2025 United States Grand Prix - COTA, Oct 17 - 19

[AR3-GP]

https://i.ibb.co/CpKHZQXc/IMG-5125.jpg

Have we seen that wing before on the Mclaren?

Yea. Spain FP1

viewtopic.php?t=32108&start=420

Interesting. According to that page, they went lower downforce for Spain. I would think Spain is a higher downforce trim (or equal at worst) to COTA. So this could be a "test" again.

[f1isgood]

Should be a McLaren domination since you can pass easily in the race.

Is passing easily in the room with us...

Call him Picasso because this was a masterpiece.

Passing Max is always hard though. This is the exception and not the norm. It is very important that Max is ahead of the Orange cars by turn 1, otherwise it won't work.

[AR3-GP]

The tire experiment hasn't worked. It will be M-H 1 stop. The C1 is too good.

[Paa]

The tire experiment hasn't worked. It will be M-H 1 stop. The C1 is too good.

At least they tried.

[search]

during the session, Isola still said that the hard was 2s slower. But, yeah, looks like this won't be the case.

[JPower]

If it was cooler, the C1's would be out of range but they'll have plenty of energy in them for this track.

[RonMexico]

Hmm. Is Piastri is cracking?

[SB15]

Is that the fastest lap ever on this circuit?

[organic]

Hmm. Is Piastri is cracking?

I think he will only lose points to the other two from here on out

[f1isgood]

Hmm. Is Piastri is cracking?

More so that he never looked great around the set of tracks towards the end of the season. He still has a reasonable lead. But this won't be enough. He needs to win a couple of races to close it down.

[renault rs26]

SQ3 should be one lap one by one like Qualifying was in 2003.

[pantherxxx]

Piastri is weak here, Verstappen's only opponent is Norris.

[Vettel165]

I think Mclaren is starting to put all resources into one basket. And thats into Norris, even though he is behind in the points, Could it be Max is just racing Lando from now on? The gap is 41 points between two drivers, which is not a unreachable gap, but Max has to win it nearly all. Or Mclaren having problems, imagine a 2007 scenario. I am praying for one, of course I know there is very little chance of this outcome, because everything has to be perfect. But lets just enjoy the last races.

[f1isgood]

Is that the fastest lap ever on this circuit?

I think so yeah.

Edit I was wrong - Bottas in 2019 was quicker.

[Paa]

I think Mclaren is starting to put all resources into one basket. And thats into Norris, even though he is behind in the points, Could it be Max is just racing Lando from now on? The gap is 41 points between two drivers, which is not a unreachable gap, but Max has to win it nearly all. Or Mclaren having problems, imagine a 2007 scenario. I am praying for one, of course I know there is very little chance of this outcome, because everything has to be perfect. But lets just enjoy the last races.

I don't think people realize how unlikely is for Max to win the WDC.
There was a graph during FP showing he gained like 34 points on Piastri over the last 4 races. The last few races were pretty much dream scenario for Max, finishing consistently ahead of McLArens, while Oscar was kind of weakish. And even with all of these... 34 points / 4 races is just 8.5 points gain per race so still not enough.
He would need to close the gap at an even faster rate during the remaining races and that is assuming he will always finish ahead of the McLarens from now on, which is unlikely.
Just 1 win from Piastri with Max in 2nd place would mean he is now 70 points away with 5 races to go so basically game over.

Honestly, the only chance Max has if the McLarens start crashing and preferably with each other.
There is no realistic chance until there is a double DNF from the McLarens, but that is not something Max can count on. Even if that happens, it is outside of his control so basically he is relying on pure luck at this point.