2025 Spanish Grand Prix - Barcelona-Catalunya May 30 - June 1

[ringo]

Alonso's life time of races. 21 seasons at this circuit.

[Waz]

Alonso's life time of races. 21 seasons at this circuit.

Surprised that he has been out qualified here as many as 5 times by teammates.

[Seanspeed]

Anything to put the McLaren drivers down I guess.

There's no persecution going on here. Mclaren has been the best car, and both Piastri and Norris have failed on a number of occasions to take advantage of that, though some of that is also just Max being unbelievably good and capitalizing on opportunities that few others could manage.

It's an entirely reasonable take, and frankly, the only reasonable one if you ask me. This isn't about some vendetta against Mclaren drivers, just saying it like it is.

[Sieper]

My prediction for the race: the two Mercedes powered championship contenders from the same team tangle with eachother in the first lap and both end up in the gravel. Max is being chased by Kimi the entire race but keeps him at bay and wins his first, erm, sixtysixth race.

[Luscion]

FIA trialling steel skid blocks this weekend, one car per team will run it

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2025/05/ ... d_id=70109

[AR3-GP]

FIA trialling steel skid blocks this weekend, one car per team will run it

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2025/05/ ... d_id=70109

In free practice?

[Luscion]

FIA trialling steel skid blocks this weekend, one car per team will run it

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2025/05/ ... d_id=70109

In free practice?

i would assume so, cant imagine teams would be happy to have to run it during the race

[cplchanb]

FIA trialling steel skid blocks this weekend, one car per team will run it

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2025/05/ ... d_id=70109

In free practice?

i would assume so, cant imagine teams would be happy to have to run it during the race

the article mentions potential need to increase ride height due to steel wear.... another chapter in the ride height saga

[proteus]

"McLaren is not dominant"

https://i.postimg.cc/ht9Vh2q9/mclaren.jpg

Of course not. It's only 170 points in front after 8 races despite its two drivers regularly making mistakes and bottling wins. That's not dominance at all. In fact, it's only scoring 120% more points than the next 3 best teams. Those are rookie numbers, that needs to be at least 200% for it to be considered slightly dominant.

Dominant, or consistant? Even though many people try to paint a picture that both drivers are incompetent and that the car is 2 seconds a lap better than everyone else.... Mclaren went all in into producing an allrounder which means the car is competitive and with far smaller drops in form than what other have produced, but not allways the best and certanly not without its problems.

RedBull has a car tuned in for one driver and his demand is a very radical, which makes hard for a no.2 to adapt and the car is great at certain tracks and useless at others.

Merc has a very capable car, but their tyre eating habit has returned and they also have a rookie driver.

Ferrari again botched a third of the season allready because they cant tune in their ride height jet. When being low, the car showed glimpses of its potential. Their driver lineup is made out by frustrated Charles and slow adopting Lewis.

So Mclaren has a double whammy of good car and good driver lineup. And the tally is logical.

Also, the same people that trash Mclaren and its drivers, would also trash if both drivers would take a 1-2 in all of the races so far. I like that the WDC is closer. If Max or anybody steals it, then so be it. Let the best man win.

[AR3-GP]

Mclaren has a second wing spec as well that is closer to the others.

[Cs98]

"McLaren is not dominant"

https://i.postimg.cc/ht9Vh2q9/mclaren.jpg

Of course not. It's only 170 points in front after 8 races despite its two drivers regularly making mistakes and bottling wins. That's not dominance at all. In fact, it's only scoring 120% more points than the next 3 best teams. Those are rookie numbers, that needs to be at least 200% for it to be considered slightly dominant.

Dominant, or consistant? Even though many people try to paint a picture that both drivers are incompetent and that the car is 2 seconds a lap better than everyone else.... Mclaren went all in into producing an allrounder which means the car is competitive and with far smaller drops in form than what other have produced, but not allways the best and certanly not without its problems.

RedBull has a car tuned in for one driver and his demand is a very radical, which makes hard for a no.2 to adapt and the car is great at certain tracks and useless at others.

Merc has a very capable car, but their tyre eating habit has returned and they also have a rookie driver.

Ferrari again botched a third of the season allready because they cant tune in their ride height jet. When being low, the car showed glimpses of its potential. Their driver lineup is made out by frustrated Charles and slow adopting Lewis.

So Mclaren has a double whammy of good car and good driver lineup. And the tally is logical.

Also, the same people that trash Mclaren and its drivers, would also trash if both drivers would take a 1-2 in all of the races so far. I like that the WDC is closer. If Max or anybody steals it, then so be it. Let the best man win.

Acknowledging that they've built an amazing car is the opposite of trashing them. If the MCL39 continues the season how it started it will go down in history alongside the likes of RB19, W11, W04-W06, RB9, F2004, MP4/4 etc. In fact the results so far are better than several of those dominant cars. McLaren fans should be the first to recognize this and credit the team for the amazing job that they've done. But instead we get all this defensive posturing and mental gymnastics trying to avoid the D word, which is clearly applicable when you use a historical comparison. We'll see how it all shakes out in the end, but so far so dominant.

[f1isgood]

Of course not. It's only 170 points in front after 8 races despite its two drivers regularly making mistakes and bottling wins. That's not dominance at all. In fact, it's only scoring 120% more points than the next 3 best teams. Those are rookie numbers, that needs to be at least 200% for it to be considered slightly dominant.

Dominant, or consistant? Even though many people try to paint a picture that both drivers are incompetent and that the car is 2 seconds a lap better than everyone else.... Mclaren went all in into producing an allrounder which means the car is competitive and with far smaller drops in form than what other have produced, but not allways the best and certanly not without its problems.

RedBull has a car tuned in for one driver and his demand is a very radical, which makes hard for a no.2 to adapt and the car is great at certain tracks and useless at others.

Merc has a very capable car, but their tyre eating habit has returned and they also have a rookie driver.

Ferrari again botched a third of the season allready because they cant tune in their ride height jet. When being low, the car showed glimpses of its potential. Their driver lineup is made out by frustrated Charles and slow adopting Lewis.

So Mclaren has a double whammy of good car and good driver lineup. And the tally is logical.

Also, the same people that trash Mclaren and its drivers, would also trash if both drivers would take a 1-2 in all of the races so far. I like that the WDC is closer. If Max or anybody steals it, then so be it. Let the best man win.

Acknowledging that they've built an amazing car is the opposite of trashing them. If the MCL39 continues the season how it started it will go down in history alongside the likes of RB19, W11, W04-W06, RB9, F2004, MP4/4 etc. In fact the results so far are better than several of those dominant cars. McLaren fans should be the first to recognize this and credit the team for the amazing job that they've done. But instead we get all this defensive posturing and mental gymnastics trying to avoid the D word, which is clearly applicable when you use a historical comparison. We'll see how it all shakes out in the end, but so far so dominant.

The defensive fans are more fans of the drivers, and not the teams. Now accepting Norris and Piastri are worse than Verstappen is hard for many. That is where all this cope comes from. Anyways, calling it as it is won't work with some people. So why bother I guess.

[CjC]

Of course not. It's only 170 points in front after 8 races despite its two drivers regularly making mistakes and bottling wins. That's not dominance at all. In fact, it's only scoring 120% more points than the next 3 best teams. Those are rookie numbers, that needs to be at least 200% for it to be considered slightly dominant.

Dominant, or consistant? Even though many people try to paint a picture that both drivers are incompetent and that the car is 2 seconds a lap better than everyone else.... Mclaren went all in into producing an allrounder which means the car is competitive and with far smaller drops in form than what other have produced, but not allways the best and certanly not without its problems.

RedBull has a car tuned in for one driver and his demand is a very radical, which makes hard for a no.2 to adapt and the car is great at certain tracks and useless at others.

Merc has a very capable car, but their tyre eating habit has returned and they also have a rookie driver.

Ferrari again botched a third of the season allready because they cant tune in their ride height jet. When being low, the car showed glimpses of its potential. Their driver lineup is made out by frustrated Charles and slow adopting Lewis.

So Mclaren has a double whammy of good car and good driver lineup. And the tally is logical.

Also, the same people that trash Mclaren and its drivers, would also trash if both drivers would take a 1-2 in all of the races so far. I like that the WDC is closer. If Max or anybody steals it, then so be it. Let the best man win.

Acknowledging that they've built an amazing car is the opposite of trashing them. If the MCL39 continues the season how it started it will go down in history alongside the likes of RB19, W11, W04-W06, RB9, F2004, MP4/4 etc. In fact the results so far are better than several of those dominant cars. McLaren fans should be the first to recognize this and credit the team for the amazing job that they've done. But instead we get all this defensive posturing and mental gymnastics trying to avoid the D word, which is clearly applicable when you use a historical comparison. We'll see how it all shakes out in the end, but so far so dominant.

I don’t get involved with the dominance chat- it’s already dominating the thread

But this! Mclaren have done a super job recently- just like the other teams did who won before them and so will the team who eventually take the mantle off Mclaren.

[ringo]

Anything to put the McLaren drivers down I guess.

There's no persecution going on here. Mclaren has been the best car, and both Piastri and Norris have failed on a number of occasions to take advantage of that, though some of that is also just Max being unbelievably good and capitalizing on opportunities that few others could manage.

It's an entirely reasonable take, and frankly, the only reasonable one if you ask me. This isn't about some vendetta against Mclaren drivers, just saying it like it is.

It comes across as a vendetta ( I am not saying it is, but I do notice as a neutral party), because the truth is you cannot do much better than making the podium and the two McLaren drivers have done so, and are probably on to break the record for team podiums over a season. They don't need to win by a minute or 10 miles. They can podium with Max behind or not on the podium at all, which they have in Monaco. They have been doing fine for a team with two top drivers. It's going much better than any team have managed with two drivers with equal opportunity to be champion as far as I can remember. We cannot measure McLaren by the same standard as a team with a "chosen one" and a lap dog second driver. Lando poled and won in Monaco, yet he is receiving criticism for not being more dominant doing it. I don't get it.
I think the underlying issues is Max supporters want him to be acknowledged as the best by all and sundry, and the best ever, even if he is not winning, and it's a crime if people don't really care because they are busy enjoying one of the better championship fights since 2021 between 2 McLaren drivers.
We are getting Alonso vs Hamilton again ( it will evolve to that near the end) but with more maturity. So all F-1 fans should be happy to give Oscar and Lando their props.

[Hammerfist]

My prediction for the race: the two Mercedes powered championship contenders from the same team tangle with eachother in the first lap and both end up in the gravel. Max is being chased by Kimi the entire race but keeps him at bay and wins his first, erm, sixtysixth race.

Sounds more like wishful thinking to me. The mclaren drivers usually race clean so a shunt between them is unlikely imo
Merc being one of the teams that will be more affected by the new td and previously showing poor race pace on high deg tracks are probably not gonna have a good enough weekend to challenge even Max.