2025 McLaren F1 Team

[Darth-Piekus]

So end of tests and the verdict they all have is advantage to Mclaren.

[Ground Effect]

From Motorsport.con live feed:

Though McLaren duo hasn't put up the lap times of Russell and Antonelli, Ruth Buscombe shares that there's a significant tire deg gap that actually puts the McLarens in real-world lead. TBD in about two weeks, of course. — JW

[Macklaren]

Ruth said on commentary that gap between RUS-PIA was 0.4s while gap between NOR-ANT yest was 0.5s which makes sense given ANT inexperience. so pretty consistent. i think perfect test for McLaren with no reliability issues either (unlike RBR and Ferrari). just wish they had done some decent fast laps (after Day 1)

[Macklaren]

With (probably) slightly better track conditions, Russell kind of matched Oscar's pace in his second stint. Now Russell is looking about 2 tenths off in the third stint, but Oscar cut that one short anyway.

So at least at the hands of Oscar, the car was pretty good on the first stint, matched with Russell on the second.
Mercedes seems like have improved quite a lot in terms of deg, but their best stint (the second) came at a later time when the temps were slightly lower.

Agreed but RUS rears looked TERRIBLE at the end of his run

As far as I could tell, that wasn't the case no? His second stint was very consistent, doing mostly low 35s (35.1). Was he on C2 or C1 though? Because Oscar was on C1 for his middle stint.

they showed his second stint pit stop on TV and the tire looked awful. actually looked like he had run over a bunch of marbles....maybe had an off on the way in

[_cerber1]

[Macklaren]

LET'S GO!!

[Darth-Piekus]

This is off topic but hasnt the team made the annual photo so we can put it on the first page of the thread?

[mwillems]

Yep. Lower speeds being the clear improvement so far.

Edit: more than low speed. Front balance and grip.

[Emag]

Agreed but RUS rears looked TERRIBLE at the end of his run

As far as I could tell, that wasn't the case no? His second stint was very consistent, doing mostly low 35s (35.1). Was he on C2 or C1 though? Because Oscar was on C1 for his middle stint.

they showed his second stint pit stop on TV and the tire looked awful. actually looked like he had run over a bunch of marbles....maybe had an off on the way in

Also his middle stint was on C2 whereas Oscar had C1s. Even if Russell matched him it's still a net win for McLaren, but I think he was just slightly slower when you remove Oscar's traffic-affected outliers. So a good stint by Oscar nonetheless.

Also, as much as I like Oscar, I do think Lando would have better race pace on the "harder" but more representative high temps today, so overall quite positive I would say. McLaren is probably the happiest team from this test, but it's difficult to properly read beyond that imo.

I don't think it's wise to take Mercedes and RedBull out of the picture so early and Ferrari might still find a sweet spot and fix their balance when the season gets going. McLaren had a good test, but until we see how they fare in the first 2-3 races, no guarantees they're in a comfortable lead imo.

[FittingMechanics]

With (probably) slightly better track conditions, Russell kind of matched Oscar's pace in his second stint. Now Russell is looking about 2 tenths off in the third stint, but Oscar cut that one short anyway.

So at least at the hands of Oscar, the car was pretty good on the first stint, matched with Russell on the second.
Mercedes seems like have improved quite a lot in terms of deg, but their best stint (the second) came at a later time when the temps were slightly lower.

Russell started his race sim quite a bit later and today that meant a big difference in temperature during their stints. Yesterday the difference wasn't really noticeable because the temps were stable throughout the day.

If Piastri is still ahead in the sim (and he is), that is probably a further confirmation that Norris pace yesterday was realistic.

[Ground Effect]

Can we say ominous yet?

[K1Plus]

The most important thing would be to keep that wide setup window they already had. Hope this keeps up.

[mwillems]

We look quicker in the sub 150 corners than russell, and the telemetry tentatively suggests to me that Mclaren were either fueled more or detuned.

Looks good.

[FittingMechanics]

From AMuS (longer version of that quote from the tweet).

But one thing should give McLaren’s opponents pause for thought. “Bahrain has always been a difficult track for us in the past. Last year, we were only the fourth force. A lot of traction is required here, and we lost time there.

Now it looks like we have gained at our weak point without sacrificing our strength in the medium-speed corners,” team boss Andrea Stella sums up the first long run with the new MCL39.

While most teams judge Bahrain with its strange layout and little variance in the corner radii as an outlier and therefore not a relevant test track, Stella sees it differently:

Stella: “For us, Bahrain is a good indicator of whether we have solved our problems. We would have learned less in Melbourne or Suzuka.”

[Matt2725]

Agreed but RUS rears looked TERRIBLE at the end of his run

As far as I could tell, that wasn't the case no? His second stint was very consistent, doing mostly low 35s (35.1). Was he on C2 or C1 though? Because Oscar was on C1 for his middle stint.

they showed his second stint pit stop on TV and the tire looked awful. actually looked like he had run over a bunch of marbles....maybe had an off on the way in

The pace was near metronomic so whatever you saw wasn't affecting his pace.