2025 McLaren F1 Team

[basti313]

I'm a little confused about the original intent of your post Basti.

Then I will try to explain it better:
The line of discussion for me was, that this DNF will be remembered, that it has impact. I do not think there is anything to remember or that I will remember (can not really speak for others) and this is the main intend of my post.

You used the plural "drivers" so appeared to include Oscar in your summation, a mistake in my opinion.

I agree with your explanation, but it has nothing to do what I think about remembering the season a DNF or any stellar performance. Maybe my wording "mediocre" is wrong or too low, but I simply do not see anything to remember. They are just driving it home. And that just also goes with Oscar. Yes, he shows a MUCH better performance than Lando. But with Imola, Japan, Canada...etc...just too many races where he was just not even second best or trying.

Somehow to some people, winning in the best car disqualifies one from greatness.

No. We saw greatness. Vettel 2013 with his perfection, Hamilton 2014 with also a nearly perfect season or Verstappen in 2023 with a nearly perfect execution. You can distinguish perfect execution from "just driving it home" even in a dominant car.

We are fortunate fans to see a dominant car driven by two drivers of similar speed, and allowed to compete for victory.

Are they? I think we were lucky to see fights like Hamilton vs. Rosberg in 2016, where Rosberg was scratching and biting as much as he could. And everyone remembers Malaysia or the last race. Or Verstappen vs. Hamilton in 2021 with Baku, Saudi and, of course, Abu. Maybe even 2018 where Vettel was at least scratching to the middle of the season with highlights like Spa until he ended the fight in the gravel. That were seasons to remember.

This season? I do not think they are allowed to race. Every time Oscar gets remotely close to Lando, he gets called back. He can not exploit his mojo in wheel-to-wheel racing. I do not think any of the above mentioned drivers would have stopped to dive bomb Lando in the slower car in Austria...
So, I do not call it a "fight" or "compete for victory" if they just "drive it home" with the Q result and a bad start.

[CjC]

A broken oil one was the reason for Landos DNF Omar Zandvoort.

They have had to sacrifice a small amount of laptime to beef up the part.

Still no news if he’s lost the engine yet as further analysis is needed but he’s switching to a different engine this weekend as planned.

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/eigh ... talian-gp/

[GrizzleBoy]

I agree with Basti in a way.

Nobody will remember this race as a turning point, because even without Landos DNF, if Oscar wins the next race, he'd still have almost a whole race wins worth of points advantage. If he wins the next that's 30 points.

The last two times Lando clawed back points was from Oscar braking too hard during a safety car in Silverstone, or from being forced into a contra strategy because he was effectively off the podium in Hungary.

The last time Lando actually had pace on Oscar when it mattered was in Monaco about 8 Grand Prix ago! I'm not counting Austria because despite qualifying slower, Oscar was on Landos butt immediately and almost got in front of Lando on track after constant hounding. To the point where he had to be calmed down on the radio with subtle messaging. In the one time Lando was ahead for a long time, he still didnt look the faster driver on track.

For all this talk of a "comeback" for Lando, there never was one yet. Hes been consistently not faster overall for a large amount of concurrent races now and I dont really get the delusion.

Oscar has done enough to earn the status of top performer in the team amd the faster driver and I think anyone saying this DNF gives people the ability to say that its been a super close battle that just slipped Lando hasnt been paying attention.

And saying this DNF allows Lando to relax now, when he HAS to be perfect now if he still wants to win the WDC, is kind of an insult to Landos as a racing driver. I cant imagine any top driver ever saying they dont believe they can win the remaining races in a WDC battle if they actually have that belief that they really are the superior driver.

Luckily for Lando, there's not much to winning a WDC so let's go!