2025 McLaren F1 Team

[Slahinki]

Having looked at the source of the tire photo and video of the pit stops (5:01 in the sprint highlights on youtube), the right most worn stack of tires is actually Lando's. So either he got into the slicktermediate phase of the inter, or Oscar was somehow slower on rubber in even better condition than Lando.

Interesting. So in fact, it's nothing to do with tyre life, but that really he should have killed them. Perhaps that explains what I mentioned earlier, that Oscar was not trying to find the wet patches but Lando was, as he'd got his tyres where he needed them and was trying to make sure they didn't just melt.

None the less, it's that experience that helps you find the time to close the gap. You'd think Oscars race engineer would tell him this, if he didn't know.

Lando drove an extra lap on a bone dry racing line (Tsunoda and Hamilton had already been circulating and setting purple sectors for 2 laps). That alone could explain the sudden deterioration of that right front tire. I have no doubt that Lando had tires in better condition and that's why he closed the gap.

Going to assume he would also have known that he was boxing the next lap so he probably also took out every last bit remaining in them. But yeah, he wasn't slididng around nearly as much as Oscar did before Oscar went over the chicane.

[mwillems]

Lando cooling his tyres on that lap and Oscar not offers some contradiction of that theory.

Don't think we're talking about the same thing. Lando drove another lap after Oscar pitted. Oscar wouldn't be looking for wet patches on slicks and furthermore, just because Lando drove down a wet patch on the straight doesn't mean the tires didn't get damaged in T5-T6-T7-T8 which is where the high speed corners that do the most damage are. He used the dry line in the corners which is what damages tires.

Yeah I'm talking about before Oscar pitted when both were on inters. Lando was off the racing line looking for wet, if which there was still plenty if you wanted it. Oscar stayed on the dry line.

This is also potentially a reason for Oscar being slower - his mistake if that is the case.

[AR3-GP]

I noticed that Oscar had a tear off stuck in his rear wing. The onboard camera changes between front and rear too much to understand what lap it happened, but on lap 5 it's not there and on lap 13 it's there. So this could potentially have caused a performance loss.

I think it's his own tear-off, so if you have the patience you can watch his front-facing camera between lap 5 and lap 13 to see what lap the tearoff was removed (most likely on a straight). It may correlate with when he started losing time to Norris.




I'm surprised that Mclaren has made no comment on this.

[mwillems]

I noticed that Oscar had a tear off stuck in his rear wing. The onboard camera changes between front and rear too much to understand what lap it happened, but on lap 5 it's not there and on lap 13 it's there. So this could potentially have caused a performance loss.

https://i.postimg.cc/MZsfRwDp/image.png

Possibly, I'm no aero guy but would that cause that kind of loss?

I want to say he was overheating his tyres but they looked in great condition so that doesn't feel right. That's why I'm think Lando might to get more heat into them and then managed the temps.

[AR3-GP]

They also failed to remove the tear off from the wing during the pitstop.

[mwillems]

It's a lot bigger in the picture. Maybe part of it, yeah.

[SilviuAgo]

I noticed that Oscar had a tear off stuck in his rear wing. The onboard camera changes between front and rear too much to understand what lap it happened, but on lap 5 it's not there and on lap 13 it's there. So this could potentially have caused a performance loss.

I think it's his own tear-off, so if you have the patience you can watch his front-facing camera between lap 5 and lap 13 to see what lap the tearoff was removed (most likely on a straight). It may correlate with when he started losing time to Norris.

https://i.postimg.cc/MZsfRwDp/image.png


I'm surprised that Mclaren has made no comment on this.

May one tear off to have such a big impact being stuck in that place? I know that this things may be a pain in the ass when are going to brake ducts, but on RW is strange to loose ~3 seconds in couple of laps.

[AR3-GP]

I noticed that Oscar had a tear off stuck in his rear wing. The onboard camera changes between front and rear too much to understand what lap it happened, but on lap 5 it's not there and on lap 13 it's there. So this could potentially have caused a performance loss.

https://i.postimg.cc/MZsfRwDp/image.png

Possibly, I'm no aero guy but would that cause that kind of loss?

I want to say he was overheating his tyres but they looked in great condition so that doesn't feel right. That's why I'm think Lando might to get more heat into them and then managed the temps.

Based on the 2nd picture that I posted, most of the tear off was trailing on the low pressure side of the wing (the more sensitive side), so actually yes it could cause a performance loss by tripping the boundary layer on the low pressure side to early separation. Rule of thumb is that any damage or disturbances on the high-pressure side of the wing (top surface) are mostly irrelevant, but any kind of tape or bumps or damage in the low-pressure side of the wing (bottom), can disrupt the performance of the wing.

If you watch endurance racing at Le Mans, sometimes the cars randomly lose aero performance because the tire pickup and marbles actually gets stuck to the low pressure surfaces of wings and diffuser. So they'll either have someone cleaning it at the pitstop, or they do nose and tail change.

[CjC]

‘A numb front axle’ - every man’s worst nightmare really

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/the- ... -problems/

Upgrades are coming over the next triple header… sounds like they will me mechanical ones to the front axle so we won’t know when they have been applied as they aren’t a part that needs to be disclosed.

[SilviuAgo]

Coming back to yesterday quali a very nice video from JunaidSamodien_

[mwillems]

I noticed that Oscar had a tear off stuck in his rear wing. The onboard camera changes between front and rear too much to understand what lap it happened, but on lap 5 it's not there and on lap 13 it's there. So this could potentially have caused a performance loss.

https://i.postimg.cc/MZsfRwDp/image.png

Possibly, I'm no aero guy but would that cause that kind of loss?

I want to say he was overheating his tyres but they looked in great condition so that doesn't feel right. That's why I'm think Lando might to get more heat into them and then managed the temps.

Based on the 2nd picture that I posted, most of the tear off was trailing on the low pressure side of the wing (the more sensitive side), so actually yes it could cause a performance loss by tripping the boundary layer on the low pressure side to early separation. Rule of thumb is that any damage or disturbances on the high-pressure side of the wing (top surface) are mostly irrelevant, but any kind of tape or bumps or damage in the low-pressure side of the wing (bottom), can disrupt the performance of the wing.

If you watch endurance racing at Le Mans, sometimes the cars randomly lose aero performance because the tire pickup and marbles actually gets stuck to the low pressure surfaces of wings and diffuser. So they'll either have someone cleaning it at the pitstop, or they do nose and tail change.

https://i.postimg.cc/pTf77kss/image.png

Really good spot, thanks for posting.

Only thing that sticks in my mind is that it wasn't a sudden loss of rear that you see in the laptimes, it grew over 3 laps. So i'm wondering if that was part of it, or perhaps that as a result, he wasn't able to use the rear as much and so he started to lose tyre temps, hence he wasn't looking for wet patches to try and keep them up. Double whammy.

[AR3-GP]

Coming back to yesterday quali a very nice video from JunaidSamodien_

The traction out of T16 is something else.

[AR3-GP]

Really good spot, thanks for posting.

Only thing that sticks in my mind is that it wasn't a sudden loss of rear that you see in the laptimes, it grew over 3 laps. So i'm wondering if that was part of it, or perhaps that as a result, he wasn't able to use the rear as much and so he started to lose tyre temps, hence he wasn't looking for wet patches to try and keep them up. Double whammy.

I'm unsure of why he wasn't searching for the wet patches. Maybe he didn't want to give Lando a tow? There can be many explanations. As for the rear wing, it wouldn't kill the entire rear, but it would be a little be less load in my opinion. So that could just be felt by the driver and lead to slower laps.

I confused that Mclaren had not mentioned anything about the tear off. I don't think they were aware of it. It wasn't removed at the pitstop.

[mwillems]

‘A numb front axle’ - every man’s worst nightmare really

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/the- ... -problems/

Upgrades are coming over the next triple header… sounds like they will me mechanical ones to the front axle so we won’t know when they have been applied as they aren’t a part that needs to be disclosed.

It's never happened to me.

This is literally what I've been saying since China Q3, though I don't think it is heavy braking zones, but heavy trail braking zones.

"In fact, the manner in which Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri lost out in the battle for the top spot in qualifying – with both having scrappy second qualifying laps in Q3 – shows that the MCL39 has some key weaknesses that only display themselves when it is taken to the limit in those critical single-lap efforts.

Analysis of both Piastri and Norris's laps compared to Verstappen's reveals more evidence of a core characteristic that we have seen of the McLaren being difficult to master in heavy braking zones."

[AR3-GP]

Analysis of both Piastri and Norris's laps compared to Verstappen's reveals more evidence of a core characteristic that we have seen of the McLaren being difficult to master in heavy braking zones."[/i]

I agree with this being the main limitation of the current Mclaren. Heavy brake zones. This is not surprising when you look at the front suspension geometry. When Red Bull was the leader in unorthodox front arm angles, they were worse than Ferrari in the big brake zones.