2025 Spanish Grand Prix - Barcelona-Catalunya May 30 - June 1

[Matt2725]

Season over, now for real.....

Wouldn’t be the first time McLaren have done FP3 glory runs.

Yeah but Max was the only one keeping the season alive. And is nearly a second from Mclaren, you cant make that time in qualy back even if its just engine modes. We have no chance, sorry buddy, would like to bo proven wrong though.

I think it's a bit of track temp as well as engine modes. Piastri was 3-4 tenths up in sector 1 and sector 2 respectively. Sector 1 is very power sensitive, and sector 2 rewards higher engine modes too with the mid-circuit straight and heavy acceleration event out of turn 5.
Sector 3 was within a margin.

But a lot of evidence suggests McLaren at least with Piastri had the wick turned up full (although acknowledging Norris has his incident) whereas the others were still holding some back. Add that with the track temps and I think the gap is somewhat exaggerated.

McLaren will probably still get pole of course but I don't think Max is a second behind by any stretch. The biggest worry is it's expected to be even warmer for the race.

The Mercedes wing still has quite a bit of play.

They all do. They're designed to pass the test, but still flex under aero load.

[Cs98]

Norris is not 5 tenths off of Piastri

That's because the car bottomed at turn 9 and he aborted his attempt with fresh softs. His final run was with used softs.

Sorry, but these times are exaggerated due to how Mclaren run their simulations. Max will be much closer to the Mclaren come qualifying and you could say maybe Russell as well.

Not so sure about that. If the track temps stay well north of 40 C McLaren is hugely advantaged.

[Aesop]

Unreal. McLaren seems to be the only one not harmed by the new TD. End of season, unless Norris can pressure Piastri into mistakes. It probably will be the other way around.

[SB15]

That's because the car bottomed at turn 9 and he aborted his attempt with fresh softs. His final run was with used softs.

Sorry, but these times are exaggerated due to how Mclaren run their simulations. Max will be much closer to the Mclaren come qualifying and you could say maybe Russell as well.

Not so sure about that. If the track temps stay well north of 40 C McLaren is hugely advantaged.

Yeah but they're not 8 tenths faster than the next car on merit.

[Matt2725]

Unreal. McLaren seems to be the only one not harmed by the new TD. End of season, unless Norris can pressure Piastri into mistakes. It probably will be the other way around.

We'll see but I assume the governing body will try something else as soon as they can. 2023 was awful for the sport and they don't want a repeat of what happened with Merc running away at the front either.

The FIA have access to all the design details so I'm sure they're scouring through for something to outlaw or tweak.

[pantherxxx]

Unreal. McLaren seems to be the only one not harmed by the new TD. End of season, unless Norris can pressure Piastri into mistakes. It probably will be the other way around.

But how is it that McLaren was not affected by the TD when they had the most flexing wing, while Ferrari barely had any wing flex at all? If McLaren were to increase their lead despite this, there’s either some massive cheating going on, or it could be that McLaren had a substantial lead all along and were simply holding back at Imola and a few other races to make the season appear closer — much like Mercedes did a few times in 2014.

[Sergej]

McLaren was higher on engine but was also MUCH faster in corners, probably gap a bit exaggerated but they will walk quali, it will also be hotter which plays into their advantage.

[f1isgood]

Norris is not 5 tenths off of Piastri

That's because the car bottomed at turn 9 and he aborted his attempt with fresh softs. His final run was with used softs.

Sorry, but these times are exaggerated due to how Mclaren run their simulations. Max will be much closer to the Mclaren come qualifying and you could say maybe Russell as well.

I have my doubts for this weekend. This looks like Jeddah to me. Unless track cools down others will be nowhere.

[f1isgood]

Unreal. McLaren seems to be the only one not harmed by the new TD. End of season, unless Norris can pressure Piastri into mistakes. It probably will be the other way around.

But how is it that McLaren was not affected by the TD when they had the most flexing wing, while Ferrari barely had any wing flex at all? If McLaren were to increase their lead despite this, there’s either some massive cheating going on, or it could be that McLaren had a substantial lead all along and were simply holding back at Imola and a few other races to make the season appear closer — much like Mercedes did a few times in 2014.

McLaren's main strengths this year are working their tires in all temperatures without overheating. Everyone else's tires are suffering while McLaren's is cool as a cucumber. It is possible that they lost a bit of lap time due to the flexi-wing story but the loss they had is nowhere near as close as to what they can do with their tires. Let's not forget they were very close in qualifying and at times more than 1s a lap quicker in the hot track at Miami.

[FittingMechanics]

McLaren is running lower downforce rear wing than they expected, so it possible they have less drag than most.

I think this is tire water doing its magic. No one else can keep tire temperature under control so the gaps become huge.

[avantman]

Sorry, but these times are exaggerated due to how Mclaren run their simulations. Max will be much closer to the Mclaren come qualifying and you could say maybe Russell as well.

Not so sure about that. If the track temps stay well north of 40 C McLaren is hugely advantaged.

Yeah but they're not 8 tenths faster than the next car on merit.

Of course not. Mclaren gives their drivers full power and super low fuel on hot laps attempts in FP3 to help them prepare for quali and find more confidence, which they've been lacking a lot come quali. Max was losing like 0.56s down the straight, not gonna be the case in Q3. and their will be less of a deficit in the corners as well due to lower track surface temperature.

[SB15]

Wouldn’t be the first time McLaren have done FP3 glory runs.

Yeah but Max was the only one keeping the season alive. And is nearly a second from Mclaren, you cant make that time in qualy back even if its just engine modes. We have no chance, sorry buddy, would like to bo proven wrong though.

I think it's a bit of track temp as well as engine modes. Piastri was 3-4 tenths up in sector 1 and sector 2 respectively. Sector 1 is very power sensitive, and sector 2 rewards higher engine modes too with the mid-circuit straight and heavy acceleration event out of turn 5.
Sector 3 was within a margin.

But a lot of evidence suggests McLaren at least with Piastri had the wick turned up full (although acknowledging Norris has his incident) whereas the others were still holding some back. Add that with the track temps and I think the gap is somewhat exaggerated.

McLaren will probably still get pole of course but I don't think Max is a second behind by any stretch. The biggest worry is it's expected to be even warmer for the race.

The Mercedes wing still has quite a bit of play.

They all do. They're designed to pass the test, but still flex under aero load.

Exactly, Max Verstappen is not 1 second off the competition.

[Cs98]

Sorry, but these times are exaggerated due to how Mclaren run their simulations. Max will be much closer to the Mclaren come qualifying and you could say maybe Russell as well.

Not so sure about that. If the track temps stay well north of 40 C McLaren is hugely advantaged.

Yeah but they're not 8 tenths faster than the next car on merit.

Sure they are, at these track temps. If the temperature comes down then the gap will come down and they might be, idk, 3 tenths ahead.

[FittingMechanics]

Not so sure about that. If the track temps stay well north of 40 C McLaren is hugely advantaged.

Yeah but they're not 8 tenths faster than the next car on merit.

Sure they are, at these track temps. If the temperature comes down then the gap will come down and they might be, idk, 3 tenths ahead.

These cold weather races may have masked true McLaren pace.

[avantman]

McLaren is running lower downforce rear wing than they expected, so it possible they have less drag than most.

I think this is tire water doing its magic. No one else can keep tire temperature under control so the gaps become huge.

again people are looking for silver bullet. and history shows that's never been the case when it comes to dominant cars and reasons behind their superiority. It's aerodynamics, the be all and end all. Their car has just by far superior aerodynamics. They've got more downforce for the same drag than anyone else. How do they achieve that, is it bending the wings or running the car lower...is essentially completely irrelevant. Barcelona is number one marker track on the whole calendar that reveals cars aerodynamics superiority or deficit. History has also shown us a car with the best aerodynamics gets even better in race trim, relative to pecking order from Quali.