2025 McLaren F1 Team

[mwillems]

Oscar is sensible and sees the bigger picture.

Some fans arent.

I think it is rather surprising how fans here react on a marketing/PR orchestrated press statement.
Like you were hoping for a good statement? WCC and WDC is practically won, is the skin still so thin? Why, what is wrong?

He said the same straight out of the car.

And yeah, he would have registered his disagreement politely if he thought it was the wrong call. But he backed it without reservation.

Imagine Ben has an opinion on it all still, just like you seem to get ruffled by him having one I wouldn't say either of you have thin skin for it

[Ben1980]

Oscar is sensible and sees the bigger picture.

Some fans arent.

I think it is rather surprising how fans here react on a marketing/PR orchestrated press statement.
Like you were hoping for a good statement? WCC and WDC is practically won, is the skin still so thin? Why, what is wrong?

Whats is wrong with what?

Over the years Oscar has driven, hes come across as a pretty sensible person. This is just another case of that.

Hes clearly able to see this is a massive 1 off, unlikely to be repeated again. He also is probably very aware, that he likely owes more to Mclaren than they do him, and isnt going to act in a way to burn any bridges.

Both him and Lando are seemingly really decent guys.

[CjC]

Oh dear. Doesn’t sound good for Oscar?

‘No full load, keep low revs’

[Wouter]

Nice article next week in the British Vogue with Lando this month! First this video to watch and ........



Here you can see and read the whole artice:

https://www.vogue.co.uk/article/lando-norris-interview

[CjC]

A very scrappy day then.
They, especially Lando seem to have good pace when they aren’t in the wall

[Macklaren]

A very scrappy day then.
They, especially Lando seem to have good pace when they aren’t in the wall

Pulling a leaf from the Ross Chastain playbook by riding the wall for speed, I see
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OR6U5AU0e_k

[WardenOfTheNorth]

Oh dear. Doesn’t sound good for Oscar?

‘No full load, keep low revs’

I can't shake the feeling that Oscar might have a technical DNF before season end.... WCC isn't over yet. Especially if Max is in the mix and gets a few 2nd places....

One thing is for sure, whichever driver wins it has earned it this year!!

[venkyhere]

I didn't watch FP1 and FP2. From what I watched in FP3, Piastri looks pretty scrappy, appearing that balance is not to his liking, or whether it was wind, I'm not sure. Norris looked nailed. Sector2 is well clear of everyone, atleast 2-3 tenths.

[Emag]

I didn't watch FP1 and FP2. From what I watched in FP3, Piastri looks pretty scrappy, appearing that balance is not to his liking, or whether it was wind, I'm not sure. Norris looked nailed. Sector2 is well clear of everyone, atleast 2-3 tenths.

Compared to Max and Lewis it seems like Norris dumped the battery on the last straight though. I think all 3 would have been within 0.15s if Lando's last sector wasn't as strong.

[venkyhere]

I didn't watch FP1 and FP2. From what I watched in FP3, Piastri looks pretty scrappy, appearing that balance is not to his liking, or whether it was wind, I'm not sure. Norris looked nailed. Sector2 is well clear of everyone, atleast 2-3 tenths.

Compared to Max and Lewis it seems like Norris dumped the battery on the last straight though. I think all 3 would have been within 0.15s if Lando's last sector wasn't as strong.

Indeed. Wow.
From the FP3 data, the trend seems to continue from Monza - Ferrari kings of top speed, Mclaren nailing the corners and slow traction zones, and Redbull somewhere in between these two (that said, 1/4 s advantage that Norris has in Sector2 seems insurmountable by anyone). Everyone is pinning their hopes on the C5 being the faster tyre, but from the body language of the cars, it didn't seem as if the C6 was 'gone' towards T15/T16 towards the end of the lap. In fact many of the fast laptimes came from 2nd or 3rd runs on the C6. Seems like tyre-warm up is the challenge, come qualifying. Understandable, given the lack of lateral load corners. All the flexing is longitudinal, via braking.

[search]

Everyone is pinning their hopes on the C5 being the faster tyre, but from the body language of the cars, it didn't seem as if the C6 was 'gone' towards T15/T16 towards the end of the lap. In fact many of the fast laptimes came from 2nd or 3rd runs on the C6. Seems like tyre-warm up is the challenge, come qualifying. Understandable, given the lack of lateral load corners. All the flexing is longitudinal, via braking.

yeah, it's more about the harder tires having a larger working window, I think, not about deg. The soft may still be a tenth or two faster on paper, but not if it's out of the window for half of the lap.

[Emag]

Started to get really windy at the end of FP3 as well. We might have different conditions for quali throwing these FP3-based predictions out of the window.

[mwillems]

Everyone is pinning their hopes on the C5 being the faster tyre, but from the body language of the cars, it didn't seem as if the C6 was 'gone' towards T15/T16 towards the end of the lap. In fact many of the fast laptimes came from 2nd or 3rd runs on the C6. Seems like tyre-warm up is the challenge, come qualifying. Understandable, given the lack of lateral load corners. All the flexing is longitudinal, via braking.

yeah, it's more about the harder tires having a larger working window, I think, not about deg. The soft may still be a tenth or two faster on paper, but not if it's out of the window for half of the lap.

It'll be interesting to see what happens come Q, if the Mclaren can get more out of the tyres.

FP3 was about evolution of the track, and wind. Some might have been more cautious than others so close to Q.

I feel like anything could happen in Q today, but we are in with a strong shout.

[venkyhere]

Forum is unusually quiet for a race weekend - team threads, race thread, car threads - all eerily dormant, with only a handful of members posting. Perhaps all the excitement has shifted to waiting for 2026, now that the championship has lost relevance ? I expected this thread to be buzzing with activity, considering that the WDC fight is the only exciting thing for the last 1/3rd of this season.

[Emag]

Forum is unusually quiet for a race weekend - team threads, race thread, car threads - all eerily dormant, with only a handful of members posting. Perhaps all the excitement has shifted to waiting for 2026, now that the championship has lost relevance ? I expected this thread to be buzzing with activity, considering that the WDC fight is the only exciting thing for the last 1/3rd of this season.

The season has kind of fizzled out to be honest, there isn't much going on. McLaren almost wrapping up the WCC and the WDC is almost guaranteed to be won by one of the McLaren drivers at this point as well.

With the Netherlands DNF, Oscar is a clear favorite for the title now too, so there isn't really much to be excited about.