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This has been discussed in other threads. The closure clearly takes much longer than the allowed 400 ms, so only a malfunction would make this go through. If this was a design choice by Mercedes (the argument for this would be that it appeared on both cars to the same extent), I can’t see how this could be legal.SilviuAgo wrote: ↑19 Mar 2026, 16:54I am curious if McLaren is considering a new FW for Miami (we already saw an interesting design at Aston Martin, or RBR). And something that I also saw at Mercedes and I thought that i have a problem with my eyes or my perception, the Mercedes FW aero system has "multiple stages", not only on or off.
Now I see that also other users spot it. Maybe the front win responds to the amount of breaking pressure applied? Sudden breaking closes fast, slow breaking increasing the pressure gradually closes slower?
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/arti ... 2Wv6Ba5cIR“I’m looking forward to when we win races. I guarantee you when we win our next race, which will be sooner rather than later, we’re not going to be thinking about speed traces or batteries or anything, we’re going to be, ‘We’re winning Grand Prix races’.”
I concur, I think many are forgetting that the 2022 to 2025 era of cars were extremely sensitive to setup & upgrades, it was that extreme sensitivity that made those type of gains possible.Emag wrote: ↑21 Mar 2026, 13:55I have a feeling people will be disappointed because they expect too much. What McLaren did mid 2023 and 2024 is not the norm at all. It's incredibly rare to get teams going from 6-7 tenths off to being 1-2 tenths ahead within the same season like that. If they do it again it will be very impressive, but I personally doubt they'll catch Mercedes this year.
I think podium fight are almost guaranteed (for P3 at least), maybe even in Japan.
I would argue that gaps this year are more deceiving than last year. The synergy between chassis and PU unlocks a lot more lap time than before. Start of regs cycle also has the potential for greater development steps if the team finds a good idea in the wind tunnel.Emag wrote: ↑21 Mar 2026, 13:55I have a feeling people will be disappointed because they expect too much. What McLaren did mid 2023 and 2024 is not the norm at all. It's incredibly rare to get teams going from 6-7 tenths off to being 1-2 tenths ahead within the same season like that. If they do it again it will be very impressive, but I personally doubt they'll catch Mercedes this year.
But this is the biggest rule change in history with arguably more time to be found in big chunks than at any other point this centurydia6olo wrote: ↑21 Mar 2026, 14:30I concur, I think many are forgetting that the 2022 to 2025 era of cars were extremely sensitive to setup & upgrades, it was that extreme sensitivity that made those type of gains possible.Emag wrote: ↑21 Mar 2026, 13:55I have a feeling people will be disappointed because they expect too much. What McLaren did mid 2023 and 2024 is not the norm at all. It's incredibly rare to get teams going from 6-7 tenths off to being 1-2 tenths ahead within the same season like that. If they do it again it will be very impressive, but I personally doubt they'll catch Mercedes this year.
I very much doubt that we will see those gains with these cars. We are much more likely to see more normal/equal gains across the board with these cars.
I feel any gains outside of the “norm” will only be made by the PU but even that I feel will be short lived because the PU’s will eventually also line up, probably as early as next year.