2025 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix - Jeddah, April 18-20

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FP1 Longruns:

https://i.imgur.com/kMutiX4.png

so far Norris looks in a league of his own, but McLaren's friday pace hasn't been fully representative lately.

Agreed because Norris is not 1 second faster than Piastri.

Maybe Piastri had a bad setup. I think people are imagining that Norris is the outlier because it’s less scary…but I think it’s the other way around.

I'd think so too. My point was more that McLaren hasn't really been able to show their practice advantage in quali and/or race in any weekend after Melbourne so far.

[Emag]

Agreed because Norris is not 1 second faster than Piastri.

Maybe Piastri had a bad setup. I think people are imagining that Norris is the outlier because it’s less scary…but I think it’s the other way around.

I'd think so too. My point was more that McLaren hasn't really been able to show their practice advantage in quali and/or race in any weekend after Melbourne so far.

So far we have had :

- A mixed conditions race in Australia where both McLaren probably would have finished 1-2 by a landslide without the safety car
- A sprint weekend in China where Lando had zero confidence in the car, plus brake issues yet McLaren still finished 1-2.
- A very cold Japan where both McLaren drivers didn't put together their best laps in Q3, got beaten by Max and were unable to overtake in a race which had 0 deg and as many overtakes as Monaco has on a good day.
- A Bahrain where Lando had a horrible weekend by any standard imaginable. Horrible qualifying, bad mistake which gave him a 5-second penalty on the start. Numerous costly mistakes on critical moments, yet he still finished <1s behind P2 while Oscar was completely untouchable in P1.

Yeah, I don't know what you were expecting from McLaren, but considering the mistakes from their drivers + this being the last year of these regulations and the expectation that everyone had for things to be close, they've pretty much shown their advantage (almost) every race so far.

[AR3-GP]

The track will continue to rubber in which means the degradation will be less on Sunday even without changing any other factor like setups or track temps.

Also, as Emag alluded to, there are a number of reasons why Mclaren have been unable to demonstrate their potential, which are not because the potential doesn't exist. Much of it is happenstance. Performance in F1 is very fragile. Dirty air? Gone. Bad qualy? Stuck in traffic. Safety car? etc, etc. There's too many asterisk. It's fairly clear the downforce monster that Mclaren have built. The others are only able to bother them on 1 lap runs where low fuel reduces the downforce requirement to take a corner flat and new tires mask a lot of handling problems.

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yeah, I'm aware of all this - and still think that their practice pace is not representative. On Fridays they show pace they could lap the entire field with.

Whether it's due to a much better base setup, less fuel, higher engine mode, or a mixture of all - I don't know. But it's obviously not what we see when it's starting to count.

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Tires left after FP2:

[fourmula1]

So far we have had :

- A mixed conditions race in Australia where both McLaren probably would have finished 1-2 by a landslide without the safety car
- A sprint weekend in China where Lando had zero confidence in the car, plus brake issues yet McLaren still finished 1-2.
- A very cold Japan where both McLaren drivers didn't put together their best laps in Q3, got beaten by Max and were unable to overtake in a race which had 0 deg and as many overtakes as Monaco has on a good day.
- A Bahrain where Lando had a horrible weekend by any standard imaginable. Horrible qualifying, bad mistake which gave him a 5-second penalty on the start. Numerous costly mistakes on critical moments, yet he still finished <1s behind P2 while Oscar was completely untouchable in P1.

Yeah, I don't know what you were expecting from McLaren, but considering the mistakes from their drivers + this being the last year of these regulations and the expectation that everyone had for things to be close, they've pretty much shown their advantage (almost) every race so far.

I do not disagree. There is always a vast number of obvious and unseen reasons for the final results, but the results are what they are. If MCL start 1-2 and there are no safety cars I believe they can pull out similar gaps to the RB in 2024 but so far that hasn't been the case.

[Vettel165]

Piastri looks to be the leading Mclaren now.

[AR3-GP]

Mclarens out front at a canter. The rest to fight for P3.

[organic]

Mclarens out front at a canter. The rest to fight for P3.

It feels like it's just tyre temp management, again..

[AR3-GP]

Mclarens out front at a canter. The rest to fight for P3.

It feels like it's just tyre temp management, again..

They are 3 tenths clear in the very first sector when the tires are still fresh and cool for everyone. It's not just tire temp management.

[pantherxxx]

Verstappen will get pole. Mark my words.

[SB15]

Verstappen will get pole. Mark my words.

When Merc and Ferrari exist? doubt it

[AR3-GP]

Verstappen will get pole. Mark my words.

When Merc and Ferrari exist? doubt it

Mclaren...

[SB15]

Verstappen will get pole. Mark my words.

When Merc and Ferrari exist? doubt it

Mclaren...

Yes and Mclaren

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Here's the tire update after FP3. Not much to play with in Qualifying, but I guess most big teams will be fine.