2025 McLaren F1 Team

[geogate]

The reactions of Zac Brown have been well documented when it comes to Lando or Oscar winning. The difference is huge.

He isnt British. Next one
(I also struggle to see how Zak would have any influence on race team strategy or even culture - thats all on Stella )

[MYsee]

My only question is why Oscar waited so long so long to pit.

Oscar had the conversation about making the mediums last long enough to go onto softs quite early in the race

I was waiting for Oscar to try the undercut and call for a pit himself around lap 42-43 for the softs, rather than the team deciding (including with Lando's blessing) that he should pit first to cover Leclerc. They both know the team is going to be fair to both of them, but on rare occasions like this, they don't seem to take that into account in their calculus.

Similar issue with Lando last year in Hungary - the team allows them to race, but he waited till the very end of the race to give the position back to Oscar, rather than giving it back early and racing him for the last 15 or so laps that were left.

[geogate]

My only question is why Oscar waited so long so long to pit.

Oscar had the conversation about making the mediums last long enough to go onto softs quite early in the race

I was waiting for Oscar to try the undercut and call for a pit himself around lap 42-43 for the softs, rather than the team deciding (including with Lando's blessing) that he should pit first to cover Leclerc. They both know the team is going to be fair to both of them, but on rare occasions like this, they don't seem to take that into account in their calculus.

Similar issue with Lando last year in Hungary - the team allows them to race, but he waited till the very end of the race to give the position back to Oscar, rather than giving it back early and racing him for the last 15 or so laps that were left.

but once it got that far into the race, Oscar couldnt choose to pit early as that would effectively be giving him the privilege of the lead driver. He dosnt get to have the choise of under cutting. The only way they can do that would be if they on completely different strategies, like he was 2 stopping
Sure, Lando waiting until the end at hungary was an error. I dont know what was going through his mind that made him think that was a good idea

[MYsee]

Oscar had the conversation about making the mediums last long enough to go onto softs quite early in the race

I was waiting for Oscar to try the undercut and call for a pit himself around lap 42-43 for the softs, rather than the team deciding (including with Lando's blessing) that he should pit first to cover Leclerc. They both know the team is going to be fair to both of them, but on rare occasions like this, they don't seem to take that into account in their calculus.

Similar issue with Lando last year in Hungary - the team allows them to race, but he waited till the very end of the race to give the position back to Oscar, rather than giving it back early and racing him for the last 15 or so laps that were left.

but once it got that far into the race, Oscar couldnt choose to pit early as that would effectively be giving him the privilege of the lead driver. He dosnt get to have the choise of under cutting. The only way they can do that would be if they on completely different strategies, like he was 2 stopping
Sure, Lando waiting until the end at hungary was an error. I dont know what was going through his mind that made him think that was a good idea

My understanding, and I could be wrong, is that if Oscar asked to pit Lando would simply be given the option to pit before him as the lead driver.

[WardenOfTheNorth]

lol, they were trying to protect oscars 3rd place. If they were team GB they would be happy to hold oscar out until he undercut by Leclerc, presumably. I do scratch my head at this British team british driver thing. Which particular members of the team are doing all this, cos the ones i can think of who if they that way incline, maybe, possibly, might be able to bias something, they arnt even British - so, Who are these people?

The reactions of Zac Brown have been well documented when it comes to Lando or Oscar winning. The difference is huge.

Zac Brown has known Lando since 2016, signing him as a McLaren junior in 2017. He has helped him develop into the driver he is today. There is emotional investment there that you simply don't get when you poach a driver from another team.

[venkyhere]

Oscar has said he agrees with the decision. I don't understand why some people (The Race included) are trying to make it into a controversy.

That's because the 'media' thrives on controversy and 'stories' , 'facts' are so boring.

[venkyhere]

One more thing, forgot to add in previous post :
Everyone seems to think that Lando was "being generous and kind" when he asked for Piastri to get the first priority in pitting, inorder to protect Piastri from leClerc. Actually it was a case of 'what if there is a SC just after I pit and Piastri gets a free stop? better to pit after him so that even if I don't get a lucky SC pistop, I stay ahead of him' . I find no one mention this, not even the commentary team or the various 'post race show' s.

[CjC]

What a sad display of team orders today. When they give Lando the better strategy and he wins a race, they don't rectify it. Happened a few times already this year. They are just trying to screw Piastri out of the WDC. This team...

This team…. I know, they should have just pitted Lando first, given him the 1.91 second, season beating fastest pit stop- to then duff up Oscars pit stop a lap later, allow him to be undercut by Leclerc and finish 4th, off the podium and loose 6 points to Lando instead of 3. This team….

Thats not how it works... It was just clear favoritsm of a British driver, from a British team. Totally unnecessary. They can also just train more to get their pitstops better? (if you are such a big fan). Was just sad to watch. Slow pitstops happen - they have corrected any strategy advantage they have given Lando over some races? When Piastri was ahead, and suddenly Lando is there in front, because of an alternative strategy. Just a sad display really.

It is how it works though….. no matter what Mclaren do someone, somewhere chimes up with a criticism, like I say, do you think letting Leclerc to undercut Oscar- was that the right thing to do?
Was leaving Lando on a 2 stopper and at the time a nailed on third place, maybe fourth place in Hungary the right thing to do?

Thanks for pointing out that I’m such a big fan (makes me think I might change it to ‘Just having to deal with insufferable posters on a race by race basis’)
And in being such a big fan I pointed out to you that McLaren lowered the bar for the fastest pitstop this season with their execution of Landos pitstop which is no doubt down to the intensive training they do. I’ve seen many of pit stop mistakes: Massa in Singapore, Button at Silverstone to name a couple- what me being such a big fan has to do with I don’t know- maybe you just wanted to throw that in there to mock me?

Fact of the matter is, I can’t believe the amount of criticism I’ve had to witness when Mclaren are on the cusp of back to back WCC titles.

Maybe it’s just me, when other teams were winning I didn’t feel the need to go and criticise them so I didn’t see all the salty comments from other ‘fans’, perhaps this is part and parcel of being the winning team- no one congratulates you- only criticise for not winning ‘in the right way’ or ‘hard enough’

[basti313]

My only question is why Oscar waited so long so long to pit.

Oscar had the conversation about making the mediums last long enough to go onto softs quite early in the race

Which I would call good from the point of preparation. I would expect them discussing alternate strategies and doing alternate strategies. But they did not do this. They just went with managing their intra team battle, they did not go at all for racing Max. They had no danger from behind, so putting one car on the Hard once Lec pitted would have been the thing to do. But they simply do not care.

I was waiting for Oscar to try the undercut and call for a pit himself around lap 42-43 for the softs, rather than the team deciding (including with Lando's blessing) that he should pit first to cover Leclerc.

At this point nothing basically played a role. The pace of Lec was not good enough, they still had 4-5 laps to prevent the undercut. Lec was catching Pia by not more then 0.4sec per lap with a 4 sec gap after the stop. I think the whole discussion was nonsense, I think realistically only the potential SC was the topic.

Similar issue with Lando last year in Hungary - the team allows them to race, but he waited till the very end of the race to give the position back to Oscar, rather than giving it back early and racing him for the last 15 or so laps that were left.

I think that was good. At least he had time to recover. Hungary...discussing over laps did not make sense.
I just think the point was stupid. He immediately lost DRS and never gained it back. Same with Ver by the way. Why did they let Norris through before turn 1? Ver got under pressure in T1 and Pia lost everything in the Lesmos due to the dirty air.

Fact of the matter is, I can’t believe the amount of criticism I’ve had to witness when Mclaren are on the cusp of back to back WCC titles.

Because they are not racing? Because they are lying to us and play their own game?

I mean...even Mercedes allowed them to race between the two sides of the garage. At McLaren even undercutting in a race where they just do not have any competition to fear is not allowed. They not even go for racing the leader, just drive it home. This is a joke.

[FittingMechanics]

I'm amazed that people completely misunderstand the whole situation.

This was not about the slow stop. This was not the reason Norris was given his position back. It was because Norris accepted to pit second (so Oscar is protected) with the understanding that Oscar will not undercut him. They did the same thing in Hungary, Norris was under threat, he was given priority to stop even though he was behind Oscar on track, because of that priority stop he emerged ahead of Piastri and steamed away.

If Norris pit first, had a slow stop and then Piastri went to pits and ended up ahead, there would be no swap or talk of swap.

This is their way of ensuring that team can utilize "team first" strategies of protecting the driver under threat, without the first driver being undermined. It helped them get 1-2 in Hungary 2024, it helped them get 2-3 here.

[venkyhere]

I'm amazed that people completely misunderstand the whole situation.

This was not about the slow stop. This was not the reason Norris was given his position back. It was because Norris accepted to pit second (so Oscar is protected) with the understanding that Oscar will not undercut him. They did the same thing in Hungary, Norris was under threat, he was given priority to stop even though he was behind Oscar on track, because of that priority stop he emerged ahead of Piastri and steamed away.

If Norris pit first, had a slow stop and then Piastri went to pits and ended up ahead, there would be no swap or talk of swap.

This is their way of ensuring that team can utilize "team first" strategies of protecting the driver under threat, without the first driver being undermined. It helped them get 1-2 in Hungary 2024, it helped them get 2-3 here.

Except, LeClerc was too far behind to pose an undercut threat. Norris wanted protection against Piastri getting a possible SC free pitstop, in case he pits first. Everyone (including media and Youtubers) seem to be missing this point. Norris was NOT being 'benevolent and generous towards his teammate'. Andrea Stella dressed this up as 'stopping Piastri first to protect against leClerc undercut'. Simply not the case, LeClerc was 25 seconds behind, and a 20 second pitstop would still leave a 5 second gap. Even if LeClerc was 1 second per lap faster, that would still leave 5 laps.