2025 McLaren F1 Team

[FittingMechanics]

Mark is not a serious journalist when it comes to analysing numbers, this has been a problem for years. Usually his numbers show it's close, even when it isn't. Just baiting for clicks trying to pander to every denomination of fan.

It's clear someone gave him wrong numbers here and then he wrote the article around it.

[Macklaren]

I always think Mark has a few good nuggets of information- like how Lando went purple in the middle sector doing pitstop practice which I missed.

However, what data was he looking at to have Lando slower than Leclerc AND Antonelli in the second stint?

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/mark ... -analysis/

Incredible. This is what passes for top tier journalism in this sport? There were fans in this forum keeping track lap by lap who gave a better overview of the data than this excuse of an article.

100%!
Reading the f1.com report on Day 2 takeaways was so frustrating. The average F1T reader could write something so much more insightful (and accurate)

[the EDGE]

Honestly, that second stint is the most impressive here. Inferior tire, car still relatively heavy, yet he still was 0.3s up on Leclerc on average.

do we know if either of them went in the garage where they could have refuled at any point, or did they just make pitlane stops for tyres?

[Waz]

I always think Mark has a few good nuggets of information- like how Lando went purple in the middle sector doing pitstop practice which I missed.

However, what data was he looking at to have Lando slower than Leclerc AND Antonelli in the second stint?

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/mark ... -analysis/

Incredible. This is what passes for top tier journalism in this sport? There were fans in this forum keeping track lap by lap who gave a better overview of the data than this excuse of an article.

100%!
Reading the f1.com report on Day 2 takeaways was so frustrating. The average F1T reader could write something so much more insightful (and accurate)

This place is pretty amazing though with the insight that's shared.

[Harisudhan]

Honestly, that second stint is the most impressive here. Inferior tire, car still relatively heavy, yet he still was 0.3s up on Leclerc on average.

do we know if either of them went in the garage where they could have refuled at any point, or did they just make pitlane stops for tyres?

Just regular tyre changes. They did not go into the garages.

[McFAN]

Amusing thread from from the ever brilliant Vanja H

[mwillems]

Looks exciting but I won't buy into it just yet.

Toto knows the game and how to play down expectations, though it does seem like we may be competing from the very start this year.

I'm still curious for the innovations. Are these the parts that crossover into next years regs?

People are misquoting. Toto said that about yesterday where arguably there were less reasons to be impressed by McLaren. I wonder what he had to say about them today.

Yeah i saw. He talks of yesterday but the quote was from today.

He's worried it seems.

https://www.planetf1.com/news/toto-wolf ... ry-bahrain

[taperoo2k]

The guy wasn't denying that, though. Only arguing about the degree to which it was actually true. Because this is all about nuance and degrees of truth, if you yourself even agree that they aren't on equal footing. You simply side on the collaboration being much stronger, while the other person believing the collaboration being less strong. You're not fundamentally disagreeing on the core argument here, which you've been trying to portray them as doing, and the only reason I felt like speaking up.

McLaren have a more preferential deal with Mercedes vs other customer teams by the looks of it. It allows for a certain degree of input on the PU design, helpful when you build your own gearboxes. And it sounds like they might be first in the queue for newer parts that the works team will obviously get first. I'd not call it a semi works team deal. More like an Enhanced Customer Deal. At the end of the day, if the Mercedes F1 team wins the constructors or McLaren does? Still great marketing for Mercedes "Look even a customer team can win with a Mercedes AMG HPP Engine in F1".

It could well be a great move by Zak Brown signing a new deal with Mercedes for the PU's. We'll find out in '26.

Mclaren already has a deal with Mercedes till 2030

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/arti ... 4r4mi0vhT5

That was the deal I was talking about. If the Mercedes PU in '26 is as good as the 2014 PU in terms of performance, then McLaren will be in a good place.

[bauc]

McLaren have a more preferential deal with Mercedes vs other customer teams by the looks of it. It allows for a certain degree of input on the PU design, helpful when you build your own gearboxes. And it sounds like they might be first in the queue for newer parts that the works team will obviously get first. I'd not call it a semi works team deal. More like an Enhanced Customer Deal. At the end of the day, if the Mercedes F1 team wins the constructors or McLaren does? Still great marketing for Mercedes "Look even a customer team can win with a Mercedes AMG HPP Engine in F1".

It could well be a great move by Zak Brown signing a new deal with Mercedes for the PU's. We'll find out in '26.

Mclaren already has a deal with Mercedes till 2030

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/arti ... 4r4mi0vhT5

That was the deal I was talking about. If the Mercedes PU in '26 is as good as the 2014 PU in terms of performance, then McLaren will be in a good place.

Aha.... I misunderstood your point, all clear

[the EDGE]

McLaren have a more preferential deal with Mercedes vs other customer teams by the looks of it. It allows for a certain degree of input on the PU design, helpful when you build your own gearboxes. And it sounds like they might be first in the queue for newer parts that the works team will obviously get first. I'd not call it a semi works team deal. More like an Enhanced Customer Deal. At the end of the day, if the Mercedes F1 team wins the constructors or McLaren does? Still great marketing for Mercedes "Look even a customer team can win with a Mercedes AMG HPP Engine in F1".

It could well be a great move by Zak Brown signing a new deal with Mercedes for the PU's. We'll find out in '26.

Mclaren already has a deal with Mercedes till 2030

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/arti ... 4r4mi0vhT5

That was the deal I was talking about. If the Mercedes PU in '26 is as good as the 2014 PU in terms of performance, then McLaren will be in a good place.

When you say McLaren are first in queue, that’s not correct. If Merc update the PU spec, no team (including merc) can run the new spec unless it’s available to all customers at the same time - assuming that’s what you mean

[FittingMechanics]

So McLaren brings a new aggressive suspension (front and probably back) which affects the car down the line but we still get people claiming it is normal that McLaren understands the car more than Ferrari.

Btw Wache from Red Bull said that McLaren suspension is interesting but that he thinks it would be too risky for them.

Quite positive that the car seems to worl well on day 2. I guess Rob Marshall showing his skills.

[Nicktendo86]

Absolutely no coincidence that Rob Marshall is in the team imo. He’s made a massive difference and the fact he worked with Prod at Red Bull during the Vettel era is also probably no coincidence.

[mwillems]

I always think Mark has a few good nuggets of information- like how Lando went purple in the middle sector doing pitstop practice which I missed.

However, what data was he looking at to have Lando slower than Leclerc AND Antonelli in the second stint?

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/mark ... -analysis/

Incredible. This is what passes for top tier journalism in this sport? There were fans in this forum keeping track lap by lap who gave a better overview of the data than this excuse of an article.

One of the comments highlighted the error and he's corrected it.

[Emag]

So McLaren brings a new aggressive suspension (front and probably back) which affects the car down the line but we still get people claiming it is normal that McLaren understands the car more than Ferrari.

Btw Wache from Red Bull said that McLaren suspension is interesting but that he thinks it would be too risky for them.

Quite positive that the car seems to worl well on day 2. I guess Rob Marshall showing his skills.

I think it's because the race sim by Lando was so good, people are being extra scrutinous when it comes to finding all the possible reasons why it was that good. I understand why people would assume Ferrari has more to learn, and that could very well be true, but I doubt it's really as significant as some people are making it out to be.

The switch from push to pull rod at the front is primarily made for aero reasons as multiple engineers employed on the field have pointed out numerous times. The mechanical differences between the two are not as significant. I don't understand why Ferrari would somehow be in a position where they're in level zero when it comes to setup knowledge, just because they switched from push-rod to pull-rod. Mechanically-speaking, the same principles will still apply and their knowledge gained from the SF24 applies as well.

Every team starts the new season with plenty of things to learn. All cars are developed with specific weaknesses targeted and taken into consideration. Sure, some might have had more weaknesses to explore and work around, but the premise that any team is capable of fully optimizing a new package in day 2 of testing is flawed in my opinion.

There are a lot of caveats that apply when analyzing testing data, so there are no conclusions that can be made with any degree of significant confidence.

We can however make observations. And those observations, at least today show that McLaren had really strong race pace.

Now does that mean this will be the case come Australia? No, it doesn't. However in the context of testing, it's obviously a very competitive showing. You're not really proving anything by showing capabilities of that pace, but you're not exactly sad for being in this position either.