2025 McLaren F1 Team

This forum contains threads to discuss teams themselves. Anything not technical about the cars, including restructuring, performances etc belongs here.
User avatar
diffuser
249
Joined: 07 Sep 2012, 13:55
Location: Montreal

Re: 2025 McLaren F1 Team

Post

Ben1980 wrote:
27 Oct 2025, 18:47
mwillems wrote:
27 Oct 2025, 18:26
Ben1980 wrote:
27 Oct 2025, 18:13


Im not sure they pit if Oscar doesnt pit. And im then not sure of Oscar gets passed George on the mediums. He would get taken by Max easily though If Kimi still stops its questionable if he gets it back though
Kimi had pitted, but I'm not sure if George would have, but he'd still have got past George the same I think, possibly even quicker with just one car to worry about.

Felt like a missed opportunity to me.
Though Mclaren made it pretty obvious they were stopping Oscar that they had to pit Kimi.

Maybe Oscar would have got George on the mediums but im not sure.

Though i think stopping or not stopping 5th was likely best finish.
Think there was a really good chance, considering how much Russell tortured his Mediums, of passing a non DRS aided Russell. The REAL question is, do you want Max in front of you or Russell? I think you'd rather give the extra points to Russell and that's why I think it was a strategy error. 4 races left and Max is still 36 points behind, the odds are low but not impossible.

User avatar
mwillems
48
Joined: 04 Sep 2016, 22:11

Re: 2025 McLaren F1 Team

Post

Indeed. Whilst I think Max would have got past, there would have at least been a battle and the opportunity to minimise the positions Max could have gained by the end.
I'm not taking advice from a cartoon dog

-Bandit

emp
emp
1
Joined: 08 Feb 2015, 15:57

Re: 2025 McLaren F1 Team

Post

I think it wasn't a strategy error to pit Piastri again, but it was forced by the not so clever strategy of Mercedes who just gifted Max a podium. If they would have stayed on mediums, i think Max couldn't have passed that drs train that was there and he would've been stuck in 7th.

User avatar
AR3-GP
393
Joined: 06 Jul 2021, 01:22

Re: 2025 McLaren F1 Team

Post

emp wrote:
27 Oct 2025, 20:23
I think it wasn't a strategy error to pit Piastri again, but it was forced by the not so clever strategy of Mercedes who just gifted Max a podium. If they would have stayed on mediums, i think Max couldn't have passed that drs train that was there and he would've been stuck in 7th.
Verstappen was lapping 1 second a lap faster than Russell. He would have had so much traction advantage exiting the last corner that the overtake would have been done before the pit exit.
It doesn't turn.

User avatar
mwillems
48
Joined: 04 Sep 2016, 22:11

Re: 2025 McLaren F1 Team

Post

Oscar, when finally in clean air, or cleaner air, was one of the fastest on track. I think he had a lot more pace once past George, and would have had the benefit of much more clean air to run in once past George.
I'm not taking advice from a cartoon dog

-Bandit

User avatar
organic
1122
Joined: 08 Jan 2022, 02:24
Location: Cambridge, UK

Re: 2025 McLaren F1 Team

Post

mwillems wrote:
27 Oct 2025, 20:38
Oscar, when finally in clean air, or cleaner air, was one of the fastest on track. I think he had a lot more pace once past George, and would have had the benefit of much more clean air to run in once past George.
He was on a 2-stop strategy which was the same as many of those around him but not the same as the top 3 fastest guys so it's hard to say how quick he really was relative to them. Marginal 2 stop strategy when the mediums sucked and the soft was really good made your pace look a lot better

User avatar
diffuser
249
Joined: 07 Sep 2012, 13:55
Location: Montreal

Re: 2025 McLaren F1 Team

Post

It was kind of strange for Merc to Battle Piastri so hard and not Battle Max at all considering how friendly Max and Russell are..... :) For whatever reason.... Russell decided "Piastri" was a hill he wanted to die on. I also got the impression that his engineer was trying to nudge him to let Piastri through.

The other thing was, had Piastri stayed out when Ant pitted, he would have been in clean air, Russell had pulled ahead a bit. It was NOT obvious that Ant was gonna have a pit stop issue, it was just luck that it wasn't Piastri that had a pit stop delay or that they both had good stops and Piastri just came out behind Ant again.


Anyways, hind sight is 20/20!

emp
emp
1
Joined: 08 Feb 2015, 15:57

Re: 2025 McLaren F1 Team

Post

AR3-GP wrote:
27 Oct 2025, 20:25
emp wrote:
27 Oct 2025, 20:23
I think it wasn't a strategy error to pit Piastri again, but it was forced by the not so clever strategy of Mercedes who just gifted Max a podium. If they would have stayed on mediums, i think Max couldn't have passed that drs train that was there and he would've been stuck in 7th.
Verstappen was lapping 1 second a lap faster than Russell. He would have had so much traction advantage exiting the last corner that the overtake would have been done before the pit exit.
It was a 3 car drs train: Antonelli, Russell and Piastri. The mercs switched and Piastri still couldn't pass on the track because the drs train. Also, in the beggining of the race we saw how good Max was on those mediums and almost no one on the softs behind came close to threaten him. Of course it's possible that he would've breezed past, but considering the dirty air you get when following, the sliding, the temperatures, only 2 places to overtake, 2 Mercedes that can play as a team and the drs train in front...I still think he would've been stuck a long time, even if he would've got Piastri.

User avatar
mwillems
48
Joined: 04 Sep 2016, 22:11

Re: 2025 McLaren F1 Team

Post

organic wrote:
27 Oct 2025, 20:40
mwillems wrote:
27 Oct 2025, 20:38
Oscar, when finally in clean air, or cleaner air, was one of the fastest on track. I think he had a lot more pace once past George, and would have had the benefit of much more clean air to run in once past George.
He was on a 2-stop strategy which was the same as many of those around him but not the same as the top 3 fastest guys so it's hard to say how quick he really was relative to them. Marginal 2 stop strategy when the mediums sucked and the soft was really good made your pace look a lot better
Without a doubt it looked better and I doubt hed have been so fast. But he certainly would have more than eaten into the 1s a lap pace advantage Max had and be able to hold him back to some degree.

Whether he could take the fight to Bearman I dont know. But Oscars pace continued the length of his stint on softs and continued to improve due to the lack of deg.
I'm not taking advice from a cartoon dog

-Bandit