2026 McLaren Mastercard F1 Team

[FittingMechanics]

First of all, few of my observations. Piastri was fastest car on hards (by a few tenths IIRC), he was then only pipped by a few milliseconds by Hamilton after multiple laps by Hamilton. This seems like strong performance from Piastri and McLaren. Usually you extract more performance after multiple laps, especially with a hard tire.

Then Piastri was again fastest on softs. This once again wasn't done after multiple runs, IIRC he did only one really fast lap on softs? (I could be wrong, I was doing other things as well). Other teams seemed to do more runs.

Mercedes and Ferrari looks a lot settled without much oversteer/oversteer and it sort of looks like their max pace. although Hamilton is struggling a bit. McLaren with Piastri seems to have the raw speed but a lot snappier. Probably FP3 would give a better picture. Once Lando gets to speed, that gives a broader picture. Redbull seems to be struggling.

I didn't watch the full FP2 but I've seen that both Ferrari and Mercedes had off track excursions while McLaren did not. How does that fit with your assesment? I thought the opposite was true, other teams are pushing and more on the edge.

https://www.formula1.com/en/video/chief ... 0775881078

They feel like they are in the fight this weekend.

I really like to watch/listen to Rob Marshall. I do agree that he looks quite happy and this along with the drivers being quite optimistic before the weekend started is a really good sign for me. Marshall would know roughly where they stand and what kind of upgrades are coming.

Btw, Anthony Davidson did say McLaren P1 in Melbourne. Let's see if it comes true.

[bluechris]

To my eyes MCLaren seemed the most stable car in the FP's which is promising.

[Mcl_G10]

It seems that during the tests mclaren hid 30kg of lead under the bodywork and now they have simply removed it haha

[mwillems]

First of all, few of my observations. Piastri was fastest car on hards (by a few tenths IIRC), he was then only pipped by a few milliseconds by Hamilton after multiple laps by Hamilton. This seems like strong performance from Piastri and McLaren. Usually you extract more performance after multiple laps, especially with a hard tire.

Then Piastri was again fastest on softs. This once again wasn't done after multiple runs, IIRC he did only one really fast lap on softs? (I could be wrong, I was doing other things as well). Other teams seemed to do more runs.

Mercedes and Ferrari looks a lot settled without much oversteer/oversteer and it sort of looks like their max pace. although Hamilton is struggling a bit. McLaren with Piastri seems to have the raw speed but a lot snappier. Probably FP3 would give a better picture. Once Lando gets to speed, that gives a broader picture. Redbull seems to be struggling.

I didn't watch the full FP2 but I've seen that both Ferrari and Mercedes had off track excursions while McLaren did not. How does that fit with your assesment? I thought the opposite was true, other teams are pushing and more on the edge.

https://www.formula1.com/en/video/chief ... 0775881078

They feel like they are in the fight this weekend.

I really like to watch/listen to Rob Marshall. I do agree that he looks quite happy and this along with the drivers being quite optimistic before the weekend started is a really good sign for me. Marshall would know roughly where they stand and what kind of upgrades are coming.

Btw, Anthony Davidson did say McLaren P1 in Melbourne. Let's see if it comes true.

Only thing to add is that Oscar set his fastest time a little later, so this might suggest it was even closer given the track would have evolved.

Usual caveats apply, the teams can and will find more time.

[AR3-GP]

I think Mercedes has already shown that they are very fast, but that Mclaren hasn't shown their hand yet. They could be very fast. No one seems worried. Drivers aren't saying they lack speed. They are just working quietly without complaints top optimize. It's very suspicious.

[FittingMechanics]

Only thing to add is that Oscar set his fastest time a little later, so this might suggest it was even closer given the track would have evolved.

Usual caveats apply, the teams can and will find more time.

Oscar was slightly earlier than Mercedes, but at least Hamilton hard tyre lap was after Oscar. Not sure about the clear timelines but it wasn't like everyone did their laps 20 minutes before he did.

As you say, caveats apply but we have to be very happy with what was shown so far.

[mwillems]

Only thing to add is that Oscar set his fastest time a little later, so this might suggest it was even closer given the track would have evolved.

Usual caveats apply, the teams can and will find more time.

Oscar was slightly earlier than Mercedes, but at least Hamilton hard tyre lap was after Oscar. Not sure about the clear timelines but it wasn't like everyone did their laps 20 minutes before he did.

As you say, caveats apply but we have to be very happy with what was shown so far.

I thought the mercedes soft runs were before ours? They did Softs and then hards, I thought? Or am I mistaken? I find the app a bit hard to read on my phone and not well laid out, and was following it bleary eyed this morning.

[FittingMechanics]

Only thing to add is that Oscar set his fastest time a little later, so this might suggest it was even closer given the track would have evolved.

Usual caveats apply, the teams can and will find more time.

Oscar was slightly earlier than Mercedes, but at least Hamilton hard tyre lap was after Oscar. Not sure about the clear timelines but it wasn't like everyone did their laps 20 minutes before he did.

As you say, caveats apply but we have to be very happy with what was shown so far.

I thought the mercedes soft runs were before ours? They did Softs and then hards, I thought? Or am I mistaken? I find the app a bit hard to read on my phone and not well laid out, and was following it bleary eyed this morning.

I think everyone did roughly the same run plan. First quali run on hards. Then quali run on softs and then a long run.

Mercedes just did their stuff a bit earlier, so they set their hard quali times a bit before Piastri, then he was beaten by soft runs, then he did his soft run and beat their time.

IIRC Hamilton just did more hard quali runs until he beat Piastri hard lap.

Mercedes lost out on some track evolution but I don't think Ferrari and Red Bull did.

PS. I was bleary eyed myself. Could be wrong.

[Emag]

I think Mercedes has already shown that they are very fast, but that Mclaren hasn't shown their hand yet. They could be very fast. No one seems worried. Drivers aren't saying they lack speed. They are just working quietly without complaints top optimize. It's very suspicious.

I think McLaren showed a bit more in the short runs and then the long runs exposed them as the 3rd/4th fastest team.

Unless they were holding back at the end, I still don’t think they’ll make the podium.

Edit: Charles thinks the same :

[FittingMechanics]

I think Mercedes has already shown that they are very fast, but that Mclaren hasn't shown their hand yet. They could be very fast. No one seems worried. Drivers aren't saying they lack speed. They are just working quietly without complaints top optimize. It's very suspicious.

I think McLaren showed a bit more in the short runs and then the long runs exposed them as the 3rd/4th fastest team.

Unless they were holding back at the end, I still don’t think they’ll make the podium.

Edit: Charles thinks the same :

Btw it could be that this formula once again detaches qualifying pace from race pace. We could have cars that are better in quali runs than in race runs. That would be good for the racing, but hopefully McLaren is not the one that is much slower in race pace than in qualifying.

We'll see, I think that Mercedes probably has much better understanding of this new PU than McLaren. They also had much more time to fine tune their race runs in Bahrain/Barcelona so it wouldn't be a big surprise if they are ahead.

[AR3-GP]

The way I read what Charles was saying is that he thinks Mercedes is P1, McLaren is slightly behind with P2 and then Ferrari and Red Bull is joint P3. He is probably downplaying their pace but I saw his post FP interview on Formula1.com and he was worried about Mercedes.


Btw it could be that this formula once again detaches qualifying pace from race pace. We could have cars that are better in quali runs than in race runs. That would be good for the racing, but hopefully McLaren is not the one that is much slower in race pace than in qualifying.

We'll see, I think that Mercedes probably has much better understanding of this new PU than McLaren. They also had much more time to fine tune their race runs in Bahrain/Barcelona so it wouldn't be a big surprise if they are ahead.

"My feeling is that we're the 2nd/3rd force with Red Bull, McLaren seems just a tiny bit behind and Mercedes seems ahead. We'll see."

He says he thinks that Ferrari 2nd/3rd with RB. I don't think he could make that any more clear?
So he thinks Mclaren is 4th. I don't think that, but he does.

[FittingMechanics]

"My feeling is that we're the 2nd/3rd force with Red Bull, McLaren seems just a tiny bit behind and Mercedes seems ahead. We'll see."

He says he thinks that Ferrari 2nd/3rd with RB. I don't think he could make that any more clear?
So he thinks Mclaren is 4th. I don't think that, but he does.

Now that I reread I agree. I've edited my original post to remove that part.

[AR3-GP]

I think McLaren showed a bit more in the short runs and then the long runs exposed them as the 3rd/4th fastest team.

Unless they were holding back at the end, I still don’t think they’ll make the podium.

Edit: Charles thinks the same :
https://x.com/leclercinsider/status/202 ... 15311?s=46

Leclerc hasn't calculated this correctly. If Mercedes has 50hp in reserve, then so does Mclaren. They have the same PU

[mwillems]

Oscar was slightly earlier than Mercedes, but at least Hamilton hard tyre lap was after Oscar. Not sure about the clear timelines but it wasn't like everyone did their laps 20 minutes before he did.

As you say, caveats apply but we have to be very happy with what was shown so far.

I thought the mercedes soft runs were before ours? They did Softs and then hards, I thought? Or am I mistaken? I find the app a bit hard to read on my phone and not well laid out, and was following it bleary eyed this morning.

I think everyone did roughly the same run plan. First quali run on hards. Then quali run on softs and then a long run.

Mercedes just did their stuff a bit earlier, so they set their hard quali times a bit before Piastri, then he was beaten by soft runs, then he did his soft run and beat their time.

IIRC Hamilton just did more hard quali runs until he beat Piastri hard lap.

Mercedes lost out on some track evolution but I don't think Ferrari and Red Bull did.

PS. I was bleary eyed myself. Could be wrong.

I think we're saying the same thing, slight track evolution advantage for McLaren.

[Macklaren]

The Motorsports story has leclerc putting McLaren second and Ferrari fourth. I would also agree that the McLaren looked like the best car. We were also being very conservative...will Joseph was telling Lando that Overtake now was disabled for his fast laps and he didn't really do a quali run. He also got A LOT of traffic. Just need to fix reliability