2026 McLaren Mastercard F1 Team

[Emag]

To me it looks like McLaren missed the "trick" by harvesting a lot in T11 and then had less energy on the back straight. That is majority of losses.

The s2 split is right before T11 braking. So basically they were so close in S2 because they deployed there.

You give up 1 tenth in S2, is it guaranteed that you gain more on the main straight? Possibly, but definitely not the 6 tenths you need to put them even.

It still leaves them lacking about 4 tenths (optimistically) to Mercedes.

Before Russell starts to super clip the gap is 0.108s, at S2 mark it is 0.041s (so this small gap is not because of it).

I normally wouldn't say this for my website, but you cannot trust the delta on these laps. I know the alignment pipeline that I have written and what it does in the background to give everyone the best representation on how laps were truly driven when the data is decent. So I can say with confidence, in this case the data is very bad and it will blow things out of proportion. The problem is not just the last bit. That amount of data corruption breaks the assumptions made for the gaps during the whole lap, so the whole thing is affected. So you can only reliably use it to compare apex speeds and top speeds and ignore the delta.

If you check the onboards you will see that the super clipping that Russell does there is quite dramatic. I wouldn't be surprised if it costs Mercedes 1.5 to 2 tenths (in total). They get a lot of that back by having more deployment available down the straight, but as I said we can't be sure that other teams can keep up with them to cover the remaining gap even if they replicate this strategy.

[FittingMechanics]

The delta (from official timing) at S2 is 0.046s, my eyeballing it on your website got me 0.041s. It's not that bad.

I was trying to show a major difference between these laps, and it is this major superclip by Mercedes before T11. Then after T11 Mercedes runs away. I think the two are correlated and we'll see teams copy this in qualifying tomorrow.

[michl420]

It looks like mercedes try to reach a higher top speed on long straights and than hold this difference despite both cars go to ICE only. But it could "just" be drag too.
In Australia it was similar.

[mwillems]

Toto is trying to deflect. He is covering for his team not giving full data to customer teams.

In my view, this Toto revelation makes it WORSE that they held back such critical info from a customer team that the customer ended up choosing the wrong ratios and potentially screwed for the entire season

Honestly I think people are reading too much into it. Toto made one comment saying customer teams make decisions for themselves, and named the only customer that makes their own gearbox. He even said it might be good or it might be bad. If we take him on his word it means he doesn't know, but that his team (works team) is ahead right now. I really doubt Toto is giving McLaren advice to fix their gear ratios.

But I do agree with you. If Mercedes withheld critical information about best rpm range for harvesting this could lead to a mistake by McLaren for the gear ratios. We haven't heard the team say this so I don't think it is true.

Btw I thought the "consensus" was that the car is too draggy so that is why it has shorter gears.

Some of us held that belief but it is still as yet unproven. If it isnt drag and it is gear ratios, you'd see mclaren faster on straights to a certain point and then topping out. Deployment being equal.

Deployment isnt equal so it's hard to really tell and to be honest, I've not bothered with telemetry this year.

Once everything settles down it'll be less muddy.

[venkyhere]

Gear ratio bit is overblown I think. All it needs is a minor change to the final drive (teams are allowed one joker change to gearbox) and the entire gearset becomes longer/shorter by a factor of 0.x or 1.x. Personally, I think (without any iota of proof, pure vibes only) that Mercedes are keeping a special physical engine for themselves and the vanilla one for customers. I have zero belief that the FIA are any good at finding this out, simply because, they are not clever enough (have never been, unless guided by rival teams). When it comes to 'software' , I'm sure many of us in this forum are software engineers and know how to bury a register setting or hide a 'pattern recognition' (for example X number of A pedal presses and Y number of B pedal presses while in Neutral just before leaving the garage) from a customer, simply by not documenting it, and by not allowing the outer layers of code (that is accessible as source code by customer) to 'see' it. In such a high-stakes sport, I am not naive enough to believe that someone like TotoWolff is the embodiment of professional ethics. No way. He has to ensure there are no leaks from the small circle of engineers who designed/are-aware-of this. It's a business, not olympics.
So all this talk of 'customers are free to use H/W and S/W that is common between us and them' is outright BS.

[FittingMechanics]

Some of us held that belief but it is still as yet unproven. If it isnt drag and it is gear ratios, you'd see mclaren faster on straights to a certain point and then topping out. Deployment being equal.

Deployment isnt equal so it's hard to really tell and to be honest, I've not bothered with telemetry this year.

Once everything settles down it'll be less muddy.

Looking at this chart, the car doesn't look draggy. Mercedes has slightly lower apex speed in most of the corners up to S3 but gains slightly on the straights. Top speeds are roughly the same but to my eye it looks like Mercedes has better traction out of corners. This could be as simple as drivers doing a V shape.

It is very similar until the small straight to T11 where Mercedes does something very different and then on the next straight Mercedes is faster throughout, achieving higher top speed and keeping that advantage. This is where data cuts out and then they seem to be faster (acceleration) in the last two corners and final straight.

I know we could say, maybe McLaren offset their drag by higher energy usage on each straight until T11 and then just couldn't keep up. Maybe. Who knows. But I think a simpler explanation is that the car is not much more draggy than Mercedes but that it has slightly worse traction (especially under MGU-K deployment) and that Mercedes understood that superclip to T11 is much faster. If it was just drag/deployment related then there would be no T11 superclip difference and Mercedes would have the same strategy but would be just faster throughout or when the energy runs out.

[FittingMechanics]

But to look forward to the sprint. I still expect us to have weaker race pace than Ferrari (and especially Mercedes) but it's a sprint, Lando had a great launch in Melbourne and if he does it from P3 he could take the lead.

Ferrari launching well could also mean that Mercedes needs to take some risks in first corner. I wouldn't be surprised if it is 3 or 4 wide into T1.

But it might be smarter to play it safe and keep the car intact and gather data. Sprints are not worth the risk.

[Simsy]

https://x.com/drsunlocked/status/20325 ... Glqcutp3sg

[mwillems]

Some of us held that belief but it is still as yet unproven. If it isnt drag and it is gear ratios, you'd see mclaren faster on straights to a certain point and then topping out. Deployment being equal.

Deployment isnt equal so it's hard to really tell and to be honest, I've not bothered with telemetry this year.

Once everything settles down it'll be less muddy.

https://i.postimg.cc/15GfY5xd/image.png

Looking at this chart, the car doesn't look draggy. Mercedes has slightly lower apex speed in most of the corners up to S3 but gains slightly on the straights. Top speeds are roughly the same but to my eye it looks like Mercedes has better traction out of corners. This could be as simple as drivers doing a V shape.

It is very similar until the small straight to T11 where Mercedes does something very different and then on the next straight Mercedes is faster throughout, achieving higher top speed and keeping that advantage. This is where data cuts out and then they seem to be faster (acceleration) in the last two corners and final straight.

I know we could say, maybe McLaren offset their drag by higher energy usage on each straight until T11 and then just couldn't keep up. Maybe. Who knows. But I think a simpler explanation is that the car is not much more draggy than Mercedes but that it has slightly worse traction (especially under MGU-K deployment) and that Mercedes understood that superclip to T11 is much faster. If it was just drag/deployment related then there would be no T11 superclip difference and Mercedes would have the same strategy but would be just faster throughout or when the energy runs out.

Interesting.

That to me is a deployment artefact. .Mercedes are using more energy later.

I take it back, that suggests they are equal in speed. You'd need to check a bunch more though.

Also, in that lap, Mclaren got nailed in high energy braking zone. As they did last year.

Is that a representative lap?

[FittingMechanics]

Some of us held that belief but it is still as yet unproven. If it isnt drag and it is gear ratios, you'd see mclaren faster on straights to a certain point and then topping out. Deployment being equal.

Deployment isnt equal so it's hard to really tell and to be honest, I've not bothered with telemetry this year.

Once everything settles down it'll be less muddy.

https://i.postimg.cc/15GfY5xd/image.png

Looking at this chart, the car doesn't look draggy. Mercedes has slightly lower apex speed in most of the corners up to S3 but gains slightly on the straights. Top speeds are roughly the same but to my eye it looks like Mercedes has better traction out of corners. This could be as simple as drivers doing a V shape.

It is very similar until the small straight to T11 where Mercedes does something very different and then on the next straight Mercedes is faster throughout, achieving higher top speed and keeping that advantage. This is where data cuts out and then they seem to be faster (acceleration) in the last two corners and final straight.

I know we could say, maybe McLaren offset their drag by higher energy usage on each straight until T11 and then just couldn't keep up. Maybe. Who knows. But I think a simpler explanation is that the car is not much more draggy than Mercedes but that it has slightly worse traction (especially under MGU-K deployment) and that Mercedes understood that superclip to T11 is much faster. If it was just drag/deployment related then there would be no T11 superclip difference and Mercedes would have the same strategy but would be just faster throughout or when the energy runs out.

Interesting.

That to me is a deployment artefact. .Mercedes are using more energy later.

I take it back, that suggests they are equal in speed. You'd need to check a bunch more though.

Also, in that lap, Mclaren got nailed in high energy braking zone. As they did last year.

Is that a representative lap?

Their fastest laps. Both Mercedes do the same superclip onto T11. Piastri has almost the same deployment as Norris but some differences on various early straights. But T11 and then losses to T14 is the same. IMO that is representative and conclusive.

It looks like the difference starts there. Then Mercedes is faster on the straight which means they recover more from the braking into T14 which means more energy afterwards.

Big question mark is T16 where Norris has much lower apex speed, is that a mistake by Norris or just Mercedes pace

[upsidedowntoast]

Toto is trying to deflect. He is covering for his team not giving full data to customer teams.

In my view, this Toto revelation makes it WORSE that they held back such critical info from a customer team that the customer ended up choosing the wrong ratios and potentially screwed for the entire season

If you want to use the same gear ratios you might as well just buy the whole gearbox from the works team like Haas does from Ferrari. I understand that people are upset that the works team, unsurprisingly, has an advantage going into a new PU regset and they withheld information that wasn't legally required to be given. But that's the whole incentive of spending the time and money to become a works team in the first place.

It's also possible that Mclaren had different ideas and strategies that will work for their car concept + drivers that won't work for Mercedes, including the gearbox. Either way I trust Mclaren will figure it out.

[CjC]

https://x.com/drsunlocked/status/20325 ... Glqcutp3sg

This.
This is why Mercedes only handed over the final spec PU on the eve of the first race of the season to its customers- especially McLaren.

[Simsy]

https://x.com/drsunlocked/status/20325 ... Glqcutp3sg

This.
This is why Mercedes only handed over the final spec PU on the eve of the first race of the season to its customers- especially McLaren.

Sorry, Dom't know how to embed the tweet, but I find it very interesting. Hopefully if Mclaren can work out the PU better it might close the gap. Do you feel the gearbox will hold Mclaren back this season?

[FittingMechanics]

Looks like McLaren is firmly 3rd in pace today in the sprint. Not miles away from Ferrari but they are just slowly chipping away.

[willmesquita]

Race pace wise, we are 6 tenths per lap behind Russell.