2024 Mclaren Formula 1 Team

[elldizzle]

At the end of the day, like others here, I am always hoping for more. But from where we were the last few years I feel we're about where the team, in it's maturity should be. We have only just got a win capable car. I say capable as it's still very tight at the top. Small errors are still costly. We will get there as a team. I just feel the car development has outpaced the race team. I'm sure we will go away, analyse and review. We will improve. It's a difficult thing to go from the midfield to the front.

[Ben1980]

In reality it's always been a battle for the WCC. The start Max got, pretty much secured the title. And his car hasn't and won't just drop away, still a fantastic car.

Obviously the RB issue is Perez, always a bit slower, which didn't really matter, until being that bit slower is at least half a dozen cars in between.

[SKYnRacing24]

You know that self doubt that Lewis was talking about....theres no doubt this mentality will creep into Lando. His stern looks to the camera and that " beat yourself up " demeanour is worrying. Yes hes obviously annoyed but that sky interview was grim viewing. I guess these missed opportunities are starting to reveal a few things. One being it takes more than a fast car to win races consistently and two the Merc's have made strides that will stop these race winning chances more often if there genuinely fast. I hope they can turn the corner and start maximising results on both sides of the garages but there needs to be a internal meeting because there race operations are shambolic. Both drivers should be winning with the car they have but this is what separates the mentality of being a championship winning team and a midfield one. Mclaren can not afford to stick with this. They need to start acting like a top team again who are serious about the WDC and WCC.

[BMMR61]

Glass half empty Lando. If that works for him to bounce back, credit to him but Oscar was the McLaren driver to feel disappointed, yet he was philosophical. He has had a distinctly discouraging season so often, in equal measure not finding the last tenths of pace as not getting the luck when he had the pace. Yet he still keeps attacking the deficiencies and shows that it's all a process. Maybe Lando has waited so long for this moment in his F1 career but Oscar keeps digging for all the positives and learnings - it's hard to escape the feeling that his progress in race pace has been more and more in evidence, none more than today when there surprisingly was high tyre degradation.

[Watto]

The lead Max has will make it near impossible to over take. I think another issue too is Mercedes returning to some form. I think McLaren still have a better car but as per today if RBR/Max are a little off their game, there is no guarantee Lando will always be the one to take advantage. Makes eating into his lead far harder.

[bauc]

I just saw the race, dam it, WHY DIDNT WE WENT WITH THE NEW MEDIUM SET?!?!?!?

Why didn't we double stack NOR and PIA?

So many wrong calls today, to what was a superb drive.

[venkyhere]

Driving talent wise, Lando is one level above, no doubt about it, but it's only 2nd year for Oscar. I can't remember how Lando was in his 2nd year.

Just from the way they interact in team radio and they way they respond in the media interviews (because there is no other insight into their personalities), Lando v Oscar :
- both are self critical and have no issues admitting to mistakes
- Oscar is far more self-assured, and has better E.Q than Lando (who is way too emotional)
- both are calm and don't show panic even when in the hot seat during the race, but Oscar is a zen-like calm.
- the way Oscar didn't blame the team or himself and brushed aside questions of 'was your race ruined by not double-stacking for inters' was commendable - very rarely do we get a driver who is fighting at the front, and isn't annoyed by the lost opportunity when a mike is thrust onto him immediately after the race.

[BMMR61]

Driving talent wise, Lando is one level above, no doubt about it, but it's only 2nd year for Oscar. I can't remember how Lando was in his 2nd year.

Just from the way they interact in team radio and they way they respond in the media interviews (because there is no other insight into their personalities), Lando v Oscar :
- both are self critical and have no issues admitting to mistakes
- Oscar is far more self-assured, and has better E.Q than Lando (who is way too emotional)
- both are calm and don't show panic even when in the hot seat during the race, but Oscar is a zen-like calm.
- the way Oscar didn't blame the team or himself and brushed aside questions of 'was your race ruined by not double-stacking for inters' was commendable - very rarely do we get a driver who is fighting at the front, and isn't annoyed by the lost opportunity when a mike is thrust onto him immediately after the race.

Online forums tend to become as emotional (or more) than the drivers. In the cold light of day (in the Southern Hemisphere) having rewatched the race and studied the timing, it's clear the pit wall is lacking winning experience. Just wait for a moment before being too critical as I was immediately post race - today was a day of days with certain unpredictabilities ebbing and flowing with the various cars' strengths and weaknesses. Excuses? Yeah maybe but when we calm down, there's no gain in throwing Will or anyone else under the bus. Looking across to the first two drivers' key personnel - it's bloody legendary, Bonno and GP, absolute legends who have fought these kind of battles a hundred times. Our guys need to keep going, deeply analyse after the race, and get better at anticipation versus reaction. All the bad calls were down to a lack of anticipation in my mind, just reacting, almost panicked into their decisions. There will be some deep discussions in the coming 10 days.

[chengzhongyi2013]

From a broader perspective, this period of having a race-winning car may have come a season too early. 2025 was targeted by the team, mentioned by Lando himself. The team has arguably met its milestone targets a year early.
Still, this apparent "lack of readiness in winning championships" should not be an excuse for the operational mishaps that have plagued Mclaren harking back to the Ron Dennis days. Operationally, some fundamental changes need to be put in place to ensure that such mistakes do not happen again.

https://racingnews365.com/why-mclaren-f ... ht-in-2025
https://www.espn.com.sg/f1/story/_/id/4 ... ndo-norris

[BMMR61]

And if we all need a consolation for not getting a possible 1-2......
Oscar has moved past Perez to 5th in WDC and has both Ferrari drivers in his sights and,
McLaren are now just 7 points behind Ferrari at the halfway point - 295 points, only 7 less than they scored last season!

Expectations are a funny thing. If we carry on this way, 600 points, a competitive 2nd in the WCC, and 2nd and 3rd in the WDC is possible.
Any team scoring 600+ points in the last 15 years were WCC champions.
We would have been happy with that at the start of the year. Keep pushing!

[BMMR61]

From a broader perspective, this period of having a race-winning car may have come a season too early. 2025 was targeted by the team, mentioned by Lando himself. The team has arguably met its milestone targets a year early.
Still, this apparent "lack of readiness in winning championships" should not be an excuse for the operational mishaps that have plagued Mclaren harking back to the Ron Dennis days. Operationally, some fundamental changes need to be put in place to ensure that such mistakes do not happen again.

https://racingnews365.com/why-mclaren-f ... ht-in-2025
https://www.espn.com.sg/f1/story/_/id/4 ... ndo-norris

Agreed, and building the experience of winning and the mentality that goes with it. Still the second half ahead and plenty of chances for maximising the excellent car, hopefully before Mercedes fully get their mojo back.

Incidentally the racingnews365 story was four months old and we have progressed far more than expected with updates that have been major upgrades.

[McLarenMor]

It all comes down to the exchange between Will and Lando about who to cover with which tire, this is the wrong mentality and shows they have some ways to go.
A mature winning team would probably have won 3-5 races with this car.

Plus, we can't hide it, our drivers are, from what it seems to me, are not amazing qualifiers, they are good, but far from exceptional, and many times since the car became competitive they dropped the ball (to an extent, being P2-P4 , not improving on the last run, tracks limits etc. , when the car is very capable of being P1 also falls into the category) in Q3.

Lastly, some 'excuses' can be given to the team, this kind of conditions are the worst to be leading a race in (with small gaps to the cars behind), you're 99% of the time reactive to the ones stopping behind, which can take more chances, as you have only things to lose.

Given where we were at the beginning of last year (or decade) and where we are today, not much we can complain about, it's good they get all this out of their system this year and let's hope we will have the pace to be in the fight next year, with a much more mature team to fight at the front.

[chasefreak]

Hey all.
I have been keeping a close eye on this thread - being a die hard McLaren fan.

We keep comparing our self to last year and I feel that is wrong. We have moved past that and now have a car that can win us races. Evidence based on the last few races.
I personally see false in strategy. The team really needs to be quick on thinking and executing. God dammit I’m watching the race on TV and can call the exact timing on pits and tyre and the team with all sorts of data cannot achieve this much. It’s depressing

[LionsHeart]

Hey all.
I have been keeping a close eye on this thread - being a die hard McLaren fan.

We keep comparing our self to last year and I feel that is wrong. We have moved past that and now have a car that can win us races. Evidence based on the last few races.
I personally see false in strategy. The team really needs to be quick on thinking and executing. God dammit I’m watching the race on TV and can call the exact timing on pits and tyre and the team with all sorts of data cannot achieve this much. It’s depressing

Yeah, I have the same.

[CjC]

No matter what you hear or read it’s the same astonishment that they didn’t use the medium in the last stint.

https://www.racefans.net/2024/07/07/ana ... -baffling/

Like Horner said, Red Bull put the hard on because it was the best tyre for them, they didn’t care what anyone else put on.

Another thought as well, they obviously saved 2 sets of medium for the race- that must have been an overall strategy decision made on Friday, why you wouldn’t reap the benefits of your clever thinking is only something McLaren can explain.

I feel this truck up has the potential to go down in history along with Kimi Raikkonen on extreme tyres on a dry track towards the end of the 2009 Malaysian Grand Prix and George Russell’s is it raining/ sweat on the visor faux pax