2023 - McLaren Formula 1 Team

[AR3-GP]

Is Mclaren still on old power units?

Oscar got a new one for Suzuka. Lando's is prehistoric, they're gonna have to take a penalty soon.

That's good for Lando then (and not good for RB ). I've heard the Mercedes PU still has considerable degradation.

[geogate]

this car, new engine and lando is gonna be tasty - hope they get the timing for it right

[PikeStance]

Interesting to note the inferred suggestion that they are still managing their pace

The guys are setting a downplayed pace on Saturday evening it's so funny

I would downplay it as well. I am sure they are surprised how quickly Mclaren was able to catch the pack and appears to have caught up to them. The Sprint, race, and qualifiers seem to suggest that we are much closer to the RB performance than before. Max is clearly racing exceptionally and will probably do so for the foreseeable future. Someone calculated the points for the last three races and Mclaren was clearly ahead. If you were to extrapolate this over a whole season, then McLaren would be WCC. This is without winning 1st. Marko is nervous he won't be able to dominate like Mercedes did.

Plus, what Mclaren has done is an anomaly in sports. This sort of turnaround is virtually unheard of. Disbelief and denial are the order of the day.

[mwillems]

Interesting to note the inferred suggestion that they are still managing their pace

The guys are setting a downplayed pace on Saturday evening it's so funny

I would downplay it as well. I am sure they are surprised how quickly Mclaren was able to catch the pack and appears to have caught up to them. The Sprint, race, and qualifiers seem to suggest that we are much closer to the RB performance than before. Max is clearly racing exceptionally and will probably do so for the foreseeable future. Someone calculated the points for the last three races and Mclaren was clearly ahead. If you were to extrapolate this over a whole season, then McLaren would be WCC. This is without winning 1st. Marko is nervous he won't be able to dominate like Mercedes did.

Plus, what Mclaren has done is an anomaly in sports. This sort of turnaround is virtually unheard of. Disbelief and denial are the order of the day.

The calculation was mine, but the result will be that Checo is hanging by a thread and they will get someone in who can challenge, can't imagine it happening mid season next year. He can redeem himself by turning it around between now and the end of the season but if he doesn't then there's a very strong chance he is gone.

Bear in mind that this is just three races, whilst current form is very important, there is a fair bit of the season left for RB to stretch their legs a bit and for us to understand just how close we are. Though we are clearly closer, I suspect RB are still managing their pace, albeit with less margin to peak pace which is the worry for RB.

The talk of the Singapore update helping to fix low speed corners distracted from the fact that it also equally fixed other areas, straight line speed and mid speed corners too. The car has taken a step forward equally as big as Austria and I suspect the car now exceeds 1s per lap quicker than the start of the season, but then again RB has not developed this years car as much, that work went into next years car.

RB have been developing next years car and not this years to manage the budget cap development deficit. That deficit ends on the 25th of October so I'm expecting RB to come out of the box fast next year having the opportunity to go full beans on development over the winter, which they were not able to do last year.

It's also why I'd rather stay 5th in the championship, keep the development race advantage so we can have the best shot at becoming faster than RB over the course of next year.

[Darth-Piekus]

Considering how badly Perez performs 2024 is a good chance to at least try to go for the constructors if not for the drivers championship. I would say this winter can be a good chance to even surpass Red Bull and be the pace setters for once

[daren_p]

Considering how badly Perez performs 2024 is a good chance to at least try to go for the constructors if not for the drivers championship. I would say this winter can be a good chance to even surpass Red Bull and be the pace setters for once

While that would be nice, I would say that's highly unlikely. As mwilliems has just said, RB had a penalty this year, I haven't followed them that closely but it doesn't appear they bolted many developments onto the car. More then likely they had enough performance margin that the majority of things they've been working on have been held back. They'll throw all this at next years car & their development restrictions are letting up soon. I would be rather surprised if RB doesn't make another significant jump over the winter, my hope is that MCL can make the same sort of jump.

[mclaren111]

Considering how badly Perez performs 2024 is a good chance to at least try to go for the constructors if not for the drivers championship. I would say this winter can be a good chance to even surpass Red Bull and be the pace setters for once

While that would be nice, I would say that's highly unlikely. As mwilliems has just said, RB had a penalty this year, I haven't followed them that closely but it doesn't appear they bolted many developments onto the car. More then likely they had enough performance margin that the majority of things they've been working on have been held back. They'll throw all this at next years car & their development restrictions are letting up soon. I would be rather surprised if RB doesn't make another significant jump over the winter, my hope is that MCL can make the same sort of jump.

We have to start 2024 with a less than 0.3 second gap to have any chance of winning a race...

RB & Max are super strong at executing perfect weekends - all year long...

[the EDGE]

Considering how badly Perez performs 2024 is a good chance to at least try to go for the constructors if not for the drivers championship. I would say this winter can be a good chance to even surpass Red Bull and be the pace setters for once

While that would be nice, I would say that's highly unlikely. As mwilliems has just said, RB had a penalty this year, I haven't followed them that closely but it doesn't appear they bolted many developments onto the car. More then likely they had enough performance margin that the majority of things they've been working on have been held back. They'll throw all this at next years car & their development restrictions are letting up soon. I would be rather surprised if RB doesn't make another significant jump over the winter, my hope is that MCL can make the same sort of jump.

We have to start 2024 with a less than 0.3 second gap to have any chance of winning a race...

RB & Max are super strong at executing perfect weekends - all year long...

As nice as it is to get carried away thinking about next year, Merc will make a big step next weekend and could well pass McLaren by, Ferrari will also be there by next year, and Perez will NOT be in the second RB seat. I wouldn't be surprised to see AM back in that fight too

I'm looking forward to close battles for wins next year, but RB will have a clear advantage, at least at the start of the season.

[FittingMechanics]

Let's hope that the new signings can bring forward some ideas and understanding of how to proceed. If that works well, the development next year should be good as well. Hopefully we will at least stay in the mix for the podium.

I don't want to get ahead of myself - it's possible we regress over the winter, but I am hopeful that this signals a long term return to the top tier.

[CjC]

Am I right in thinking that there will be no more updates for Mclaren this year?

[mwillems]

Am I right in thinking that there will be no more updates for Mclaren this year?

It's unlikely but there might be some little bits.

[AR3-GP]

I think rival teams have had enough of the Mclaren upgrades for 1 season...

[the EDGE]

Let's hope that the new signings can bring forward some ideas and understanding of how to proceed. If that works well, the development next year should be good as well. Hopefully we will at least stay in the mix for the podium.

I don't want to get ahead of myself - it's possible we regress over the winter, but I am hopeful that this signals a long term return to the top tier.

I think it’s clear where McLaren still need to make progress. They have improved Deg, but work on this area will be critical to winning races

Rob Marshall should be key here, and hopefully it’s steps that can be made in-season. He has 8 weeks before the first race, which surely is not achievable, but hopefully won’t take much longe if McLaren have a chassis he can work with without fundamentally changes

[organic]

Mexico looks like the best chance at a race win from the remaining races. Rb19 will not be happy there

Qatar was close, if not there for the taking

[mwillems]

Let's hope that the new signings can bring forward some ideas and understanding of how to proceed. If that works well, the development next year should be good as well. Hopefully we will at least stay in the mix for the podium.

I don't want to get ahead of myself - it's possible we regress over the winter, but I am hopeful that this signals a long term return to the top tier.

I think it’s clear where McLaren still need to make progress. They have improved Deg, but work on this area will be critical to winning races

Rob Marshall should be key here, and hopefully it’s steps that can be made in-season. He has 8 weeks before the first race, which surely is not achievable, but hopefully won’t take much longe if McLaren have a chassis he can work with without fundamentally changes

I think they've done good work on the Aero side of dealing with the tyre behaviour, but that there is some work to do in a new chassis on the mechanical side. I'm guessing this will help the platform stay stay in the optimum windows for Aero during cornering, braking, accelerating away etc as well as help improve the way the tyre makes contact with the ground to improve grip and the cars thermal input into the tyre.

Rob Marshall might be able to help a bit with some of the suspension work but I wouldn't think much else for the 24 car, apart from bits of information he brings with him from Red Bull that might help us refine our concept. The chassis will be tied down by that point, largely so not much doing there.

I wonder if they will start conceptual work on the 25 car pretty early next year with Marshall and Sanchez getting up to speed with our concepts and planned future developments before they start to generate their own idea of how to improve the car in 25.