2025 McLaren F1 Team

[Darth-Piekus]

Isnt Mclaren gonna bring their own upgrade package in Austria? I mean do they have something prepared?

[CjC]

Isnt Mclaren gonna bring their own upgrade package in Austria? I mean do they have something prepared?

Silverstone seems to be the favourite.

They have tested a lot of items now so something fairly substantial must be on its way

[Sergej]

why was McLaren so "human" this race ? should have been perfect conditions for them, rear limited track, hot temperatures...

[venkyhere]

Onto Austria, and watching the Mercs again, as they look more a threat than Red Bull

I am going to hedge that the Merc rear suspension upgrade that was good on the 'smooth grain' Canadian tarmac, will not be as good in Austria & Silverstone.

[CjC]

why was McLaren so "human" this race ? should have been perfect conditions for them, rear limited track, hot temperatures...

They had to raise the ride height for the kerb riding which took them out of their peak window.
Also the deg was surface deg not thermal deg.
They might not be strong in Austria either.

One thing I’ll note, they had a small rear wing on compared to the others in Canada, so for example if red bull and merc run a smaller wing in Austria- yes they’ll probably have a straight line speed advantage over the draggier McLaren but it should mean McLaren have their superior tyre management again.

[mwillems]

why was McLaren so "human" this race ? should have been perfect conditions for them, rear limited track, hot temperatures...

They had to raise the ride height for the kerb riding which took them out of their peak window.
Also the deg was surface deg not thermal deg.
They might not be strong in Austria either.

One thing I’ll note, they had a small rear wing on compared to the others in Canada, so for example if red bull and merc run a smaller wing in Austria- yes they’ll probably have a straight line speed advantage over the draggier McLaren but it should mean McLaren have their superior tyre management again.

The surface was also low grip due to it's smoothness.

And a lot of long straights. Can't wait for the Mario Kart track that is Austria. Always fun and I think we'll do well.

[Ben1980]

why was McLaren so "human" this race ? should have been perfect conditions for them, rear limited track, hot temperatures...

Its a car that doesn't like dirty air, no does it have blistering straight line speed ( by design). Piastri getting done by Kimi just made it all hard.

Car had pace just not enough to cover the deg and others.

[mwillems]

The second half of the race, the pace was good enough. But at the end of this formula, the "principle of reducing dirty air" was long trashed.

[CjC]

why was McLaren so "human" this race ? should have been perfect conditions for them, rear limited track, hot temperatures...

They had to raise the ride height for the kerb riding which took them out of their peak window.
Also the deg was surface deg not thermal deg.
They might not be strong in Austria either.

One thing I’ll note, they had a small rear wing on compared to the others in Canada, so for example if red bull and merc run a smaller wing in Austria- yes they’ll probably have a straight line speed advantage over the draggier McLaren but it should mean McLaren have their superior tyre management again.

The surface was also low grip due to it's smoothness.

And a lot of long straights. Can't wait for the Mario Kart track that is Austria. Always fun and I think we'll do well.

I think they’ll go well in Austria too.
This goes without saying but Lando needs a massive result in Austria. It’s a ‘Lando track’ he’s gone rather well there in the past however the circuit is unforgiving especially with track limits, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a pole being taken away from Lando for track limits to just compound his misery even more.

[CjC]

The second half of the race, the pace was good enough. But at the end of this formula, the "principle of reducing dirty air" was long trashed.

https://i.postimg.cc/fThVskZF/Canada-Race.png

The pace was excellent all race I thought.
If Lando got his new soft tyre runs in properly in Q3 and maybe Oscar ran his medium also in Q3 we could have seen another front row lock out and then a 1-2 in the race if they didn’t crash that is

[Darth-Piekus]

Stewards are busy. Red Bull made an appeal against Russell's victory and Oscar is also called for causing a collision with Norris.

[mwillems]

The second half of the race, the pace was good enough. But at the end of this formula, the "principle of reducing dirty air" was long trashed.

https://i.postimg.cc/fThVskZF/Canada-Race.png

The pace was excellent all race I thought.
If Lando got his new soft tyre runs in properly in Q3 and maybe Oscar ran his medium also in Q3 we could have seen another front row lock out and then a 1-2 in the race if they didn’t crash that is

We only really got on top of the pace by lap 30. George and Max were both faster till then. The race was a tale of two halves, and whilst we'd naturally be faster in clean air, you can see that as the track rubbered in Piastri was fighting Antonelli a similar distance behind in dirty air most of the time, but Max and Gworge's advantage started to diminish in the middle of that battle.

That said, getting closer to Max was by virtue of him starting on used tyres and the fact he then killed them in dirty air, which compromised him.

Track temps were consistent at 50c the whole time. Another race that seems to negate the tyre cooling theories.

[CjC]

The second half of the race, the pace was good enough. But at the end of this formula, the "principle of reducing dirty air" was long trashed.

https://i.postimg.cc/fThVskZF/Canada-Race.png

The pace was excellent all race I thought.
If Lando got his new soft tyre runs in properly in Q3 and maybe Oscar ran his medium also in Q3 we could have seen another front row lock out and then a 1-2 in the race if they didn’t crash that is

We only really got on top of the pace by lap 30. George and Max were both faster till then. The race was a tale of two halves, and whilst we'd naturally be faster in clean air, you can see that as the track rubbered in Piastri was fighting Antonelli a similar distance behind in dirty air most of the time, but Max and Gworge's advantage started to diminish in the middle of that battle.

That said, getting closer to Max was by virtue of him starting on used tyres and the fact he then killed them in dirty air, which compromised him.

Track temps were consistent at 50c the whole time. Another race that seems to negate the tyre cooling theories.

https://i.postimg.cc/4yYryptg/Canada-Race-Gap.png

Me this morning

Lando thinks Verstappen has the best race pace

That's because in FP2, he did, discounting outliers. I know people put Russell as the fastest car after FP2, but removing traffic affected laps, Max was flying.

McLaren's battle should be with Russell, I think RedBull has this in the bag actually. They have been the ultimate practice sandbaggers the entire season, yet people are still surprised to see Max on the fight for pole every race somehow.

I probably wont be able to see the race tomorrow, which is a shame because it looks like it should be a good one. Not surprised at all with Lando's performance in Q3. He barely puts a lap together when he is comfortable, let alone on a weekend where he has been going off every other lap since FP1. At least he made it out of Q1.

Gotta hurt to have his teammate fastest in S3 of all places. That's where Oscar had a moment in FP3 yet it did nothing to his confidence. Speaking of which, strategy could play a big role tomorrow and Oscar can still win it, but on pace alone, Max is really strong and it will be difficult to overtake him on-track. Mercedes is a bit of a question mark, but I expect them to have the worst deg, so if an overtake doesn't happen at the start, George will probably be vulnerable later on the stint.

I actually thought Lando had the best race pace in FP2 but looking at the live timing again and concentrating on Max’s times I agree- he is rapid.

Reading what Lando said post quali:

“It's just very low grip. That is one of the bigger things. And therefore the car balance just never comes together as much as what it does on other tracks, and some of the kerb-riding and bumps, which just hurts us, it seems, more than some others.”

I have a feeling the car will gradually come alive halfway through the race as the rubber goes down (similar to races last season) but they, especially Lando will probably be too far behind to collect the main prizes.

Credit:
https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/norri ... /10732902/

[mwillems]

You did, I remember

Think I also suggested the idea that FP2 wasn't representative of our race pace, given the work that went in to improve the setup and put the car in contention in Qualy and that the Sunday would see us have good pace.

But that is fairly routine, FP2 is rarely a reliable indicator of pace although you get some idea. But at this weekend it was clear by Saturday afternoon that things had changed, we weren't far off the pace and we generally have better pace yet on a Sunday.

[BMMR61]

Combination of track rubbering in and lighter fuel load brought the McLaren into closer to it's normal competitive state. The Mercedes were both the better car earlier but in the final stint, first Oscar, then Lando brought the pace. Again, overtaking was a rarity and the McLaren with mediocre top speeds made hard work of it. Oscar was hounding Kimi but 0.6 gap onto DRS straight was too much to overcome. A bit like how Mercedes a few years ago struggled if they didn't start from the front row. It seemed like damage limitation today, Oscar hung out to dry at first corner sequence then no real strategy to get past Kimi who was a bit of a cork in the bottle.

Austria should be good for McLaren.