[ 2020 ] Mclaren F1 Team - Renault

[mwillems]

Sector 3 has the fastest corners on the track, at the higher end of mid speed.

Anyone have the speed traps?

[haza]

Front left boomerang on the barge board was flapping about in norris’s car at the start of fp2

[chrisgr]

Great to be able to watch F1 cars on the track.. finally! We have to wait for the quali but Pink Mercedes seems fast...

[fouad1979]

Shame Sainz didnt put a clean lap i think he will be ahead of Vettel and ricciardo

[genarro]

Any info about race pace?

[Macklaren]

Any info about race pace?

Team Stream said comparable to Renault but Sky commentators saying comparable to VES and PER.

well need to wait for full lap data

[genarro]

I dont believe that renault and rp are faster than us

[101FlyingDutchman]

Hmm too early to tell. Race pace sim on track between Ocon and Sainz was very very close. Mainly within 0.1/0.2sec swings either way. Ocon went on a bit longer at end of stint. RP do look like they may be able to beat us on race pace but I think the main reason is being able to run in higher modes for longer with the Merc engine. Qualifying times wise we are there

[Jackles-UK]

Any info about race pace?

Team Stream said comparable to Renault but Sky commentators saying comparable to VES and PER.

well need to wait for full lap data

I think the times for Lando were only comparable to Verstappen on a short 2-3 lap burst where he was told to push hard near the end of his stint. Still a reasonable gap to RBR, gap to Racing Point looks very tight, Renault I think look a touch behind that thus far. Ferrari could legitimately be anywhere between 2nd-5th right now, they seem a total mystery.

Car looks pretty well behaved on the on-board shots. RP looks fast but a bit of a handful. Seidl says he’d be happy with both cars in Q3 and double points finish and I think that’s about fair; if McLaren can be there waiting to pounce if reliability issues appear and grab a top-5 that’d be a great start to the season.

[Emag]

To be honest I think its disgusting that someone can just copy last year's champion car and leapfrog the competition. Props to Mercedes for building such a beast of a car that can trump over most of the competition a year later (maybe even including Ferrari).

They are taking away prize money with a car that wasn't designed by them. They can say whatever bullshit excuse they have but the truth is that car is copied.

It's mostly a problem with the sport actually because the midfield has been so --- far behind compared to the front runners for so long. RP wouldn't have gotten away with a move like this back in 2010-2013 because usually the midfield were closing that 1 second gap with the previous year's car of the frontrunners.

I hope the new regulations fix this and don't allow for such unsporting strategies in the future.

[genarro]

To be honest I think its disgusting that someone can just copy last year's champion car and leapfrog the competition. Props to Mercedes for building such a beast of a car that can trump over most of the competition a year later (maybe even including Ferrari).
I don't feel like this should be allowed.


They are taking away prize money with a car that wasn't designed by them. They can say whatever bullshit excuse they have but the truth is that car is copied.

It's mostly a problem with the sport actually because the midfield has been so --- far behind compared to the front runners for so long. RP wouldn't have gotten away with a move like this back in 2010-2013 because usually the midfield were closing that 1 second gap with the previous year's car of the frontrunners.

I hope the new regulations fix this and don't allow for such unsporting strategies in the future.

If they are faster than Ferrari or RBR then those two teams will do everithing in their power to cut them down.. I like how Seidl is so calm about the situation and he is very very right. Tracing point will never win if they copy last years car (you always end up one year behind the winners) and McLaren are aiming to beat Mercedes not a s h i t t y team with a spoiled little boy for a driver because he isnt special enough to prove himself so he needs his daddy to buy everything for him.

Anyway we will come out as winners i can feel it. McLaren for the win

[Mansell89]

Agree entirely, Racing Point being fast tracked up the grid with a copy car is nothing more than a temporary headline grabber. Eventually their development path will be limited.

McLaren need to keep focusing on themselves and today seemed a solid enough day all things considered.

[genarro]

The one thing i dont get it is all the motoring journalists(the race, sky, autosport). They are all so supportive of the team and are excited and things.. How did we get to a point where a bad copy of a car makes "experts" whine and moan. We used to cherish ingenuity and inovation not the company's copying department.

[Fulcrum]

To be honest I think its disgusting that someone can just copy last year's champion car and leapfrog the competition. Props to Mercedes for building such a beast of a car that can trump over most of the competition a year later (maybe even including Ferrari).

They are taking away prize money with a car that wasn't designed by them. They can say whatever bullshit excuse they have but the truth is that car is copied.

It's mostly a problem with the sport actually because the midfield has been so --- far behind compared to the front runners for so long. RP wouldn't have gotten away with a move like this back in 2010-2013 because usually the midfield were closing that 1 second gap with the previous year's car of the frontrunners.

I hope the new regulations fix this and don't allow for such unsporting strategies in the future.

Depends how it was "copied". If there has been sharing of intellectual property then teams might have reason to feel aggrieved.

If, as has been suggested, Racing Point reverse engineered the Mercedes aerodynamics via photogrammetry (or similar techniques), then the complaints are pure sour grapes. Its actually quite a feat, and it was not without significant risk.

And I doubt its a copy in the sense you are referring to. There will be minute differences specific to Racing Point's interpretation of the Mercedes solution, and the configuration of their internals (radiators, etc...).

Anyone can look at the Mona Lisa. Very few could repaint it.

[chrisgr]

I think that if this year was like any other, with all the updates planned up to now, we would have a faster car (if we presume that we are slower now). I am very curious to see how they could bring new updates to something they didn t design. Do you think its possible to copy an F1 car in all its details without any inside information?