2025 McLaren F1 Team

[Mcl_G10]

This thing with Lando and Oscar "sharing" the points could make things more difficult at the end of the year (in relation to the drivers' championship). While the two are sharing the points, Russell and Verstappen are racing "alone", without teammates to take points from them. For now it doesn't make much difference because the car is much better than the others, but this advantage may not continue throughout the year.

I'm not sure that's entirely right or fair. It's not as though they are deliberately 'sharing' the points it's simply a consequence of having 2 top quality, evenly matched well rounded drivers.
It is only fair to be this way as this is how u manage to keep two drivers with the quality of being number 1's happy.
It will maximise the chances of a constructors title and also makesure that the driver comes out on top can do so knowing they have actually been the best driver in the best car unlike some other teams who will heavily weight to support the main driver.
2 cars in the mix each week can only help imo. Today it looked as though oscar put the squeeze on George in the first corner which helped norris to pass him. Point proven.

[FittingMechanics]

It was influenced by how much pressure he applied to the brake, so not braking as hard would make it last longer. He had a tough job of managing Russell and still managing to finish.

He brought the car home in 2nd, I think he did great.

We really don't know enough at the moment. Maybe it was just something similar to "slow leak" so whatever he did, the degradation would be the same. But, given that the team was telling him to take it easy I think it was influenced by how hard he was using the tires. If this is true, Norris risked his P2 by trying to push toward Piastri.

In the end, it was just enough to stay P2 but in my opinion, he should have listened to his engineer when he told him he would rather finish P2 than not finish at all.

Watching the race back and the same thought comes to mind....

The ease in which lando passes George after he was jumped during the pitstops is pretty incredible. George had tires up to temp so no using that as a reason. We know the mclaren gets tyres to temp very fast but it was so effortless. At first I thought norris may be stuck behind for a lot of laps. This is not the sign of a car that is only 1 or 2 tenths a lap faster.

Once he passed he just kept enough of a gap and then when asked by the team to build a 4 sec gap to cover possible undercut he also did that with ease in a couple of laps.

Mclaren hiding pace and coasting? I get the feeling we saw nothing like the full potential of mclaren today.

I don't think they were really hiding pace on purpose. It is more the case of being so little time to setup the car that no one really knew what the tires will be doing, so everyone was super cautious. No point in running off 10 seconds only to lose all that with a SC and then fight with bad tires.

I am also very impressed with the overtake on Russell. Mercedes had a lot of top speed so being able to overtake with the same engine tells a lot of potential pace of the car (and Lando got fastest lap of the race couple of laps before his problem became unmanageable).

[Mcl_G10]

@ FittingMechanics

But with the way in which the race unfolded you could see that George was pushing to the limit to keep lando, then Charles behind and then to try catch lando at the end as so too were ferrari and max. All the cars seemed to push to their maximum whereas oscar simply kept the gap to behind and saved tyres and lando was denied a late push to use tyres due to the brake pedal.
It felt as though both mclarens 'could' have been 20+ seconds ahead on another day.

[FittingMechanics]

@ FittingMechanics

But with the way in which the race unfolded you could see that George was pushing to the limit to keep lando, then Charles behind and then to try catch lando at the end as so too were ferrari and max. All the cars seemed to push to their maximum whereas oscar simply kept the gap to behind and saved tyres and lando was denied a late push to use tyres due to the brake pedal.
It felt as though both mclarens 'could' have been 20+ seconds ahead on another day.

I do agree about Russell. Mercedes surely instructed him to push as hard as possible as soon as they got info about Norris having a brake pedal issue. So his pace is probably maximized at that moment (and Norris was pulling away). Ferrari as well, Hamilton was trying to undercut and Leclerc couldn't defend against Verstappen.

My point is just that I don't think McLaren was sandbagging on purpose in the hard stint, they were just unclear of how long the tires will last and managed their pace.

[mwillems]

It was influenced by how much pressure he applied to the brake, so not braking as hard would make it last longer. He had a tough job of managing Russell and still managing to finish.

He brought the car home in 2nd, I think he did great.

We really don't know enough at the moment. Maybe it was just something similar to "slow leak" so whatever he did, the degradation would be the same. But, given that the team was telling him to take it easy I think it was influenced by how hard he was using the tires. If this is true, Norris risked his P2 by trying to push toward Piastri.

In the end, it was just enough to stay P2 but in my opinion, he should have listened to his engineer when he told him he would rather finish P2 than not finish at all.

Watching the race back and the same thought comes to mind....

The ease in which lando passes George after he was jumped during the pitstops is pretty incredible. George had tires up to temp so no using that as a reason. We know the mclaren gets tyres to temp very fast but it was so effortless. At first I thought norris may be stuck behind for a lot of laps. This is not the sign of a car that is only 1 or 2 tenths a lap faster.

Once he passed he just kept enough of a gap and then when asked by the team to build a 4 sec gap to cover possible undercut he also did that with ease in a couple of laps.

Mclaren hiding pace and coasting? I get the feeling we saw nothing like the full potential of mclaren today.

I don't think they were really hiding pace on purpose. It is more the case of being so little time to setup the car that no one really knew what the tires will be doing, so everyone was super cautious. No point in running off 10 seconds only to lose all that with a SC and then fight with bad tires.

I am also very impressed with the overtake on Russell. Mercedes had a lot of top speed so being able to overtake with the same engine tells a lot of potential pace of the car (and Lando got fastest lap of the race couple of laps before his problem became unmanageable).

It was said on TeamStream that heavy breaking caused greater pressure loss, hence he needed to be super cautious.


08:27
The brake pedal is going to get worse, you just need to limit your brake pressure.

08:27
Five to go. Lando is 3.3s behind Oscar and 7.1s ahead of RUS.

PIT → NOR
08:25
We can see you're quick. We'd rather finish second than not finish at all. No hard braking.

[SilviuAgo]

It was influenced by how much pressure he applied to the brake, so not braking as hard would make it last longer. He had a tough job of managing Russell and still managing to finish.

He brought the car home in 2nd, I think he did great.

We really don't know enough at the moment. Maybe it was just something similar to "slow leak" so whatever he did, the degradation would be the same. But, given that the team was telling him to take it easy I think it was influenced by how hard he was using the tires. If this is true, Norris risked his P2 by trying to push toward Piastri.

In the end, it was just enough to stay P2 but in my opinion, he should have listened to his engineer when he told him he would rather finish P2 than not finish at all.

Watching the race back and the same thought comes to mind....

The ease in which lando passes George after he was jumped during the pitstops is pretty incredible. George had tires up to temp so no using that as a reason. We know the mclaren gets tyres to temp very fast but it was so effortless. At first I thought norris may be stuck behind for a lot of laps. This is not the sign of a car that is only 1 or 2 tenths a lap faster.

Once he passed he just kept enough of a gap and then when asked by the team to build a 4 sec gap to cover possible undercut he also did that with ease in a couple of laps.

Mclaren hiding pace and coasting? I get the feeling we saw nothing like the full potential of mclaren today.

I don't think they were really hiding pace on purpose. It is more the case of being so little time to setup the car that no one really knew what the tires will be doing, so everyone was super cautious. No point in running off 10 seconds only to lose all that with a SC and then fight with bad tires.

I am also very impressed with the overtake on Russell. Mercedes had a lot of top speed so being able to overtake with the same engine tells a lot of potential pace of the car (and Lando got fastest lap of the race couple of laps before his problem became unmanageable).

It was said on TeamStream that heavy breaking caused greater pressure loss, hence he needed to be super cautious.


08:27
The brake pedal is going to get worse, you just need to limit your brake pressure.

08:27
Five to go. Lando is 3.3s behind Oscar and 7.1s ahead of RUS.

PIT → NOR
08:25
We can see you're quick. We'd rather finish second than not finish at all. No hard braking.

Some interesting data and brake issue explained here:

https://www.planetf1.com/features/revea ... rris-drama

[SilviuAgo]

That's a nice one from Lando. I saw it also today how the F1 commentary tried to create some artificial drama between Lando and Oscar at race end. Or how the communication between Lewis and Ferrari pitwall regarding car's swap was broadcast. Not every race is Drive to Survive.



And I let this here, just to remember all the McLaren fans that this boys are doing all their best for this team. Support them fairly!

[venkyhere]

Sorry to say, but this sounds awfully like PR spin doctors coaching the drivers to talk like this. No driver, I repeat, no driver, likes competition within the team. This 'pushing each other' etc is narrative creation.

[ivanlesk]

Why would they do that?

[Emag]

Sorry to say, but this sounds awfully like PR spin doctors coaching the drivers to talk like this. No driver, I repeat, no driver, likes competition within the team. This 'pushing each other' etc is narrative creation.

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/48217/ma ... iardo.html

Max has said the same thing before.

[Mostlyeels]

Oscar just sounds like he barely gives two sh*ts

Hahaha my fav comment! I didn’t watch the cool down or any of the interviews, but his cool down lap comments were very dry

Lando did so well to bring that car home in front of Russell.

[venkyhere]

Sorry to say, but this sounds awfully like PR spin doctors coaching the drivers to talk like this. No driver, I repeat, no driver, likes competition within the team. This 'pushing each other' etc is narrative creation.

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/48217/ma ... iardo.html

Max has said the same thing before.

So ?
Doesn't matter which driver said the same thing what # of years ago, this is PR coached parrot talk. This is the excuse teams tell the unchanged driver, when they bring in a new driver instead of his previous partner.

[mwillems]

I think he means it, particularly if he's leaned more on Oscar's telemetry to try and find time after struggling this weekend.

[f1rules]

ah so fulfilling found on autosport forum
https://x.com/i/status/1903918729571750192

[mwillems]

If it wasn't clear before the weekend that there is some mechanical goodness at the front, it will be now.