ferrari and everything changes. Still it's hard, but it can be done.

But I do think it is unlikely unfortunately. However, I just love the fact we are getting plenty of hard racing in and getting some glory results, and may yet still get some more.

[diffuser]

Total Nonsense... Lando's penalties in these cases were totally wrong...

The FIA are idiots half the time, if not more...

Agreed, that was a total charlie foxtrot of epic proportions!

Not sure I'd go that far but IMHO there was an unwritten rule change that came about with Max pushing the envelope when he came into F1. He pushed for allowing more contact. Fans seemed to love it so the FIA let themselves be pressured by it. Let's call that the "let them race" rule (think of Lap 69 2019 Austrian Grand Prix Max vs Leclair). Before that rule, contact was frowned upon. The "You must always leave space" rule was in effect(The Hamilton/Alonso/Button generation). Think of Massa vs Alonso 2007 at Nurburgring. The Video of Alonso getting out of his McLaren after the race, calling over to the camera to show by pointing where tire marks were made on the McLaren by Massa when Alonso passed him on lap 55. Alonso nodding no with his fingers.

I think they're trying to pull back from the "let them race". If anything Silverstone was a inspiration for the "You must always leave space" rule. Obviously you can't have the "let them race" but don't pass on turn 1 @ Silverstone or turn whatever at whatever track, that would be very hard to enforce. I also believe that the "let them race" will always end in more high massive impacts and maybe death.

[EddyBaggio]

Any predictions? I have a bad feeling about this race. Maybe 5th best team…

[101FlyingDutchman]

How many times have we seen FP1 to be like this. Patience

[EddyBaggio]

How many times have we seen FP1 to be like this. Patience

Thats not based on FP1 Just based on the teams recent form

[diffuser]

How many times have we seen FP1 to be like this. Patience

Thats not based on FP1 Just based on the teams recent form

Think these Sprint Quailies are a challenge for McLaren, they usually take the 1st 2 FPs to get the car setup right.

[101FlyingDutchman]

How many times have we seen FP1 to be like this. Patience

Thats not based on FP1 Just based on the teams recent form

Still think the same?

[EddyBaggio]

How many times have we seen FP1 to be like this. Patience

Thats not based on FP1 Just based on the teams recent form

Still think the same?

Yes.