2025 McLaren F1 Team

[mwillems]

Piastri is very good long term solution, but they should let Lando go. He's just a journeyman.

Apart from everyone who has been on the 2nd RedBull seat since Ricciardo left them, I have never seen a driver lose credibility so fast. Went from a promising young talent impressing in the midfield, to a fast driver who was cracking a bit easily under pressure and now to a driver that is way too timid, makes too many mistakes, and is frequently out-paced by his way less-experienced teammate.

Can't remember the last time Lando actually clutched something. Costly mistakes though, we get those every race weekend.

But that is Lando for most of his career. He's been bigged up by British fans and media but imo never justified the hype.


His lack of a resilient approach on track is a hallmark of Lando.

And its such as a shame because he can match Max on a Sunday even if not quite as fast on a Saturday, when hes able to make the right calls and stay the right side of the limit.


But, he's great to have, he epitomises fair fighting spirit and being a good guy. Im happy for him to be around. But yeah, Oscar looks to be close to surpassing Lando.

[mwillems]

Of course, the new formula will drastically change which driving styles work better, like this formula finished Danny Rics F1 career.

[UnaF1]

Piastri is very good long term solution, but they should let Lando go. He's just a journeyman.

No doubt Piastri is good but what did Norris do wrong today? McLaren screwed him today with a slow stop again. He would have been one or two places further up if it wasn't for that slow stop.

If you're talking about qualifying, well Piastri put it into the wall so

In his McLaren career he has had two big brothers, Sainz and Ricciardo. Now, when he is supposed to become one, he's not up to it. All I'm saying is that he's not capable of raising the bar, and therefore is a journeyman.

[mwillems]

Piastri is very good long term solution, but they should let Lando go. He's just a journeyman.

No doubt Piastri is good but what did Norris do wrong today? McLaren screwed him today with a slow stop again. He would have been one or two places further up if it wasn't for that slow stop.

If you're talking about qualifying, well Piastri put it into the wall so

In his McLaren career he has had two big brothers, Sainz and Ricciardo. Now, when he is supposed to become one, he's not up to it. All I'm saying is that he's not capable of raising the bar, and therefore is a journeyman.

Well, he's a challenger, he's earnt that.

He's still every chance of winning the WDC, even if not winning respect lol

[SilviuAgo]

After the emotion from the race has settled, even though it wasn’t packed with action, there are still a few elements that personally stuck with me:

1.McLaren was completely unprepared for this race. And I’d include Monza in that as well. High-speed circuits are McLaren’s Achilles’ heel this year, and I expect we’ll be just as far off Red Bull’s pace in Vegas too.
Qualifying was the first clear sign that McLaren’s pitwall — in terms of strategy and race decisions — is still behind Red Bull, Mercedes, and sometimes even Ferrari. Randeep seems completely out of his depth, and I’m really looking forward to Courtenay’s arrival.

2.Oscar can make mistakes. He’s not a robot. He’s a very talented driver who manages his emotions well, but errors can happen even to him. This weekend, neither qualifying nor the race were anything memorable. Luckily, the impact on the standings was relatively minimal, although Verstappen closing in gives Stella more reason to push the narrative that there are three drivers in the title fight. Considering the MCL39 and the races left, it’s unlikely the title will go to Max.

3.McLaren’s pit stops are a disaster. It reminds me of Sauber in 2024. It’s unbelievable how a world championship-level team aiming for perfection consistently delivers 4 or 5-second stops almost every race. Mistakes are no longer exceptions — they’ve become the norm. When McLaren is dominating, these errors are easily overlooked, but in races like Baku, they’re crucial and can easily mean the difference between P4 and P8.


All in all, a race to forget. And just as I expected, the title will be clinched in Singapore — conveniently, the home of OKX. Great for marketing. Shame on McLaren for this race, both operationally and performance-wise. You’ve raised the bar so high that now every slip-up or mistake is all the more obvious and painful for us, the McLaren fans.

ps: congrats to Carlos and Williams for the podium! Amazing job and hope to see them often there!

[venkyhere]

Lots of knee-jerk reactions here, unfortunately.
Guys, Piastri had one bad weekend after such a long time. He is human, pressure gets to him too. It's not the end of the world.
Norris, well - he got two chances to 'reduce the gap significantly' in WDC fight - one yesterday, one today. Both of them blown. Although, today, only part of the blame can go to the pitcrew. Norris lacks 'high level' racecraft - the kind shown by Max, Russel, Lewis, Piastri etc - it showed up on two occasions :
1. caught sleeping at the safety car restart
2. was unable to 'setup an overtake' on Lawson. Yes, the racing bulls had a straighline speed advantage, but Norris wasn't 'gaming' Lawson (or Tsunoda even, who was driving less confidently than Lawson) into a poor exit from T15 or T`16, and himself having a good exit from there. Look how Russel overtook Lawson, it was by 'setting him up' , which neither Antonelli nor Norris were able to do. Perhaps Norris played the 'lets be safe' game and finish the race, even if the WDC gain is only a little.

Norris is a proper quick driver & may well win the WDC, but there have been just too many occasions where 'racecraft' is not top-draw level.

[Emag]

My problem with Lando in particular, but this team in general, is that they have had the racing personality equivalent to a boiled chicken this season. There's just no "oomph" at all. Just playing it safe and boring all the time (and that's when they're not taking some stupid decision that makes no sense). Almost gives you the impression they're scared to mess up at every moment. The pitwall but even the drivers sometimes feel like they're walking on eggshells. Will often sounds like he is babying Lando into doing his job. This is only working out because the car has been amazing this season, but in a fiercer fight, this just ain't it my friends. You need to have the balls to just go for it some times.

[Ben1980]

Just watched it.

Taking off my Mclaren goggles it was dull as anything on a pretty awful track.

Obviously the car is designed for the front on these tracks, so the Saturday problems killed anything.

Not sure Lando did anything particularly wrong.

Im not worried about Max, but if he suddenly romps it in Singapore, its getting close.

[Ben1980]

Guys, Piastri had one bad weekend after such a long time. He is human, pressure gets to him too. It's not the end of the world.
Norris, well - he got two chances to 'reduce the gap significantly' in WDC fight - one yesterday, one today. Both of them blown. Although, today, only part of the blame can go to the pitcrew. Norris lacks 'high level' racecraft - the kind shown by Max, Russel, Lewis, Piastri etc - it showed up on two occasions :
1. caught sleeping at the safety car restart
2. was unable to 'setup an overtake' on Lawson. Yes, the racing bulls had a straighline speed advantage, but Norris wasn't 'gaming' Lawson (or Tsunoda even, who was driving less confidently than Lawson) into a poor exit from T15 or T`16, and himself having a good exit from there. Look how Russel overtook Lawson, it was by 'setting him up' , which neither Antonelli nor Norris were able to do. Perhaps Norris played the 'lets be safe' game and finish the race, even if the WDC gain is only a little.

Norris is a proper quick driver & may well win the WDC, but there have been just too many occasions where 'racecraft' is not top-draw level.

Lawson? Lando was never against him.

Don't mind a bit of Lando bashing, but not sure its warranted on someone he was never behind.

[venkyhere]

Lots of knee-jerk reactions here, unfortunately.
Guys, Piastri had one bad weekend after such a long time. He is human, pressure gets to him too. It's not the end of the world.
Norris, well - he got two chances to 'reduce the gap significantly' in WDC fight - one yesterday, one today. Both of them blown. Although, today, only part of the blame can go to the pitcrew. Norris lacks 'high level' racecraft - the kind shown by Max, Russel, Lewis, Piastri etc - it showed up on two occasions :
1. caught sleeping at the safety car restart
2. was unable to 'setup an overtake' on Lawson. Yes, the racing bulls had a straighline speed advantage, but Norris wasn't 'gaming' Lawson (or Tsunoda even, who was driving less confidently than Lawson) into a poor exit from T15 or T`16, and himself having a good exit from there. Look how Russel overtook Lawson, it was by 'setting him up' , which neither Antonelli nor Norris were able to do. Perhaps Norris played the 'lets be safe' game and finish the race, even if the WDC gain is only a little.

Norris is a proper quick driver & may well win the WDC, but there have been just too many occasions where 'racecraft' is not top-draw level.

Lawson? Lando was never against him.

Don't mind a bit of Lando bashing, but not sure its warranted on someone he was never behind.

Yes he was, after putting on the H from the slow pitstop. Then Tsunoda joined in, after his pitstop, then Lawson got ahead of Tsunoda and established the DRS train.

[Sergej]

this weekend was classic Lando, clumsy at the start, unable to capitalize on Oscar's mistakes not once, but twice, first yesterday with that embarrassing lap and today with a very weak race

but what shocked me is the totally awkward weekend Oscar had, seems that he decided to put all the mistakes of his career so far in this GP

I still think that Oscar is the one who deserves the title between the two, and I hope he will win it (shouldn't a Max miracle happen )

[Ben1980]

Lots of knee-jerk reactions here, unfortunately.
Guys, Piastri had one bad weekend after such a long time. He is human, pressure gets to him too. It's not the end of the world.
Norris, well - he got two chances to 'reduce the gap significantly' in WDC fight - one yesterday, one today. Both of them blown. Although, today, only part of the blame can go to the pitcrew. Norris lacks 'high level' racecraft - the kind shown by Max, Russel, Lewis, Piastri etc - it showed up on two occasions :
1. caught sleeping at the safety car restart
2. was unable to 'setup an overtake' on Lawson. Yes, the racing bulls had a straighline speed advantage, but Norris wasn't 'gaming' Lawson (or Tsunoda even, who was driving less confidently than Lawson) into a poor exit from T15 or T`16, and himself having a good exit from there. Look how Russel overtook Lawson, it was by 'setting him up' , which neither Antonelli nor Norris were able to do. Perhaps Norris played the 'lets be safe' game and finish the race, even if the WDC gain is only a little.

Norris is a proper quick driver & may well win the WDC, but there have been just too many occasions where 'racecraft' is not top-draw level.

Lawson? Lando was never against him.

Don't mind a bit of Lando bashing, but not sure its warranted on someone he was never behind.

Yes he was, after putting on the H from the slow pitstop. Then Tsunoda joined in, after his pitstop, then Lawson got ahead of Tsunoda and established the DRS train.

He came out behind Leclerc, and overtook him. I dont recall him being behind Lawson for long at all, as Yuki came out and got caught up quickly. Was he a lap behind Lawson?

[SilviuAgo]

It’s astonishing how much hate or negativity can exist when it comes to Lando. I’ll admit — I want McLaren to win, because first and foremost I’m a fan of the team, not just the driver. And if I had to choose a world champion, I’d pick Lando first, then Oscar. But that doesn’t mean I’ll celebrate Oscar’s DNF, a P2 on the grid instead of a pole, or a technical issue. Karma always finds a way to hit you when you least expect it.

What’s even more surprising is that in a weekend where Oscar made a series of mistakes, people are still talking about how Lando couldn’t pass Tsunoda or that he finished P7. Never mind the fact that it was a race where even Antonelli couldn’t get past Lawson or Tsunoda — overtaking was nearly impossible. Hamilton, on mediums, sat in the DRS train behind Lando and couldn’t even attempt a move.

It’s sad that members of this forum — who are supposedly not part of the DTS crowd — can ignore everything happening around on track and focus solely on attacking or hating one driver. Sad!
I hope you enjoy the rest of the season and this moments when McLaren is, soon, consecutive WCC in F1. Seems that we quickly forgot the 2013 - 2024 period.

[SilviuAgo]

Lawson? Lando was never against him.

Don't mind a bit of Lando bashing, but not sure its warranted on someone he was never behind.

Yes he was, after putting on the H from the slow pitstop. Then Tsunoda joined in, after his pitstop, then Lawson got ahead of Tsunoda and established the DRS train.

He came out behind Leclerc, and overtook him. I dont recall him being behind Lawson for long at all, as Yuki came out and got caught up quickly. Was he a lap behind Lawson?

No, it wasn't. But the Verstappen fans are excited by this win and have the need to reverse some hate on other drivers.

[Ben1980]

In the padt Stella has said going less downforce impacts the guy, due to its design. I wonder if tgey got spooked in Monza and tried something, making it a bit more tricky, and that's why Oscar couldn't control it.