2026 McLaren Mastercard F1 Team

[De Wet]

First GP of the year and nobody knows the pecking order yet. I personally enter this year satisfied from the last two years as I was proven right in two things. First that a customer team not only can beat the factory teams but could do a back to back. Check. And secondly the days where a driver could get a much slower car and get a title died with Senna. Today the car is doing 80-90% of the work and the best combination wins most of the time as it happened. So may the best combo wins the title and may we have a good and competitive year.

Agree. F1 is being destroyed like everything else these days.

[CjC]

Oscar’s turn to play down the chances:
https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12433 ... -long-game

[Waz]

Without the position swap in Monza, Max wins the title, and that doesn't seem like vindication that a driver can't win in a lesser car.

[SmallSoldier]

Discussions around the Team’s strategy in a race are almost a guarantee in the forum after each race weekend… Specially if the result isn’t the one that Team / Fans wanted, even worse sometimes saying how obvious a call was the day after the race and knowing all outcomes that happened afterwards.

The following article discusses how much data the Team’s have at their disposal to make those strategy call and the tools they have at their disposal to predict the outcome of those decisions… I found interesting and thought it was worth sharing

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/insid ... /10801964/

[McFAN]

Without the position swap in Monza, Max wins the title, and that doesn't seem like vindication that a driver can't win in a lesser car.

Max + RedBull I think it's fair to say are a bit of an edge case,
The fact that Max invariably finishes ahead of his teammates is worth a shedload of points over a season .

[swifteddie1]

Finally the new season is upon us. The team seem to be quietly confident while acknowledging that they are behind Ferrari and Mercedes. What's also interesting is that they seem to be suggesting that the area where they can make the most gains at the moment is on energy management and how to get the best out of these PUs. I am really curious to see how big the gap is. I would be surprised if its more than half a second to Merc based on the messaging from the team.

[MTudor]

The question is. Is Mclaren fast enough to challenge for a win in Australia?

Mclaren were champions of development in the past seasons,so it's not so important to start with a win.

[MTudor]

Speaking about sponsors,did we loose some in the winter,because the side of the car looks rather empty

[MTudor]

I know eye aero is bullsh*t and everything, but honestly I am really surprised how McLaren can seemingly do so well while having a car so bare of any unique surface aerodynamic solutions. The car is just a really really basic concept that has been executed quite well. You look at Ferrari, RedBull and Mercedes, they all have unique ideas that their chassis plays around with. Things that really catch your eye and attention with clever interpretations.

And here goes McLaren. Standard downwashing sidepods. Conventional diffuser. A leading floor edge that looks even simpler than some midfield teams, let alone compared to the other top teams. Visually speaking, it makes no sense for this car to keep up with the other 3.

Mclaren's front wing is quite unique with the steep trail edge,the "wing" is going downwords,not upwards,and I'm sure the are more eagle eyes here that can explain better the "plain" but sophisticated Mcl 40.

[MTudor]

Indeed, there is no way to know, but it wasnt posted for that reason. But I expect Scarbs knows a lot more than most in here and knows folks in the teams. Naturally his opinion carries a little weight.

I'm aware it wasn't posted for that reason & if my reply read as such it wasn't meant to.
What I will say is that I remember very clearly reading Scarbs opinion after testing in 2022 and him looking very foolish with some of his analysis once the season started.

Ultimately most of these articles/videos are click bait.
They make some valid points here and there and there’s some truths here and there but as usual they have a tendency to extrapolate and somehow turn 2 + 2 into something that doesn’t equal 4 depending on the team.
And just for the record this isn’t a pop at Scarbs perse because they pretty much all do it.
None of them know the finer points they just know like most of us that it looks like the big 4 are still going to be the big 4.

Obviously in general the people who actually work in this business are interested in the clicks, so sometimes they are probably aware that there's not much (proper) value in the content they're putting out during this cloudy period where nobody knows where everyone stands. But if they didn't at least try to cover it, they're just missing out on that (relatively) little traffic the fanatics generate during this period.

Scarbs is a great technical person in the scene though. The predictions might not always stick, because they're just that, predictions. However when it comes to spotting details and explaining them to a more general audience I generally quite like Scarbs and it's one of my favorite people to follow for such things.

I like Kyle engineers and B sport,two guys that actually worked in F1,quite recently and have much more understanding how airflow work on these surfaces.

[Fred]

Without the position swap in Monza, Max wins the title, and that doesn't seem like vindication that a driver can't win in a lesser car.

Max + RedBull I think it's fair to say are a bit of an edge case,
The fact that Max invariably finishes ahead of his teammates is worth a shedload of points over a season .

Same can be said for Senna in 1991 too. He didn’t have a competitive teammate and he also had reliability on his side, with the Williams having a lot more issues.

I think it’s pure revisionism to act as if it was ever possible that a better driver could outperform a better car, especially when those cars are piloted by top drivers like Mansell and Norris, without major extenuating circumstances helping the other driver. People grossly underestimate the impact that having a 2nd driver has. Mathematically, even if the Red Bull was only quicker for 1/3rd of the season, Max would’ve gone into the final race with a comfortable lead with Norris and Piastri being so close and Max’s teammate being out of contention. Which is what would’ve happened if Max didn’t get road rage in Barcelona. Likewise, Senna dominated in 1991 from not only this (although Mansell still had a decent advantage over Patrese), but the fact that the McLaren was still more competitive and the Williams had a lot of reliability issues. If it wasn’t for the string of issues Williams started the season with, Mansell would’ve won the title.

[Darth-Piekus]

In the case of Senna, Mansell, Prost and the drivers of the 80s and 90s it was possible to win with a worse car and even get a title in 1991 as back then the car did half the work unlike now that does 80 to 90% of the work.

[Ben1980]

Almost time. Even if its a terrible time zone for the Uk.

I have little expectations this season. I think we are behind Mercedes and Ferrari and maybe Max. So, anything above 5th will be interesting and anything below 7th will seem disappointing.

Obviously that nay all change after 3 practice sessions.

Just glad we aren't Aston Martin ( been there, done that)

[FittingMechanics]

Almost time. Even if its a terrible time zone for the Uk.

I have little expectations this season. I think we are behind Mercedes and Ferrari and maybe Max. So, anything above 5th will be interesting and anything below 7th will seem disappointing.

Obviously that nay all change after 3 practice sessions.

Just glad we aren't Aston Martin ( been there, done that)

Fully agreed. I think it was critical to stay close to the front and not fall back into midfield. This mission seems accomplished. Now it's a development game and we've had good experience watching McLaren out develop other top teams.

I'm still optimistic. It would be lovely to be in podium area from the start.

[Darth-Piekus]

It's time for Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri to show if they are able to get something without having the best car. I believe the time is now.