2022 - McLaren Formula 1 Team

[McG]

This is just my opinion but I think this Mercedes engine already homologated on the combustion side, fuel and mapping is underpowered. 3th or 4th on the grid at the moment. I think many are going to regret to have ditched Honda. Patience is a virtue. The crossing arms position of Zack while Andreas was talking to sky during Qualy says it all. No quick solution they are slow.

Wtf are you on about.

[Balalu]

Ditching Honda was best for both parties. That is already ancient history.

[Redragon]

This is just my opinion but I think this Mercedes engine already homologated on the combustion side, fuel and mapping is underpowered. 3th or 4th on the grid at the moment. I think many are going to regret to have ditched Honda. Patience is a virtue. The crossing arms position of Zack while Andreas was talking to sky during Qualy says it all. No quick solution they are slow.

Wtf are you on about.

As i said is my opinion. They ditched Honda when they were showing progress after enduring the worst. Now is 1st or second best engine on grid with the new homologued ones. Let’s see how long they realised that the new Mercedes engine is not as much powerful as Ferrari and Honda. Old drama yes but I believe and it is my opinion that they will regret in near future.

[Darth-Piekus]

I don't think choosing Mercedes was a mistake. They were for a very long time the best engine by far and I don't think they are done yet. I am sure that there is a fundamental problem with the engine and I believe they can fix it. Mercedes will find a way to bypass the homologation process. Honda hasn't shown any progress during their cooperation with Mclaren and they needed 7 years to be close to Mercedes. In any case it was a mistake to cooperate that early before giving them time to test their engines on another team.

[DragonSGC]

When the engine freeze was being negotiated it was made out there is a implicit agreement that if one manufacturer or two fudged their engines for the freeze the FIA would work with them to catch up, dunno if 2 years later whether that still holds.

[Darth-Piekus]

I think there should be loopholes during that negotiation and I am pretty sure Mercedes has the power to exploit them to fix whatever problem Mercedes Engines have in order for them to work as they should.

I'm curious though now that the race will start to see how many teams will handle porpoising to the whole race.

[Redragon]

I think there should be loopholes during that negotiation and I am pretty sure Mercedes has the power to exploit them to fix whatever problem Mercedes Engines have in order for them to work as they should.

Honda and Ferrari will oppose as Mercedes did on the past. Not a quick fix. Not at least for 1 year.

[Darth-Piekus]

True but Mercedes has all the power inside the FIA. They did it in the past and they can do it now.

Now something interesting. How many cars will stop early due to porpoising issues.

[SmallSoldier]

All these fairweather fans should just pick up and go. Ferrari or Red Bull thread is just around the corner.

Whoever is a fan for a long time remembers many heartbreaks and years waiting. I am a fan from late 90s and I remember being disappointed in early 2000s, then again in 2010s and then especially during the Honda period. That's life. Either accept ups and downs or leave.

With that out of the way, I don't get why everyone went into doom and gloom mode. There are easy explanations why the car suffered:
1. They lost half of their running in Bahrain test meaning they could not dial in the setup or the car. With the brakes overheating it's likely they never really worked on setup or pushed the car properly. This is especially true for Ricciardo who was Covid positive. All this adds up and in the end.
2. Braking solution is obviously compromised - much bigger than needed in Barcelona.
3. Ricciardo lost a lot of running in FP3
4. Mercedes probably did not unlock the engine fully (all Mercedes teams seem to be down on pace)

I'm looking forward to the race and I feel we'll get much better results in the coming races. Maybe not as good as we hoped (podium challenging) but that's how it goes with these rule resets. We knew it could get us closer or further away from the top teams.

Man, the only "beef" I have is the timespan between now and the last competitive McLaren. Those dips you mentioned were disappointing at the time given the team's status at that period. But the relative performance of the dips back then is actually considered a good season for the team now.

Obviously, Ferrari fans have been "mad" for ages because they haven't been able to win a title for longer than McLaren actually, but at least they have won races and been on the contention a couple of times over these years.

During that same timespan, we have had to endure backmarker levels of performance for consecutive seasons, which for a team like McLaren were unprecedented at the time. We had to endure the disappointment of 2018, with false promises over the years allowing us to believe that the team itself was the same as it has always been, they were just being held back by the engine.

And then we had a positive period of revitalization, culminating last year by winning races and getting poles on what should have been a heavily compromised package due to the locked regulations. Things were looking up, McLaren was on the rise and everything was hinting towards a return to top form again in the short-term future.

I don't know how you can be a fan of this team and not feel immense disappointment after what was shown yesterday to be honest. I am not saying we should all just give up and f*ck it all now. But as I said before, it's been too long since 2012 man, I am starting to forget how it feels like to have my favorite team be competitive.

And for some of us, including me, the passion for the team itself is bigger than the passion for the sport. Kimi's silver McLaren battling Alonso is literally my first childhood memory of the sport. When that team is not competitive, it makes the whole F1 experience not enjoyable for me, and that su*ks.

Don’t disagree that the slump is larger this time around, but back then McLaren was one of the top spenders in terms of budget and that wasn’t the case for the last decade, the difference in regards to investment from the top teams of the last decade and McLaren was huge (they were spending more than double)… That doesn’t make closing the gap any easier

[PhillipM]

Do you maybe know what is the problem? Is it a fundamental design problem or just underdevelopment due to lack of running?

Over winter Mclaren thought they'd got almost as much downforce back as the old cars, they reckoned they were half a second off the previous cars, plus the +1.5 seconds the new wheels and tyres cost, so 2 seconds down on last years lap times.

That suggests there's a lot of performance in the car they just need to get on top of their issues so they can set the car up and get it down on the floor, these 2022 cars are incredibly sensitive to mechanical setup, far more than last years cars. I think we'll get much bigger swings between cars on different tracks this year because of it.

[Darth-Piekus]

Are we talking about swings like 2 seconds of pace?

[FittingMechanics]

I don't know how you can be a fan of this team and not feel immense disappointment after what was shown yesterday to be honest. I am not saying we should all just give up and f*ck it all now. But as I said before, it's been too long since 2012 man, I am starting to forget how it feels like to have my favorite team be competitive.

And for some of us, including me, the passion for the team itself is bigger than the passion for the sport. Kimi's silver McLaren battling Alonso is literally my first childhood memory of the sport. When that team is not competitive, it makes the whole F1 experience not enjoyable for me, and that su*ks.

I'm definitely disappointed but I also understand that there are circumstances that may mean the deficit is not that big (as I've mentioned, everyone else ran 150 more laps with two drivers with functioning brakes).

Even if the car ended up being slow, there is a difference between being disappointed and flip flopping between opinions - from being enthusiastic after first test to writing off the season after first qualy.

[PhillipM]

Are we talking about swings like 2 seconds of pace?

I wouldn't be surprised to see the top 4 teams swapping about at tracks, put it that way.

[SmallSoldier]

We’ve waited 3 months to get some racing… Regardless of the result, let’s enjoy the race!

[FittingMechanics]

We're the only ones starting on Mediums - everyone else on softs.

Interesting.