2025 McLaren F1 Team

[mwillems]

First to be developed fully. MCL38 did get some time in there, and the front end upgrade benefitted from their ability to test the yaw.

I also think.the team have brought parts under the skin to help Saturday qualy laps be more predictable on the edge.

As has been stated by the team, a huge amount of innovation.is under the skin.

[FittingMechanics]

Looks like the team is bringing upgrades for Imola. I'm surprised.

Rear corner, rear and beam wing for high downforce tracks and modification of front suspension to improve reliability.

[FittingMechanics]

Ah, now it makes sense. They are checking the new wings but no upgrades for the race.

"We’ve completed six rounds without seeing a significant upgrade to the car. Is Imola where it all changes?"
Adrian Goodwin
No! Nothing new for Imola – but this is a busy period of the season, and if time allows, we do have a few test items to put on the car during practice, to sign off with a view to using them later in this triple header. The most obvious will be a maximum downforce rear wing. We’ll give that a sanity check here – probably at the start of FP3 tomorrow morning, when we’re under less time pressure.

[mwillems]

Looks like the team is bringing upgrades for Imola. I'm surprised.

Rear corner, rear and beam wing for high downforce tracks and modification of front suspension to improve reliability.

Ahhh now this is what I was expecting, in that I think part of the issue for him is that the arms are taking such load at these geometries that when pushed on entry like he does, that they might stress and vibrate in such a way that obscures what you might ordinarily feel.in the car. They arent really strengthening for reliability.

Watch this space, I think we may see Lando get more on a Saturday.

[BMMR61]

Looks like the team is bringing upgrades for Imola. I'm surprised.

Rear corner, rear and beam wing for high downforce tracks and modification of front suspension to improve reliability.

Ahhh now this is what I was expecting, in that I think part of the issue for him is that the arms are taking such load at these geometries that when pushed on entry like he does, that they might stress and vibrate in such a way that obscures what you might ordinarily feel.in the car. They arent really strengthening for reliability.

Watch this space, I think we may see Lando get more on a Saturday.

Yeah it may be the front arms deflecting though I would have thought the design loadings would prevent that being an issue. The other theory on this year's front geometry is that the reduced dive under braking creates the "numb" feeling. Though it's a long time ago and on two wheels, I remember back to my racing days on bikes and antidive systems were briefly in vogue on front forks but produced a lack of feel for front adhesion at race speeds.

[mwillems]

It's just for clearance to other parts, not what I thought.

[f1rules]

it really is satisfying seing mclaren destroy the others. They already verified a new floor some time back and now more components. I expect a big update for spain with the new tech directive arriving, im sure thats what they worked towards, and if it delivers, it will seal the season. No one will catch up or has time to.
The car has shown to work on all tracks and is easy to get in the sweetspot. No other teams has that luxory. Offcourse well not enjoy miami like advantage everywhere, it will probably be close from time to time in qual, but no one will catch

[Ground Effect]

Any long runs data?

[CjC]

Any long runs data?

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/mark ... -analysis/

Norris and Piastri about 0.25 on average faster

[CjC]

Last paragraph. Stella says upgrades are coming:

https://www.racefans.net/2025/05/16/not ... n-piastri/

[mwillems]

Looking good. But we always look better on a Friday.

[CjC]

Looking good. But we always look better on a Friday.

It’s what the drivers are saying too.
From the race pace (yes I know it’s difficult to overtake) the delta between McLaren and Mercedes should allow the McLarens to overcome a Mercedes pole and probably a Verstappen pole too considering one of the McLarens overtook Verstappen on the FP2 long runs.
If Gasly gets pole then that’s just fair play to the lad

[mwillems]

Yeah its nice long DRS straights here and some of the corners will favour us.

1 and 2 might challenge the front of the car, and Lando, but the other corners should be more to our liking.

Though I haven't seen the telemetry or the laps, but to be fair, these things won't rear their heads until Q2 or Q3 if they are an issue.

[FittingMechanics]

I'm confident that the team learned from Japan and that if they end up behind someone, they will not make it easy for the opponents to counter our strategy.

[BMMR61]

I'm confident that the team learned from Japan and that if they end up behind someone, they will not make it easy for the opponents to counter our strategy.

Amid all the calls for "team orders" at McLaren I'd hope the lesson of this season - Suzuka - is they need at this early stage to apply a pincer strategy on the leader when running 2nd and 3rd by offsets where possible. Of course this will have to advantage one driver over another in order to gain a 1-3 finish than a 2-3 finish, but the "favour" to one can be swapped the next time this type of scenario occurs. Otherwise there's still the potential for (probably) Max to keep in contention. Maybe I'm wrong about Suzuka (and I'm contradicting myself a bit) but I think there was a lack of field spread for creative strategy to work anyway. The issue will always be if, say Max, gets the early lead they can regulate the speed to (a) prevent gaps opening up until they are ready to box, and (b) negate somewhat the tyre deg advantage of the McLarens.