2026 McLaren Mastercard F1 Team

[FittingMechanics]

Carlos 9th after starting on inters aswell.

Its a bit if a mad one.

If they just had the issue with the tires, they could reach P6-P7 and then maybe get one of the cars ahead if there is a proper safety car.

But it just compounded.

[Ben1980]

Carlos 9th after starting on inters aswell.

Its a bit if a mad one.

If they just had the issue with the tires, they could reach P6-P7 and then maybe get one of the cars ahead if there is a proper safety car.

But it just compounded.

Its all been crazy. In fact its a crazy old race.

[Darth-Piekus]

At least we can now calm down since the WCC and WDC battle is over and concentrate to become the best car at least on the second part of the championship and start next year as the best.

But I enjoyed the race. Antonelli made mincemeat out of Russell and Lewis gave a message to the haters that he is still here.

[Ben1980]

At least we can now calm down since the WCC and WDC battle is over and concentrate to become the best car at least on the second part of the championship and start next year as the best.

But I enjoyed the race. Antonelli made mincemeat out of Russell and Lewis gave a message to the haters that he is still here.

They were never in a battle. Merc sowed that up already. This is just about getting the car ready for next year.

[bauc]

Well the gamble did not pay off, but the car is good, we could have won in Miami and here as well, so... take this as a positive.

[AR3-GP]

I wonder who made the call for inters.

[Darth-Piekus]

At least we can now calm down since the WCC and WDC battle is over and concentrate to become the best car at least on the second part of the championship and start next year as the best.

But I enjoyed the race. Antonelli made mincemeat out of Russell and Lewis gave a message to the haters that he is still here.

They were never in a battle. Merc sowed that up already. This is just about getting the car ready for next year.

I suppose you are right. But we can continue to overdevelop them as is seems to be working, get some wins this year and start from a position of power. There is still the battle for 2nd and if we can get some wins it's still a good year.

After all there are still things to enjoy. Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Antonelli for example. I still enjoyed the race.

[venkyhere]

F1 teams have their "own" weather radar / man standing 5km away and spotting clouds / outstretched palms in the pitlane, so they will always start on a tyre that they deem correct, from the data available to them. It's a gamble, and how many times have we seen the tyre blankets getting off on the grid, and showing one team put one type of tyre, while everyone else go the exact opposite way ? So becoming 'the odd man out, looking like an idiot' is very common.

The ultra-mega-giga blunder was that despite getting 3 formation laps, they still didn't change. What sort of headstrong stubbornness is that ? Donkey/Mule ? This makes Qatar2025 look like a paper in sub atomic physics. I simply couldn't believe what I saw. No, it wasn't 'naive', it was simply 'bullish arrogance'. They never allowed the possibility of the thought 'we could have gotten it wrong' in their heads, during the formation laps.

Shell shocked.

[AR3-GP]

After the bad gamble, Mclaren did the right thing leaving the drivers out. It didn't make sense to pit on a formation lap (with exception that everyone else was on inters and also pitting). It doesn't make sense because you would immediately be the last place cars. By starting on the track for 1-2 laps, Lando was able to jump a few slower cars.

[venkyhere]

After the bad gamble, Mclaren did the right thing leaving the drivers out. It didn't make sense to pit on a formation lap (with exception that everyone else was on inters and also pitting). It doesn't make sense because you would immediately be the last place cars. By starting on the track for 1-2 laps, Lando was able to jump a few slower cars.

Starting from pitlane with the correct tyre would have allowed them to overtake tailenders very quickly, and clear the midfielders after 15-20 laps. By staying put on the inters, they were wasting time, allowing field spread to happen, thereby making 'passing and clearing' much harder for themselves.

[AR3-GP]

After the bad gamble, Mclaren did the right thing leaving the drivers out. It didn't make sense to pit on a formation lap (with exception that everyone else was on inters and also pitting). It doesn't make sense because you would immediately be the last place cars. By starting on the track for 1-2 laps, Lando was able to jump a few slower cars.

Starting from pitlane with the correct tyre would have allowed them to overtake tailenders very quickly, and clear the midfielders after 15-20 laps. By staying put on the inters, they were wasting time, allowing field spread to happen, thereby making 'passing and clearing' much harder for themselves.

They would have been in an overtake mode train. The field spread benefitted them. Then the car in front doesn't have overtake mode. The race was already lost to Mercedes with the bad tire call. It was about minimizing the damage.

That's my opinion, at least.

[AR3-GP]

“And, overall, I have to say that even when we had clean air, we did not have a great pace because we could not generate temperature for the tyres. Even in a normal race, I’m not sure that podium was within reach today. […]”

[Darth-Piekus]

So even if we got it right the team had reliability issues plus unable to bring heat to the tyres.

[Ben1980]

After the bad gamble, Mclaren did the right thing leaving the drivers out. It didn't make sense to pit on a formation lap (with exception that everyone else was on inters and also pitting). It doesn't make sense because you would immediately be the last place cars. By starting on the track for 1-2 laps, Lando was able to jump a few slower cars.

Starting from pitlane with the correct tyre would have allowed them to overtake tailenders very quickly, and clear the midfielders after 15-20 laps. By staying put on the inters, they were wasting time, allowing field spread to happen, thereby making 'passing and clearing' much harder for themselves.

They would have been in an overtake mode train. The field spread benefitted them. Then the car in front doesn't have overtake mode. The race was already lost to Mercedes with the bad tire call. It was about minimizing the damage.

That's my opinion, at least.

Staying on the inter was correct. Lando did 2 laps abd came out 14th, Oscar further back, but didnt have a good start.

Listening to the team explain it, i can see why they took it. And wonder what would have happened if it started as usual, and they had the extra time on a damper track. Would have still stopped but could have come out top 10 and a bit more free air, potentially anyway.

[the EDGE]

There is no way in which pitting on lap 4 and coming out at the back of the field was a better option than starting from pit lane on warm softs and being at the back of the pack on lap 1

Regardless of what else happened, the wrong tyre choice was a mistake, sticking with it was just utter stupidity