2025 McLaren F1 Team

[Darth-Piekus]

These are actually good questions. Success is not guaranteed or guaranteed to be repeated.

[rayden]

It is now 14-7 in Q3 between the drivers this season.... It's turning into a bit of a piasting.

[CHT]

With Max lurking behind, I think Mclaren may have to decide to back Oscar after this race to ensure one of their driver seal the WDC.

[mwillems]

These are actually good questions. Success is not guaranteed or guaranteed to be repeated.

They were largely statements bar the question about what might be in the cigarettes of some of our posters.

It would be a metaphorical and possibly literally car crash to back a driver now.

Even Oscar would struggle to focus with all the noise and pressure it would put on the team as Lando openly tells the media that he's fighting for the title and will do it with or without the team and that he's no ones wing man

[McLarenHonda]

With Max lurking behind, I think Mclaren may have to decide to back Oscar after this race to ensure one of their driver seal the WDC.

Absolutely!

Lando doesn’t even have the mentality to win this! You don’t go out there claiming “Verstapen is the best and you can’t compete with him”! Yeah he may be but you have to believe in yourself and your skills…

[De Wet]

Pitpass:

Stella:

There's a pattern from Baku and Singapore that resembles Canada, where the braking with the bumps and curbs creates challenges for the MCL39. Ultimately, some other teams seem to handle these circuit types slightly better, but this doesn't come as too much of a surprise. This, however, is still important information which we can take on board as a team to learn and move forward.

Let's hope it's not a repeat of Canada.

[f1isgood]

Not sure why Stella is making excuses. He said the car was good enough to fight for pole at Baku and in fact praised the technical team for having such a well rounded car. This was quoted by Cjc, a very regular poster in the Red Bull Racing Thread:

“But having said that, the car was fast enough to compete for pole position [in Baku], which is a credit to the engineers who have designed a pretty versatile car, even when not operating within the strengths of the car itself.

Moreover, McL39 didn't improve from last year around Singapore, which is the stranger part for me.

In any case, I have to admit that I haven't looked at OP or LN onboards and I have no idea if there were some serious mistakes in their laps that potentially undermind the potential. That said, as many posters have mentioned, as far as OP and LN are concerned, especially LN, it is clear that the car is tricky on the limit so not sure if that is also a reason here.

[r85]

Not sure why Stella is making excuses. He literally said the car was good enough to fight for pole at Baku and in fact praised the technical team for having such a well rounded car. This was quoted by Cjc, a very regular poster in the Red Bull Racing Thread:

“But having said that, the car was fast enough to compete for pole position [in Baku], which is a credit to the engineers who have designed a pretty versatile car, even when not operating within the strengths of the car itself.

Moreover, McL39 didn't improve from last year around Singapore, which is the stranger part for me.

Must be the cost cap really coming into play here where they have to compromise aspects of the car to be stronger elsewhere. I think the last truly versatile car there will ever be is the W11 as it was during the free spending era.

[f1isgood]

Not sure why Stella is making excuses. He literally said the car was good enough to fight for pole at Baku and in fact praised the technical team for having such a well rounded car. This was quoted by Cjc, a very regular poster in the Red Bull Racing Thread:

“But having said that, the car was fast enough to compete for pole position [in Baku], which is a credit to the engineers who have designed a pretty versatile car, even when not operating within the strengths of the car itself.

Moreover, McL39 didn't improve from last year around Singapore, which is the stranger part for me.

Must be the cost cap really coming into play here where they have to compromise aspects of the car to be stronger elsewhere. I think the last truly versatile car there will ever be is the W11 as it was during the free spending era.

Potentially could be. That said, this car improved basically on almost every track so far (correct me if I am mistaken) whenever the drivers had a clean weekend. Singapore sticks out as a outlier at least to me.

The W11 was a great car but I think the W10 was more well-rounded. But that's a discussion for another day and will be off-topic to this thread.

[Ben1980]

Not sure why Stella is making excuses. He said the car was good enough to fight for pole at Baku and in fact praised the technical team for having such a well rounded car. This was quoted by Cjc, a very regular poster in the Red Bull Racing Thread:

“But having said that, the car was fast enough to compete for pole position [in Baku], which is a credit to the engineers who have designed a pretty versatile car, even when not operating within the strengths of the car itself.

Moreover, McL39 didn't improve from last year around Singapore, which is the stranger part for me.

In any case, I have to admit that I haven't looked at OP or LN onboards and I have no idea if there were some serious mistakes in their laps that potentially undermind the potential. That said, as many posters have mentioned, as far as OP and LN are concerned, especially LN, it is clear that the car is tricky on the limit so not sure if that is also a reason here.

The car should have challenged in Baku. At least 2nd and 3rd, but driver errors and the Red flags threw in the spanners.

Lando dominated Singapore last year, but its a different car.

I dont think Stella makes excuses he is just generally pretty open and honest. He knows the cars limitations more than any of us forum dwellers though.

[mwillems]

Because Singapore is very bumpy into the braking zones and highlights the issues that were more prominent at the start of the season, and it's why the drivers were a bit more inconsistent in Qualifying and it is why I said 10 days ago that this was a particular test for Mclaren. The corners themselves are fine for this car but it is tricky to get working, so they'll have had to sacrifice some ride height/stiffness and downforce for comfort into the corners.

It's why I was also curious to see how the Red Bull did here. It's still faster, but it looks like it also suffers a little and the Merc is better on entry to and around the low speeds.

Norris had the potential to be closer to Verstappen but made a mistake of the penultimate corner, otherwise the times were close and both Lando and Max could have been closer to Russell.
This is the metric that is most important and in this case you can simply say the Macca and Red Bull were very close, but the driver made the difference.

Mercedes is not a worry, in fact if they have suddenly become faster than RB then it plays to our advantage. But I don't think this will be the case.

Oscar drove a solid but uninspired Q and never looked to have the pace here, but like at the start of the season when the car was tricky, he was able to be more consistent and bring a reasonable baseline time home.

When we get to the mid speed tracks we'll be better again. COTA will be a hassle because it's bumpy, but it does have more corners to our liking than Singapore. Mexico will likely be a huge struggle because the high altitude will highlight our low downforce struggles, and then Brazil should be a lot of fun for us.

I'll not watch Vegas, but the final two tracks will also favour us.

All we need to do is keep our heads and bring it home.

Next curiosity is how the tyres work around here for the different cars. Will there be clean air to pit into? Red flags,SC/VSCs?

Everything to play for here today, and whilst some may hope for it, there is negative 1 million percent chance that one driver will agree to sacrifice any of their chances in the race to aid the other

[Scorpia]

I heard talks about new asphalt at some critical areas at the track, makes it less bumpy. Maybe someone can confirm or dismiss that.

[Emag]

This season is one of Lando's worst. I don't know what's going on in the "backstage" and if there's something about the car he is not getting to grips with, but man, he is choking way too often. Q3 comes and it's more likely he doesn't deliver a good lap at this point.

There is a chance he might have been P2, or at least very close to it had he not messed up the chicane and the last corner :

[mwillems]

I heard talks about new asphalt at some critical areas at the track, makes it less bumpy. Maybe someone can confirm or dismiss that.

It has, but Stella and Norris have both spoken about these new areas themselves still having bumps and being problematic.

it's a street circuit, it's just one of those things, you need the car and the drivers to be able to deal better with it and ours weren't great.

Stella noted a recurring pattern at bumpy street circuits like Baku, Canada, and Singapore, with Norris consistently referring to problems with the front axle and traction under these conditions. Both attributed the qualifying performance partly to the altered track surface and its interaction with this year's Pirelli tyres.

Norris also said he doesn't have the issue with the medium tyre and the balance was much better. It'll be hard to get an opportunity to stretch our legs in the race, but if one pops up, we have a good chance.

But will Russell just manage a slow pace around the track to keep it bunched until it is a good time to pit? I'd expect so.

[mwillems]

This season is one of Lando's worst. I don't know what's going on in the "backstage" and if there's something about the car he is not getting to grips with, but man, he is choking way too often. Q3 comes and it's more likely he doesn't deliver a good lap at this point.

There is a chance he might have been P2, or at least very close to it had he not messed up the chicane and the last corner :
https://i.imgur.com/UzLfT9Z.png

UK Can't view that image, but yeah, he could have been a few tenths faster. Totally unreliable if the car isn't to his liking and it changes from year to year depending on whether the car is tricky in Q or in Race. He cannot drive around it.

None the less, Oscar needed a DNF to be ahead of this type of driver in the championship, he's still got work to do.