2025 McLaren F1 Team

[FittingMechanics]

I guess their thinking was probably that they have big enough car margin that they can do two runs, minimizing chances of a mistake affecting their lap. It almost worked as Norris was probably on for pole before his late mistake.

I am not sure I agree with the idea, it means that your first lap will never be as fast as it could because you carry more fuel and you are running earlier in the session. Going late was obviously very beneficial as the track improved at the end of each session. Doing only one lap would carry the risk of your mistake affecting your lap, but it would also give them a bigger margin to make a mistake, any minor mistake would be fine.

But at least we'll get a fun sprint tomorrow and then we can reset for the qualifying. I expect more in qualifying and the race.

[CjC]

Wow. First of all what a lap from Lewis. Second of all Norris has serious problems with sprints as he seems to be screwing qualifying a lot.

I said it after Australia. It's a beast of a car, but needs taming. And that's not always easy.

Lando was struggling with the car and ended up slower than his SQ2 time. Car has the speed but you have to really be on it to get the lap.

They were the only ones on 2 flying laps? So those initial times were with more fuel than the rest?

Couldn't keep the tyres up for the second lap.

It was on rails in Australia.

Bear in mind sprints are notorious for rushed setup and this is race 2.

I'm not sure how the tires will last in the sprint but I'm unconcerned for the race.

Guys, don't jump on the pessimism gun so quickly, jeez. There is nothing wrong with the car nor it's treatment of tyres (the ace up it's sleeve). Norris got greedy with 11-12-13 and spoiled his exit to the back straight, and inorder to compensate went super greedy with late braking into 14 hairpin, slid out ; and then went into the pits. He had nearly 1/4 second advantage over Hamilton before T11 (almost all of it from sector1). That would have translated to more than 3 tenths advantage had he completed the lap normally.
Chill guys, he will win the sprint or atleast finish P2.

Thanks for the insight.
After watching lando’s interview after sprint quali I can only add this: I guess Lando will have to look in the mirror this week.

[CjC]

I guess their thinking was probably that they have big enough car margin that they can do two runs, minimizing chances of a mistake affecting their lap. It almost worked as Norris was probably on for pole before his late mistake.

I am not sure I agree with the idea, it means that your first lap will never be as fast as it could because you carry more fuel and you are running earlier in the session. Going late was obviously very beneficial as the track improved at the end of each session. Doing only one lap would carry the risk of your mistake affecting your lap, but it would also give them a bigger margin to make a mistake, any minor mistake would be fine.

But at least we'll get a fun sprint tomorrow and then we can reset for the qualifying. I expect more in qualifying and the race.

I’m not surprised by the result really.
I personally think Liberty Media’s sole purpose for the sprint format is to jumble up the order as much as possible, which it more often than not does.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again today- Sprint quali is effectively the quali sims in FP2 and the sprint is the FP2 long run. Teams can’t get all the data from one free practise session. Mclaren took a bit of a gamble today and it didn’t pay off.

[Darth-Piekus]

I dont think anything is over yet. There are 19 or 20 sprint race laps where the two Mclarens can quickly clear the field. That is if the car keeps treating the tyres better than the competition

[Emag]

Lando's position is definitely all in Lando. His best sectors would have put him above Oscar if he put it together. Whether if it would have been enough to be on pole or not, that's another question, but the car shouldn't have been half a second away from sprint pole.

[Dimond]

Good old Norris is back
On the other hand, he only makes 1 mistake a weekend, so I expect a podium and a pole tomorrow, and a win on Sunday

[bauc]

Guys what is the reason for this dramatization right away? We have a nervous car when pushed to the max, both NOR and PIA made a mistke in Q3 in Australia, here the same this morning, it's the race tomorrow and on Sunday where it counts, calm down please.

[mwillems]

I wouldn't be too harsh on Lando. The car does look tricky. It doesn't look great though that Oscar was a little slower but able to more consistently get a good lap in.

[mwillems]

Guys what is the reason for this dramatization right away? We have a nervous car when pushed to the max, both NOR and PIA made a mistke in Q3 in Australia, here the same this morning, it's the race tomorrow and on Sunday where it counts, calm down please.

Lol

As I said many pages ago... ...

It's a sprint weekend, 1 practice, rushed setup and at just race 2 where we are still learning the car.

Chill, it'll all be fine. I'm not concerned for the race and we'll get good sprint points.

[Ben1980]

What tyres do they use for the sprint?

[bauc]

Guys what is the reason for this dramatization right away? We have a nervous car when pushed to the max, both NOR and PIA made a mistke in Q3 in Australia, here the same this morning, it's the race tomorrow and on Sunday where it counts, calm down please.

Lol

As I said many pages ago... ...

It's a sprint weekend, 1 practice, rushed setup and at just race 2 where we are still learning the car.

Chill, it'll all be fine. I'm not concerned for the race and we'll get good sprint points.

Yeah, its race 2 of 24, can we trust a little bit more in the team that 2 seasons ago was dead last and now fighting for victories and podiums on every race?

[CjC]

What tyres do they use for the sprint?

Any they want

[_cerber1]

I think it was very overconfident to qualify with fuel for 6 laps and reuse the tyres for the second fast lap. I think this is more the fault of the team than the drivers. In any case, it was also a useful experience, it is good that we found out in the second race.

[crapu7]

Mclaren is a good car if the drivers can own it. Norris struggled to keep the car on track trying to destroy the field and paid the price for it in the second to last corner. I expect an adjustment to both Piastri and Norris in the main Q and hopefully a better result (1-3).

As for the Sprint Race it will be interesting to see how the teams manage to keep their left front tyre alive and that should give us a sign of where everybody is in the main race.

I don't expect Mclaren advantage of pace/tyre wear to challenge for a win in the sprint, maybe if Piastri has a good launch he can possibly get the top step but that is a big IF. As for Norris his maximum target will be to get pass Russel and Leclerc and finish P4.

[venkyhere]

I am staggered at the amount of pessimism amongst Mclaren fans in this thread. Mclaren has so much pace advantage, whether sprint or race ; that on a track like China or Spa or Silverstone, with lots of track 'width' , the Q position doesn't matter at all. Tyre life advantage is the icing on the cake of raw pace advantage. The MCL39 has so much advantage over the other 9 cars, that this season is going to be a joke. Today Piastri should have done better, Norris can be excused a few mistakes in his greed for 'let me show them how fast I am' pursuits - that is typical mentality of a guy who wants to win a championship. The rest of the field can only cling on to hopes like this - that the Mclaren drivers will make some unforced errors ; but even then, if they have 20+ laps to compensate for an 'error', they will be back in front. This car is looking every bit like the RB19/W11 (perhaps even better). There is nothing for McLaren to worry about. There is nothing for Mclaren fans to worry about. This season is a cakewalk.

There is no way that other teams can find 1s+ performance within a season, with budget cap, with wind tunnel restrictions, and with the next regulation era looming in the background. What McLaren did in 2024, is the rare culmination of many things coming together - a new windtunnel, perfect correlation between simulation and track, a perfect harmony amongst the 'poached in' genius level engineering/program-management talent - such kind of things happen once in 20 years.