Mclaren was also surprised by their Miami upgrade last year. It can happen. If the tires are in a happy place, you have pace. If they are not, you have none. The balance of the old car made it impossible to have the tires in a good place. Today was even hotter than Friday race sims where we thought Mclaren had it in the bag.
We need to see what Mclaren can counter punch with upgrade wise. Stella says Mclaren haven’t upgraded yet
He also said tire deg was not going to be a worry today. We have to start trusting him again
But they will also get their wings clipped by the TD.
Track with short corners, Max in the lead, and Oscar has never been the benchmark for tyre life. It's encouraging but not definitive IMO.AR3-GP wrote: ↑18 May 2025, 17:09PIA was falling behind in the 1st stint and said he didn't think the "plan" was going to work. Russell was nowhere with his tires and had to pit on lap 12. There was deg today. Those drivers will tell you as much. If there was no deg, PIA would not have been so easily overtaken by Norris.Cs98 wrote: ↑18 May 2025, 17:05I just don't think this track is representative for deg. I need to see this on a track like Spain.f1isgood wrote: ↑18 May 2025, 16:57
I think the last stint deficit to the McLaren's is gone this year. It was a serious issue last year. Now it seems that the gaps are consistent throughout the race, neither teams gain much on high/low fuel. For a while last year the RB20 was competitive on the first stint but would fall off. It doesn't seem to be the case this year.
I think the improvement comes a little bit from the massive improvement to the through-corner balance that they have made. It simply stresses the tires much less in the race now. The tires are no longer fighting against bad aero as much. Tire cooling is still needed but correcting the balance is also another key part of the tire management, as Mclaren have said.
yeah he also said that strength of team is they can overhaul the car from Friday to Saturday; on Friday Max seemed nowhere, then almost pole and victoryAR3-GP wrote: ↑18 May 2025, 17:34Mclaren was also surprised by their Miami upgrade last year. It can happen. If the tires are in a happy place, you have pace. If they are not, you have none. The balance of the old car made it impossible to have the tires in a good place. Today was even hotter than Friday race sims where we thought Mclaren had it in the bag.
oh really? They've been saying RBR was quick all year. That RBR was pedaling false narratives...funny that...they didn't expect it...
well they were not under pressure, first one under VSC second one under SC, let's see when it really counts
Horner has changed his tune in his post race interview ‘we aren’t expecting it to shake things up that much’.
Moving more than 10mm on track doesn't mean it moves that much from the static test.
No.
It's not him that's untrustworthy, he basically just regurgitates what the team tells him in the media (which is nice for us). It's the team that has been lost internally with direction and upgrades.
Yea, just like every teams front wing?
