2025 McLaren F1 Team

[mwillems]

Oh yeah, Max made mistakes, but was still better than our boys - though I will be clear, I do think that the car suits him and he can drive it very well, I don't think it is all Max as some of the RB fans like to portray. That doesn't bother me though, as I've said before. I'm happy with our boys, though if we get into a tight fight next year and these margins count more, then it changes things, but they have time to improve and as I've said before, I feel that Oscars peak will exceed Lando, not that that counts for anything today.

Lando had his crash into Oscar in Canada, what were the other mistakes by Lando?
Oscar had his crash into Lando in Austin, Baku overdriving and crash? Am I missing something.

I agree that Max is more clinical, he extracts more from the car, he puts more pressure on other drivers, but he is not perfect.

• Lando binned it at Jeddah

• Made tons of smaller driving errors at the start of the season with a car he couldn't handle

• Had more pace than Oscar when catching him at Spa but kept losing all the time he'd gained when going off track multiple times

• Crashed into Oscar at Canada.

• He actually had a poor weekend at Canada, Qualifying 7th due to mistakes in Q.

• In his own words he lost eight points by locking up in China sprint Q.

• Topping Q1 and Q2 in Bahrain and screwing up Q3 and qualifying 6th, finishing 3rd

• Not helped by getting a 5s penalty from rolling forward at the start at Bahrain.

Making serious mistakes in 1/5 races is not great especially good, considering multiple weekends also had multiple mistakes, and this is not even considering other smaller issues like missing a pit box and losing a couple of seconds.

I'm not trying to overplay it all or downplay Lando, but we do need to be honest, he's still got work to do.

At the same time, I do think he made a lot less mistakes than some other fans like to come in here and say, which was that any time we didn't have pole by a clear margin then the drivers were terrible. Because to them it was inconceivable that the RB could be fast or the MCL39 have some flaws, the only answer being Max is god and Mclaren drivers are poor - which certainly came across as a highly subjective opinion based on favouritism.

[FittingMechanics]

Thank you. Forgot about Jeddah.

Some of these others were not really that big but they do add up.

[Emag]

Ironically I think this wasn’t Lando’s best season, which is sad in a way, because newer fans just bashed on him a lot. You can’t put a down a WDC though, so in terms of results, it was obviously his best.

I still think his 2021 season was relatively better, considering what he achieved with what he had. Coming back to flat floor cars next year, who knows, maybe he starts getting fiesty again.

[mwillems]

Thank you. Forgot about Jeddah.

Some of these others were not really that big but they do add up.

Thing is, I haven't even mentioned the poor starts from the beginning of the year when his confidence was down lol Dropping from 10th to 12th at Jeddah on lap one, for instance. Did he lose spots at the start in Canada too?

It does all add up, and in places like Canada and Bahrain it was weekend wide mistakes. but he got the WDC and he gets to try again next year!

On another note, I was also reading that Max was considering backing up the pack, but couldn't because of the split tyre strategy that Stella implemented as a means to them managing the race.

I think I heard that Stella said he couldn't sleep before the race, until the idea of split tyre strategy occurred, then he slept like a baby lol

[chrisc90]

Why wouldn’t max have been able to back the pack up?
Surely the split tyre strategy would have only worked if Oscar was in the lead and could build a big enough gap to Max so when Max putted he wasn’t ever going to come first.
Backing the pack up would have meant that the rear runners would have have to put early to give the undercut the chance of leapfrogging the cars infront. I think in that case McLaren would have had to take the lead in that instance in pitting Lando before the others.

I think RBR knew there was super little they could do realistically when the 2 behind Lando - Russel and Leclerc, didn’t have any pace to challenge Lando for position

[Danzo84]

Altho they got the strategy right, it shouldnt have taken that long to figure it was the best strategy. I mean that strategy was in my head straight after qualifying. Im no strategic guru either lol.
But glad they got there and lando is world champion, oscar or max would have been worthy champions too. Great season.....we go again next year hoping the car is good again. Have a great Xmas papaya fans.

[mwillems]

Why wouldn’t max have been able to back the pack up?
Surely the split tyre strategy would have only worked if Oscar was in the lead and could build a big enough gap to Max so when Max putted he wasn’t ever going to come first.
Backing the pack up would have meant that the rear runners would have have to put early to give the undercut the chance of leapfrogging the cars infront. I think in that case McLaren would have had to take the lead in that instance in pitting Lando before the others.

I think RBR knew there was super little they could do realistically when the 2 behind Lando - Russel and Leclerc, didn’t have any pace to challenge Lando for position

The article says:

While Verstappen and Norris started from the front row on fresh sets of medium compound tyres, Piastri took a set of hards. The McLaren appeared to run better on these tyres and they were the only team to reserve two fresh sets of them for both their drivers.
This compromised Verstappen’s efforts to slow down the field, as he explained. “We had very strong pace,” he said, “there’s really not much that I could have done different.

“What complicated it a bit was that Oscar was on a different strategy. So, you never know, of course, when he then pits, how much pace he has in hand to catch up again.”

https://www.racefans.net/2025/12/07/ver ... ther-cars/

[Ben1980]

The hard tyre start was obvious, even i raised it as an option and I'm nothing more than a thicko who enjoys the races.

I think too much goes into if someone is great, good or lucky. Lando deserved to be the champion, he got the points.

Does it matter if he's a great or just good. Not really.

Though any criticism of Lando is also probably a criticism he levels on himself!

He could win another, he may not. Its all about the car isn't it?

Charles Leclerc may not ever be a world champion, yet I think he's a great driver. In fact I'd put more money on lil Kimi over Charles.

But, with Lando it can't be taken away. Fully deserved and really happy for someone who seems to be one of the more interesting characters in F1. His mum seems a bit mad mind.

[chrisc90]

Why wouldn’t max have been able to back the pack up?
Surely the split tyre strategy would have only worked if Oscar was in the lead and could build a big enough gap to Max so when Max putted he wasn’t ever going to come first.
Backing the pack up would have meant that the rear runners would have have to put early to give the undercut the chance of leapfrogging the cars infront. I think in that case McLaren would have had to take the lead in that instance in pitting Lando before the others.

I think RBR knew there was super little they could do realistically when the 2 behind Lando - Russel and Leclerc, didn’t have any pace to challenge Lando for position

The article says:

While Verstappen and Norris started from the front row on fresh sets of medium compound tyres, Piastri took a set of hards. The McLaren appeared to run better on these tyres and they were the only team to reserve two fresh sets of them for both their drivers.
This compromised Verstappen’s efforts to slow down the field, as he explained. “We had very strong pace,” he said, “there’s really not much that I could have done different.

“What complicated it a bit was that Oscar was on a different strategy. So, you never know, of course, when he then pits, how much pace he has in hand to catch up again.”

https://www.racefans.net/2025/12/07/ver ... ther-cars/

I think it poses the same risk as backing the pack up with the car behind on mediums. It would have still meant that any of the McLarens would have had to overtake Max.
I’d even say backing someone up on hards is more of a compromise than mediums. Because you can’t get the extra longevity out of the tyre vs the mediums. Which wouldn’t be run anywhere near as hard as they could be if Max was dawdling round backing the pack up.

It would be interesting to see the pace comparisons between Max and McLarens were this weekend. I think Max would have had a couple tenths over both pretty easily

[CjC]

Looks like I might have just wandered into a slagging match but

This for me was one of the highlights of the season.



Barring crossing the line in Abu Dhabi as WDC this was one of my own personal biggest celebrations in the season.

[mwillems]

Why wouldn’t max have been able to back the pack up?
Surely the split tyre strategy would have only worked if Oscar was in the lead and could build a big enough gap to Max so when Max putted he wasn’t ever going to come first.
Backing the pack up would have meant that the rear runners would have have to put early to give the undercut the chance of leapfrogging the cars infront. I think in that case McLaren would have had to take the lead in that instance in pitting Lando before the others.

I think RBR knew there was super little they could do realistically when the 2 behind Lando - Russel and Leclerc, didn’t have any pace to challenge Lando for position

The article says:

While Verstappen and Norris started from the front row on fresh sets of medium compound tyres, Piastri took a set of hards. The McLaren appeared to run better on these tyres and they were the only team to reserve two fresh sets of them for both their drivers.
This compromised Verstappen’s efforts to slow down the field, as he explained. “We had very strong pace,” he said, “there’s really not much that I could have done different.

“What complicated it a bit was that Oscar was on a different strategy. So, you never know, of course, when he then pits, how much pace he has in hand to catch up again.”

https://www.racefans.net/2025/12/07/ver ... ther-cars/

I think it poses the same risk as backing the pack up with the car behind on mediums. It would have still meant that any of the McLarens would have had to overtake Max.
I’d even say backing someone up on hards is more of a compromise than mediums. Because you can’t get the extra longevity out of the tyre vs the mediums. Which wouldn’t be run anywhere near as hard as they could be if Max was dawdling round backing the pack up.

It would be interesting to see the pace comparisons between Max and McLarens were this weekend. I think Max would have had a couple tenths over both pretty easily

I missed some of the article to be fair in my previous post, but Max said that because Oscar had good pace and could run further on his tyres, it complicated backing up the pack. But he'd mentioned it on the Saturday too, as a realistic option, and Stella seems to have also referenced that he was thinking of how to combat this strategy from Max and was worried.

[mwillems]

Looks like I might have just wandered into a slagging match but

This for me was one of the highlights of the season.


Barring crossing the line in Abu Dhabi as WDC this was one of my own personal biggest celebrations in the season.

There was no slagging match in here lol

It's always nice watching the Monaco onboards.

[venkyhere]

• Lando binned it at Jeddah

• Made tons of smaller driving errors at the start of the season with a car he couldn't handle

• Had more pace than Oscar when catching him at Spa but kept losing all the time he'd gained when going off track multiple times

• Crashed into Oscar at Canada.

• He actually had a poor weekend at Canada, Qualifying 7th due to mistakes in Q.

• In his own words he lost eight points by locking up in China sprint Q.

• Topping Q1 and Q2 in Bahrain and screwing up Q3 and qualifying 6th, finishing 3rd

• Not helped by getting a 5s penalty from rolling forward at the start at Bahrain.

Making serious mistakes in 1/5 races is not great especially good, considering multiple weekends also had multiple mistakes, and this is not even considering other smaller issues like missing a pit box and losing a couple of seconds.

I'm not trying to overplay it all or downplay Lando, but we do need to be honest, he's still got work to do.

At the same time, I do think he made a lot less mistakes than some other fans like to come in here and say, which was that any time we didn't have pole by a clear margin then the drivers were terrible. Because to them it was inconceivable that the RB could be fast or the MCL39 have some flaws, the only answer being Max is god and Mclaren drivers are poor - which certainly came across as a highly subjective opinion based on favouritism.

Add Baku Qualifying to this list - overdrove and touched the wall at Turn15, could have been front row otherwise.
Let's just say Norris' season was like one of Guardiola's Man-city teams beating a typical midfield team (WestHam, say) in a 4-3 penalty shootout (after a 2-2 at full time), rather than winning 3-0 in normal time. Yes, it's a deserved win, but could have been so much easier.

[Macklaren]

There are many ways a team needs to execute, the one that cumulutively does them best will win. As a team it wasnt even close.

this is more understandable than your previous driver claim

Eh?

What claim?

My bad. wasn't you. i messed up looking at the quote-nesting. had dust in my eye

[mwillems]

• Lando binned it at Jeddah

• Made tons of smaller driving errors at the start of the season with a car he couldn't handle

• Had more pace than Oscar when catching him at Spa but kept losing all the time he'd gained when going off track multiple times

• Crashed into Oscar at Canada.

• He actually had a poor weekend at Canada, Qualifying 7th due to mistakes in Q.

• In his own words he lost eight points by locking up in China sprint Q.

• Topping Q1 and Q2 in Bahrain and screwing up Q3 and qualifying 6th, finishing 3rd

• Not helped by getting a 5s penalty from rolling forward at the start at Bahrain.

Making serious mistakes in 1/5 races is not great especially good, considering multiple weekends also had multiple mistakes, and this is not even considering other smaller issues like missing a pit box and losing a couple of seconds.

I'm not trying to overplay it all or downplay Lando, but we do need to be honest, he's still got work to do.

At the same time, I do think he made a lot less mistakes than some other fans like to come in here and say, which was that any time we didn't have pole by a clear margin then the drivers were terrible. Because to them it was inconceivable that the RB could be fast or the MCL39 have some flaws, the only answer being Max is god and Mclaren drivers are poor - which certainly came across as a highly subjective opinion based on favouritism.

Add Baku Qualifying to this list - overdrove and touched the wall at Turn15, could have been front row otherwise.
Let's just say Norris' season was like one of Guardiola's Man-city teams beating a typical midfield team (WestHam, say) in a 4-3 penalty shootout (after a 2-2 at full time), rather than winning 3-0 in normal time. Yes, it's a deserved win, but could have been so much easier.

Adaptability and consistency.

Raw talent is close to Max, in my opinion.