2025 McLaren F1 Team

[AR3-GP]

No idea how informed this fella is but he’s suggesting that Mclaren are already running a post Spain compliant front wing….
Not sure if I’ve expressed the same opinion on here (I nearly did this afternoon) but I’ve been contemplating for a while if the Mclaren was close to or already compliant to the new test.


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And I absolutely agree with him that Mclaren will have a shocker in Spain which will send social media into meltdown exclaiming how the new tests have hampered Mclaren even though it has nothing to do with it

Interesting comment. In Jeddah I saw the Mclaren front wing several times during the weekend, and something stood out to me. I thought, "it seems like the Mclaren wing doesn't move as much anymore". I kept this to myself over the weekend because it was only a subjective take and Jeddah is a lower downforce circuit so the front wing would already tend to be trimmed which means there is less force pushing it back.

Could be something, could be nothing. That may explain a few things...Mclaren might be doing some A and B test during the free practice sessions which would explain a lot of things like the performance variation and the excessive flow viz usage just behind the front wing...

If they have done it, then we might also being seeing the impact of the nerf.

[Emag]

Interesting comment. In Jeddah I saw the Mclaren front wing several times during the weekend, and something stood out to me. I thought, "it seems like the Mclaren wing doesn't move as much anymore". I kept this to myself over the weekend because it was only a subjective take and Jeddah is a lower downforce circuit so the front wing would already tend to be trimmed which means there is less force pushing it back.

Could be something, could be nothing. That may explain a few things...Mclaren might be doing some A and B test during the free practice sessions which would explain a lot of things like the performance variation and the excessive flow viz usage just behind the front wing...

If they have done it, then we might also being seeing the impact of the nerf.

To me, it seemed like their front wing was flexing less than last year in testing already, but I put a disclaimer on my post back then, not sure if it was due to the different angles :

https://i.imgur.com/INxZJbc.jpeg

It seems like there's less flex on the MCL39's front wing, but I can't be certain if it's due to the slightly different onboard angles or not. But even when looking at the onboard videos (not static images like these) of the MCL39, the flap movement doesn't seem as dramatic on the braking zone as it was with the MCL38.

In Jeddah, from front wing cams, it definitely didn't seem as dramatic as it used to be though, so it may be true that they have tuned it down in preparation for Spain. After all, it's not like FWs will be 100% rigid in Spain, they just wont be allowed to flex as much as they're (technically) allowed now.

[CjC]

Literally guys I’m re-watching footage of Landos front wing in Jeddah and having a mild panic attack thinking the wing is moving a lot
However I don’t have any references to compare it to last season, tried looking on your picture @Emag but the adverts keep getting in the way, so I pied it off
All that is left for me to do is to consider how long are those metal ‘sliders’ on the top element- I can see that the wing flex the full length of them so are they 10 or 15mm long??

[Seanspeed]

Back when Red Bull were being heavily targeted by clampdowns on front wing flexing(circa 2011-2013), they got by fine. And the FIA introduced those changes fairly rapidly, not like with Mclaren where they've essentially given them a free pass for the 2024 season, and then told them WELL in advance in 2025 that they'd be changing it later down the line. Mclaren are likely very comfortable with their situation, and also know their front wing flexing is not at all THE key factor in what makes their car so usable and fast everywhere.

I'd be shocked if it affects them negatively at all in terms of relative competitiveness, given other teams have likely been taking more crude measures to try and take advantage of this flexing. As always, it's the team that understands the rules the best that wins, not one that is fortunate with some singular loophole only they found advantage with.

[CjC]

No idea how informed this fella is but he’s suggesting that Mclaren are already running a post Spain compliant front wing….
Not sure if I’ve expressed the same opinion on here (I nearly did this afternoon) but I’ve been contemplating for a while if the Mclaren was close to or already compliant to the new test.


(Sorry about the ads)

And I absolutely agree with him that Mclaren will have a shocker in Spain which will send social media into meltdown exclaiming how the new tests have hampered Mclaren even though it has nothing to do with it

Interesting comment. In Jeddah I saw the Mclaren front wing several times during the weekend, and something stood out to me. I thought, "it seems like the Mclaren wing doesn't move as much anymore". I kept this to myself over the weekend because it was only a subjective take and Jeddah is a lower downforce circuit so the front wing would already tend to be trimmed which means there is less force pushing it back.

Could be something, could be nothing. That may explain a few things...Mclaren might be doing some A and B test during the free practice sessions which would explain a lot of things like the performance variation and the excessive flow viz usage just behind the front wing...

If they have done it, then we might also being seeing the impact of the nerf.

So I’ve been contemplating this a bit further since posting the video.
I know there could be numerous explanations for the following but if we look at our ‘on track evidence’ in testing we saw Lando struggling with a loose back end and there was that video on social media of that guy saying that McLaren have so much front end they are going to be mega blah blah blah- which would suggest a front wing with a high flap angle to create a lot of downforce (a 15mm flexing front wing) fast forward to Jeddah- Lando puts it in the wall in Q3, afterwards Stella said that Lando missed the apex with understeer (the trait we would expect with a 10mm flexing wing) he runs wide on the exit kerb and the rest is history.
Or am I barking up the wrong wishful thinking tree?

[AR3-GP]

No idea how informed this fella is but he’s suggesting that Mclaren are already running a post Spain compliant front wing….
Not sure if I’ve expressed the same opinion on here (I nearly did this afternoon) but I’ve been contemplating for a while if the Mclaren was close to or already compliant to the new test.


(Sorry about the ads)

And I absolutely agree with him that Mclaren will have a shocker in Spain which will send social media into meltdown exclaiming how the new tests have hampered Mclaren even though it has nothing to do with it

Interesting comment. In Jeddah I saw the Mclaren front wing several times during the weekend, and something stood out to me. I thought, "it seems like the Mclaren wing doesn't move as much anymore". I kept this to myself over the weekend because it was only a subjective take and Jeddah is a lower downforce circuit so the front wing would already tend to be trimmed which means there is less force pushing it back.

Could be something, could be nothing. That may explain a few things...Mclaren might be doing some A and B test during the free practice sessions which would explain a lot of things like the performance variation and the excessive flow viz usage just behind the front wing...

If they have done it, then we might also being seeing the impact of the nerf.

So I’ve been contemplating this a bit further since posting the video.
I know there could be numerous explanations for the following but if we look at our ‘on track evidence’ in testing we saw Lando struggling with a loose back end and there was that video on social media of that guy saying that McLaren have so much front end they are going to be mega blah blah blah- which would suggest a front wing with a high flap angle to create a lot of downforce (a 15mm flexing front wing) fast forward to Jeddah- Lando puts it in the wall in Q3, afterwards Stella said that Lando missed the apex with understeer (the trait we would expect with a 10mm flexing wing) he runs wide on the exit kerb and the rest is history.
Or am I barking up the wrong wishful thinking tree?

It’s the first weekend in over a year that I ever saw a Mclaren understeer…but it could be other explanations.

Front wings aren’t why a car has too much front end anyway. It’s in the floor. Front wing is just fine tuning. You can’t take a car that doesn’t turn and just add front wing.

[Emag]

Literally guys I’m re-watching footage of Landos front wing in Jeddah and having a mild panic attack thinking the wing is moving a lot
However I don’t have any references to compare it to last season, tried looking on your picture @Emag but the adverts keep getting in the way, so I pied it off
All that is left for me to do is to consider how long are those metal ‘sliders’ on the top element- I can see that the wing flex the full length of them so are they 10 or 15mm long??

I am fairly certain the wing this year flexes less than last year, but it's not like the current one is winning any awards in rigidity. In any case, delving into arguments on who will be hurt the most by the Spain TD is just pure guesswork and speculative IMO. It all depends on how prepared teams are for it, but in any case I would expect RedBull to be impacted the less.

If you want to directly correlate loss from Spain TD with the amount of flex that each team's front wings currently exhibit, then in an order from least affected to most affected it would be like this :

1 - RedBull
2 - Ferrari
3 = 4 McLaren / Mercedes

But you never know how well each team is preparing for the TD and how impactful to the performance the flexing front wing is to each concept. Although it may be safe to assume that the biggest change will be seen on teams which currently exhibit the most amount of flexing, it is not correct to assume they're going to lose performance by the same degree their front wings will lose flexibility. Not too long to go to find out anyway.

[NiyolHuayra]

With the news that Castore is out in 2026 and Puma in as official apparel supplier as per SportBuniess https://www.sportbusiness.com/news/excl ... t-mclaren/. I hope that the size of Puma and their supply chain will result in lowe prices for us.

[mwillems]

Literally guys I’m re-watching footage of Landos front wing in Jeddah and having a mild panic attack thinking the wing is moving a lot
However I don’t have any references to compare it to last season, tried looking on your picture @Emag but the adverts keep getting in the way, so I pied it off
All that is left for me to do is to consider how long are those metal ‘sliders’ on the top element- I can see that the wing flex the full length of them so are they 10 or 15mm long??

I am fairly certain the wing this year flexes less than last year, but it's not like the current one is winning any awards in rigidity. In any case, delving into arguments on who will be hurt the most by the Spain TD is just pure guesswork and speculative IMO. It all depends on how prepared teams are for it, but in any case I would expect RedBull to be impacted the less.

If you want to directly correlate loss from Spain TD with the amount of flex that each team's front wings currently exhibit, then in an order from least affected to most affected it would be like this :

1 - RedBull
2 - Ferrari
3 = 4 McLaren / Mercedes

But you never know how well each team is preparing for the TD and how impactful to the performance the flexing front wing is to each concept. Although it may be safe to assume that the biggest change will be seen on teams which currently exhibit the most amount of flexing, it is not correct to assume they're going to lose performance by the same degree their front wings will lose flexibility. Not too long to go to find out anyway.

There are no changes to the front wing since last year, that i can see.

Either there was a change last year or there hasn't been one. The wings require more than a bit of extra carbon stiffness so I don't think they could sneak a change in without it being noticed.

The last wing change was at Vegas and was designed to allow an extended front wing flap. This could be a pseudonym for wing strengthening.

[Slahinki]

With the news that Castore is out in 2026 and Puma in as official apparel supplier as per SportBuniess https://www.sportbusiness.com/news/excl ... t-mclaren/. I hope that the size of Puma and their supply chain will result in lowe prices for us.

And better quality merch.

[BMMR61]

It will be interesting to see if the whole Horner-led outcry against flexing cheats will be a nothingburger. Of course McLaren has been at the brunt of accusations, because they've been smashing Red Bull and he hates Brown. It's just part of the Horner playbook, has been for years. He's a pretty effective character, even now when his golden days are running short. People have short memories and are easily manipulated to believe the almost unbelievable. Like that he actually believed Max was entitled to the corner at Jeddah and so they didn't tell him to give it back. Nothing to do with clean air. Incredibly manipulative.