2025 McLaren F1 Team

[Emag]

Lando was right behind Antonelli for most of his sim. Matching his pace and at the end he overtook him. Leclerc was behind Verstappen for a part of it, but VER was on a slightly different programme and his laptimes were worse (so LEC got outliers). About the soft tyre run, I haven't been able to follow super closely but from what I could tell, it looked like McLaren had couple of aborted/bad laps before they nailed the lap. Ferrari seemed to make their first lap work so I'd say there is some margin there.

Similar to Ferrari on older tyres. George looks fast.

George was on hards and probably on a different plan (Norris easily matched Antonelli).

To my eye it looked like McLaren > Ferrari > Mercedes > Red Bull.

True mostly for Oscar.

Oscar set his fastest lap at the 6th lap of the stint with the softs.
Lando set his at the third.
Charles at the 4th (including a trip to the pits after settings a 16:8 earlier).

[mwillems]

This is true but all I'm really saying is, don't leave him out of the conversation because doing those times over 4 more laps and as metronomic as they were suggests good pace, to me.

[FittingMechanics]

True mostly for Oscar.

Oscar set his fastest lap at the 6th lap of the stint with the softs.
Lando set his at the third.
Charles at the 4th (including a trip to the pits after settings a 16:8 earlier).

Thanks for the correction.

So if I understood this correctly, these numbers are total number of laps, not hot laps? So effectively both Charles and Lando did two hotlaps (with Charles doing two cool laps) and Oscar did 3 hot laps.

[Emag]

True mostly for Oscar.

Oscar set his fastest lap at the 6th lap of the stint with the softs.
Lando set his at the third.
Charles at the 4th (including a trip to the pits after settings a 16:8 earlier).

Thanks for the correction.

So if I understood this correctly, these numbers are total number of laps, not hot laps? So effectively both Charles and Lando did two hotlaps (with Charles doing two cool laps) and Oscar did 3 hot laps.

Sort of yes.

Lando tried to go for a lap fresh out of the pits, but he aborted at T10. Then he had a cool down lap, then he set his fastest of the session immediately after. Had a bunch more slow laps before having a go at it again, but he aborted out of the last corner (was about a tenth down on his best up until that point, so wasn't going to improve).

Oscar had a different approach. He also "pushed" (for 2 corners) on his first lap out of the pits, but aborted on T3. Then he had another push lap after that to set a 16:9. Then he has 3 cool down laps before setting his fastest of the session.

Charles had a different strategy. He set his best laps immediately out of the pits. First time he set a 16:8 fresh out of the pits, then had 2 cooldown laps before pitting (possibly for a minor tweak on front wing) and set the 16:4 on the first proper lap out of the pits again.

[Darth-Piekus]

I would be lying if I said that I would prefer competition instead of a stress free dominating Mclaren weekend but it looks like we are gonna be tight at least with the data from those two first Practise Sessions. Tomorrow though is the most important as the team will ramp up the engine and show something more.

[mwillems]

Norris had a wobble on his fast lap, lost a tenth at the entry of 9/10. Russell did a time .65 off Piastri's best on relatively fresh Hards.
I know it is just FP2, but George is a dark horse to me.

[billamend]

https://x.com/mclarenf1_news/status/1900444682062045380

https://x.com/mclarenf1_news/status/1900444684675125415

[CjC]

https://x.com/mclarenf1_news/status/1900444682062045380

https://x.com/mclarenf1_news/status/1900444684675125415

Exactly what I thought/ feared after testing

[BMMR61]

First impression many are struggling to improve on their intermediate hot lap wth the soft, Leclerc being notable exception. Merc on the other hand make the hard tyre work better - like last year where they were best in cold temps the way they worked their tyres hard. McLaren at this stage look to have marginally the best package and arguably were holding back but finding the soft tyre hot lap preparation tricky.

[_cerber1]

Last season, when McLaren were fast in practice (1-3), they were disconcertingly fast in qualifying and the race. Hopefully that trend continues.

[Macklaren]

After watching both FPs and reading all the feedback, sounds like no team is happy up and down the grid. Going to be more of a mixed picture into Qualy tomorrow and then the wet race. Oh well, on to China to determine the real pecking order

[101FlyingDutchman]

Traditionally we are nowhere near the top during free practice. Way too early to say anything but I feel quietly confident we are at least in the mix for both titles. Possibly even stronger than last year. Let’s keep fingers crossed

[SilviuAgo]

Some FP2 analysis tks to Formula Data Analysis and F1 Telemetry Data

LEC was quick everywhere, already demolishing VER's 2023 pole (0.293s quicker). TSU, DOO, PIA got the fastest sectors, however!





LEC vs PIA
Were head-to-head until the last corner, where LEC gained 1 tenth through a 6km/h-higher minimum speed!

[mwillems]

The DRS Delta disagrees with the top speeds. Was that top speeds on fastest lap? When looking at that data, we are only behind 4 teams on top speed.

[FittingMechanics]

Thank you for that comparison between PIA and LEC.

It is good to see how there is no "engine mode difference" when you compare PIA to LEC. I'm mentioning this because some commentators were saying that NOR was on higher engine mode because he was faster on the back straight. PIA trace shows that this is probably just an artifact of NOR running a smaller rear wing, so NOR gains on the straights but can't carry as much speed in the corner.