2025 McLaren F1 Team

[WardenOfTheNorth]

Agreed. Oscar’s attitude over the past few races has seemed to change. Perhaps it’s his way of managing the pressure - focus on the WDC simply by beating his closest rival, which just happens to be his teammate - maybe it’s rather a sign of him starting to feel the pressure.

I can’t imagine Oscar of the earlier races making the lunges he did in Austria and Hungary which risked taking both drivers out of those races.

I also find comments from Carlos and Zak interesting where they say that all drivers have the same doubts that Lando talks openly about, just that most drivers hide them whilst Lando is willing to be open about them. The only other driver who seems to be so open at the moment is Lewis and he’s also getting flack for it.

Personally, I’m just glad we’re getting a new WDC and think that whoever wins it will be fully deserving.

[Ground Effect]

wasnt happy at all with the attitude from Piastry that with 11 races to finish, he was only interested in finishing above Norris rather than going for the win. There are 1000+ people putting that race car together. They arnt doing that for his personal glory

I agree, I was surprised to hear this and surprised not many have picked up on it. I feel like it was first sign that he (and his side of garage) might be feeling a bit of pressure. No doubt the media would be very different and jump on it if Norris said it. It is fairly obvious that winning means beating your respective teammate, thats all both side of the garage need to focus on and the rest takes care of itself. Was a bit of a poor question to ask O.P really.

Oh really? I'm one of those that didn't pick up on that. I didn't realise he was OK with finishing behind Leclerc as long as he was ahead of Lando. It shouldn't be the case at this stage of the season, with loads of races yet to go. I hate to say this, but someone with that process would not hesitate to take out his rival.

[mwillems]

He's in a race with one other person for the WDC. His risk reward decisions are totally based on that.

He'd be very naive if he didn't take this approach. He perceived going for the win would increase the risk.of finishing behind Lando.

You can debate his strategy but I cannot understand why anyone would question his approach. Hed have to be an idiot to prioritise anything above the WDC.

[geogate]

because if you want the team to work for you, you have to also work for the team. The relationship between driver and team is a two way street. To say over the radio, with 11 races to go including that one, that you dont care about beating other teams, only care about beating your team mate - its one thing for you to have that opinion, its another to be saying it out loud in front of all the people that do actually care about beating everyone else. With 2 or 3 races to go, sure, people will understand - with 11? nope, very silly thing to say even if it is how he felt

[mwillems]

That's for the team to say, and they haven't suggested there is any issue with it, so that's kind of just creating an issue out of thin air.

The teams goals are almost wrapped up and it seems fairly clear that they are supporting each driver fully in their attack of the WDC in a way they deem fair to both drivers.

[Ground Effect]

He's in a race with one other person for the WDC. His risk reward decisions are totally based on that.

He'd be very naive if he didn't take this approach. He perceived going for the win would increase the risk.of finishing behind Lando.

You can debate his strategy but I cannot understand why anyone would question his approach. Hed have to be an idiot to prioritise anything above the WDC.

He has the quickest car, the best way to stay ahead of his team mate is to win the race. That's finishing P2 behind Charles would have helped Lando, he would have seen it as damage limitation. He should He thinking of inflicting maximum damage on his rival, except when it's a bridge too far.

[mwillems]

He's in a race with one other person for the WDC. His risk reward decisions are totally based on that.

He'd be very naive if he didn't take this approach. He perceived going for the win would increase the risk.of finishing behind Lando.

You can debate his strategy but I cannot understand why anyone would question his approach. Hed have to be an idiot to prioritise anything above the WDC.

He has the quickest car, the best way to stay ahead of his team mate is to win the race. That's finishing P2 behind Charles would have helped Lando, he would have seen it as damage limitation. He should He thinking of inflicting maximum damage on his rival, except when it's a bridge too far.

Going all out for the win can also introduce additional risk compared to trying to cover off a specific driver, so tailoring your race to beat your rival makes total sense to me, particularly if trying to race someone else gave your rival even more strategy options.

Its no different to letting someone past who might technically be fighting you for position in a moment, but not in the final.classification.

[BMMR61]

because if you want the team to work for you, you have to also work for the team. The relationship between driver and team is a two way street. To say over the radio, with 11 races to go including that one, that you dont care about beating other teams, only care about beating your team mate - its one thing for you to have that opinion, its another to be saying it out loud in front of all the people that do actually care about beating everyone else. With 2 or 3 races to go, sure, people will understand - with 11? nope, very silly thing to say even if it is how he felt

Oscar was asked by Tom what he wanted to prioritise, beating Leclerc or beating Lando. You have expanded the actual reply to make it serve your agenda, whatever that is. At the point of that radio comm getting around Charles was proving very difficult. My criticism of Oscar is only that he didn't have the conviction of taking control of the situation from a tactical position in the way a Hamilton or a Sainz does. Hey, he's only in his 3rd season so hopefully these things will develop with a thing called "authority". I was very surprised by both Oscar and Tom that they thought they could undercut to win the race by pitting on lap 18, please understand this isn't "with the benefit of hindsight". You don't pit at quarter race distance on a set of tyres that are still working fine, especially at one of the most difficult tracks to overtake!

[FittingMechanics]

He's in a race with one other person for the WDC. His risk reward decisions are totally based on that.

He'd be very naive if he didn't take this approach. He perceived going for the win would increase the risk.of finishing behind Lando.

You can debate his strategy but I cannot understand why anyone would question his approach. Hed have to be an idiot to prioritise anything above the WDC.

He has the quickest car, the best way to stay ahead of his team mate is to win the race. That's finishing P2 behind Charles would have helped Lando, he would have seen it as damage limitation. He should He thinking of inflicting maximum damage on his rival, except when it's a bridge too far.

Going all out for the win can also introduce additional risk compared to trying to cover off a specific driver, so tailoring your race to beat your rival makes total sense to me, particularly if trying to race someone else gave your rival even more strategy options.

Its no different to letting someone past who might technically be fighting you for position in a moment, but not in the final.classification.

You are also leaving points on the table. This is not chess. Covering off your rival makes sense late in the season.

[mwillems]

Points vs team mate were the objective behind the argument, risk vs reward of position = points.

We are only two races from being in the final third of the season and the final part of the season is typically objectified when other drivers are totally out of the running.

F1 is heavily strategy, call it chess or whatever you like, but having a strategy for the WDC makes total sense to me.

[Ben1980]

because if you want the team to work for you, you have to also work for the team. The relationship between driver and team is a two way street. To say over the radio, with 11 races to go including that one, that you dont care about beating other teams, only care about beating your team mate - its one thing for you to have that opinion, its another to be saying it out loud in front of all the people that do actually care about beating everyone else. With 2 or 3 races to go, sure, people will understand - with 11? nope, very silly thing to say even if it is how he felt

Oscar was asked by Tom what he wanted to prioritise, beating Leclerc or beating Lando. You have expanded the actual reply to make it serve your agenda, whatever that is. At the point of that radio comm getting around Charles was proving very difficult. My criticism of Oscar is only that he didn't have the conviction of taking control of the situation from a tactical position in the way a Hamilton or a Sainz does. Hey, he's only in his 3rd season so hopefully these things will develop with a thing called "authority". I was very surprised by both Oscar and Tom that they thought they could undercut to win the race by pitting on lap 18, please understand this isn't "with the benefit of hindsight". You don't pit at quarter race distance on a set of tyres that are still working fine, especially at one of the most difficult tracks to overtake!

Did he say beating Leclerc, this is before second stop? Wasn't it undercut Leclerc or offset for Lando. Oscar said if lando was beatable the offset.

You say tyres were fine, but Stella said they were fading. Sitting in the dirty air of Leclerc Probably didn't help that, while also pushing. Just sitting behind Leclerc longer Probably wouldn't of helped them much longer anyway.

Not like they could cost it like Alonso.