2025 McLaren F1 Team

[Darth-Piekus]

Though I don't expect Mclaren to chase time the car is a top tier car. Lando proved it yesterday when he went purple on a harder tyre before abandoning.

[Macklaren]

Disappointing performance run at the end. Purple in S2 but way off in S1 and S3. Probably just turned down

[Emag]

With (probably) slightly better track conditions, Russell kind of matched Oscar's pace in his second stint. Now Russell is looking about 2 tenths off in the third stint, but Oscar cut that one short anyway.

So at least at the hands of Oscar, the car was pretty good on the first stint, matched with Russell on the second.
Mercedes seems like have improved quite a lot in terms of deg, but their best stint (the second) came at a later time when the temps were slightly lower.

[Macklaren]

With (probably) slightly better track conditions, Russell kind of matched Oscar's pace in his second stint. Now Russell is looking about 2 tenths off in the third stint, but Oscar cut that one short anyway.

So at least at the hands of Oscar, the car was pretty good on the first stint, matched with Russell on the second.
Mercedes seems like have improved quite a lot in terms of deg, but their best stint (the second) came at a later time when the temps were slightly lower.

Agreed but RUS rears looked TERRIBLE at the end of his run

[organic]

Disappointing performance run at the end. Purple in S2 but way off in S1 and S3. Probably just turned down

Commentary claims McLaren are struggling in the low and medium speed relative to Red Bull, haven't seen telemetry

[Emag]

With (probably) slightly better track conditions, Russell kind of matched Oscar's pace in his second stint. Now Russell is looking about 2 tenths off in the third stint, but Oscar cut that one short anyway.

So at least at the hands of Oscar, the car was pretty good on the first stint, matched with Russell on the second.
Mercedes seems like have improved quite a lot in terms of deg, but their best stint (the second) came at a later time when the temps were slightly lower.

Agreed but RUS rears looked TERRIBLE at the end of his run

As far as I could tell, that wasn't the case no? His second stint was very consistent, doing mostly low 35s (35.1). Was he on C2 or C1 though? Because Oscar was on C1 for his middle stint.

[Emag]

Disappointing performance run at the end. Purple in S2 but way off in S1 and S3. Probably just turned down

Commentary claims McLaren are struggling in the low and medium speed relative to Red Bull, haven't seen telemetry

They have consistently been really competitive on the middle sector both on the race sims and their "quali" sims, so even if they are, it doesn't seem like it's a significant disadvantage.

[mwillems]

Bear in mind that if Day 1 is commented on as strong, Day 2 was demonstrably strong, it's quite possible the team chose to ensure their pace wasn't visible today, so as not to build up expectations or pressure.

Or Day 1 and 2 flattered a little.

[Darth-Piekus]

So end of tests and the verdict they all have is advantage to Mclaren.

[Ground Effect]

From Motorsport.con live feed:

Though McLaren duo hasn't put up the lap times of Russell and Antonelli, Ruth Buscombe shares that there's a significant tire deg gap that actually puts the McLarens in real-world lead. TBD in about two weeks, of course. — JW

[Macklaren]

Ruth said on commentary that gap between RUS-PIA was 0.4s while gap between NOR-ANT yest was 0.5s which makes sense given ANT inexperience. so pretty consistent. i think perfect test for McLaren with no reliability issues either (unlike RBR and Ferrari). just wish they had done some decent fast laps (after Day 1)

[Macklaren]

With (probably) slightly better track conditions, Russell kind of matched Oscar's pace in his second stint. Now Russell is looking about 2 tenths off in the third stint, but Oscar cut that one short anyway.

So at least at the hands of Oscar, the car was pretty good on the first stint, matched with Russell on the second.
Mercedes seems like have improved quite a lot in terms of deg, but their best stint (the second) came at a later time when the temps were slightly lower.

Agreed but RUS rears looked TERRIBLE at the end of his run

As far as I could tell, that wasn't the case no? His second stint was very consistent, doing mostly low 35s (35.1). Was he on C2 or C1 though? Because Oscar was on C1 for his middle stint.

they showed his second stint pit stop on TV and the tire looked awful. actually looked like he had run over a bunch of marbles....maybe had an off on the way in

[_cerber1]

[Macklaren]

LET'S GO!!

[Darth-Piekus]

This is off topic but hasnt the team made the annual photo so we can put it on the first page of the thread?