2025 McLaren F1 Team

[Seerix]

Lando has really impressed me again

Lando has really impressed me again

Comment of the week

I hope this quote will return in Vegas

[Seerix]

I do want to mention, that the team did not seem to have evaluated the tyre situation properly and they ended up with only 1 new set of MED and one used set from sprint for the main race. Not optimal at all considering hards were garbage.

[Ben1980]

The team let Piastri down with this strategy. Not saying they are sabotaging him, but they ridiculously inflexible with their strategies.

Not sure they had another option. Use the hardship and he's probably further back.

[Ben1980]

The team let Piastri down with this strategy. Not saying they are sabotaging him, but they ridiculously inflexible with their strategies.

What could they do though. Softs were bad, Hards were worse. What strategy saves Piastri where he has to use at least 2 tire sets and 2/3 are horrible.

A one-stopper was a no brainer at that point, I think he could have clung onto second.

On the hards? Not a hope.

[Xero]

Another impressive and controlled race from Lando. His starts recently have been phenomonal!

I think the idea strategy-wise was to 1 stop onto the hards, but they clearly were not working this weekend. Bizzare slow pace on the softs for Lando's stint, not sure if that was in reaction to the sprint race where his rears fell away really quickly. Probably just being uber conservative, and to be honest, he could afford to.

I mentioned yesterday how Oscar could get desperate and take risks, and it happened. I do feel sorry for him though, Kimi didn't give him space and had nowhere to go. His lockup was a reaction to being squeezed, so probably just a victum of the outcome with Charles being taken out.

Drivers championship aside, it's fantastic to see how McLaren have regrouped to extract some more pace out of the car with no upgrades. Shows a team with a great understanding of the car. Whatever fine tuning has been done to the setup has clearly benefited Lando most, he looks very comfortable now.

[Emag]

I do want to mention, that the team did not seem to have evaluated the tyre situation properly and they ended up with only 1 new set of MED and one used set from sprint for the main race. Not optimal at all considering hards were garbage.

Can't blame them, these tires make no sense. You go one weekend, the softs are amazing and you can do the whole race with them with zero deg. You go to the other, softs barely last 10 laps.

I know soft,medium,hard swap around between C1-C5 weekend to weekend, but even on races where they run the same compounds, there's barely any consistency. I honestly don't know how they make sense of these things. From an outside perspective, they seem like alien tech. Props to pirelli

[Macklaren]

Let's not ignore multiple 2.2s stops from the team after a tough few races in the pits

[Xero]

Let's not ignore multiple 2.2s stops from the team after a tough few races in the pits

Was just about to edit my post to add that in. Superb from the pitcrew!

[Macklaren]

I do want to mention, that the team did not seem to have evaluated the tyre situation properly and they ended up with only 1 new set of MED and one used set from sprint for the main race. Not optimal at all considering hards were garbage.

Honestly, not much you can do with tire strategy on a sprint weekend. Unless you play 3D chess and qualify P16

[michl420]

The team let Piastri down with this strategy. Not saying they are sabotaging him, but they ridiculously inflexible with their strategies.

Not sure they had another option. Use the hardship and he's probably further back.

I think after Friday, they knew it is a medium tire race, therefore use the soft in the sprint. But the red flag there crossed there plan.

[FittingMechanics]

The team let Piastri down with this strategy. Not saying they are sabotaging him, but they ridiculously inflexible with their strategies.

Not sure they had another option. Use the hardship and he's probably further back.

I think after Friday, they knew it is a medium tire race, therefore use the soft in the sprint. But the red flag there crossed there plan.

McLaren did the opposite, start the sprint on medium and switched to soft.

That medium is probably the one they raced with today.

[CjC]

The team must go into Las Vegas with the intention to win. Don't fall into a trap of defending this lead.

Just win, take it further away.

I know the narrative tomorrow will be another "epic" drive from Max, but he got very lucky just like last year. Even the puncture perfectly took him off a terrible tire early in the race, under SC conditions. And he had new Mediums and Softs left.

Yeah, fully agreed. When you look at it objectively it was quite lucky.

He misses out on Q2 by smallest of margins, forcing them to take new engine and setup that makes it the fastest car. With a slightly better qualifying he is probably P12 or P8 with a bad setup, no new engine and little chance to go forward.

This was a great masterful drive by him but it could have easily been much worse.

He also had fresh tyres to bolt on all the time.

He started to deg harder and lap slower than Lando on 7 lap fresher mediums towards the end of the first stint.

Like I said yesterday to the thread, celebrate Verstappens misfortune at our peril.
Like you say, dropping out in Q1 was probably the worst thing for the grid. If he makes it Q3 he would have used up all of his fresh tyre in doing so. Starts inside the top 7 with a bad set up, the only tyre advantage would have been one more new medium (quite a big advantage) and would have finished P4 at best but now he has a new engine to thrash for the last 3 races. He’s now effectively eradicated any chance of a DNF through reliability.

Edit: after reading what Verstappen said after the race. The cooler conditions helped him too

[venkyhere]

Is it allowed to change directions more than two times to break DRS?

Stop being so desperate. Not even Russel was complaining. You make more posts to bitch about Max than to praise your favourite driver, Piastri. Be a little objective. The least you can accept is that Piastri has lost his mojo - despite driving the best car of 2025, he couldn't finish ahead of the guy starting from pitlane, in an inferior car that was put together in a usable setup window at the last minute.

[michl420]

Not sure they had another option. Use the hardship and he's probably further back.

I think after Friday, they knew it is a medium tire race, therefore use the soft in the sprint. But the red flag there crossed there plan.

McLaren did the opposite, start the sprint on medium and switched to soft.

That medium is probably the one they raced with today.

Oops my fault. Then they where actually somehow lucky, imagine they would have been without this tire.

[venkyhere]

After the big fail from Sprint to main Quali, I hope RBR is doing same job with the new setup. I really hope not to relive the last year Brazil GP.

Don't worry, last year the RB20 car was 'balanced' (after their 'fixes') , it lacked performance. This time, they are going blind and hoping on luck - they had one attempt to find the setup balance between sprint and Q, didn't get it. Now they have made a second attempt between Q and race. What are the chances they get it right a second time ? very little. Even if there is rain, which, to an extent bridges performance differences across teams (as the speeds will be lower), what is vital is 'balance' ; and RBR simply dont have it. They are basically shooting in the dark, hoping it sticks - that usually doesn't work in F1, especially in the ground effect ruleset (remember the 'experiments' phase that Mercedes underwent, from 2022 until late 2023 ?).
I am not a fan of any driver/team, a true 'neutral' just that I admire 'talent' (whether driving or whether engineering), and the reason I am disappointed is because the Monza resurgence gave a 'false hope' of a proper championship fight, but now, with Piastri and Max falling by the wayside, it's a one-man show. And Norris truly deserves it, make no mistake. Just that as a 'fan of the sport' it would have been so much better to see a 'fight'.

happy to eat my words. Redbull did get lucky the 2nd time and put their car in a good setup window.
Norris was flawless, the perfect weekend. Well deserved champion.
If Redbull keep getting the setup right for the next 3 races (a big IF), we in for an exciting P2 in WDC and P2 in WCC.