avantman wrote: ↑21 May 2025, 10:45
FittingMechanics wrote: ↑21 May 2025, 10:39
Last year the car was super dominant in Zaandvoort, Singapore and Hungary.
In Monaco it was right behind Leclerc. I think it's quite likely it will be the fastest car in race pace, but who knows if they can qualify ahead to make it work.
In Imola they tested a new high downforce rear wing so they are ready.
In Monaco '24 it was also most likely the fastest over one lap. Piastri was the fastest on theoreticals but could not put all his better sectors together. And Norris was compromised by that incident with a banner in Q1 where he had to stop and burn extra set of new softs, so he was left with only one new set in Q3. It wouldn't be also unreasonable to assume Leclerc made a bit of difference individually as a Monaco specialist.
The reality is Mclaren had a car to win all races since Miami '24 bar Vegas. There is no reason to believe their car would not suddenly be good enough to win in Monaco this year.
Piastri also said that while he could be fast in either S2 or S3, he could not be fast in both because of the trade offs in the way they were driven. So for Monaco last year the theoretical fastest lap is just that. It was something the drivers, or at least one of them, said was impossible in practice.
