2025 McLaren F1 Team

[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.