2023 - McLaren Formula 1 Team

[mwillems]

Audi?

They "Join" in 26 with an engine but by 24 they will have the team under their control and developing their cars, you may aswell call them Audi from this year now Seidl is there. They already own a stake of Sauber.

I get that, what I’m wondering is why Audi is considered a viable option for Lando. Is it because Seidl is there? There’s absolutely no guarantee they’ll be competitive from the get go. BMW also took over from Sauber, they didn’t set the world alight.

Same decision Hamilton faced with Merc who started by taking some of Mclarens best staff.

[MrGapes]

At 14:35 Stella talks about having to rent the cologne wind tunnel.. I completely missed that it probably cost them a chunk of their budget to use that tunnel aswell.

[mwillems]

At 14:35 Stella talks about having to rent the cologne wind tunnel.. I completely missed that it probably cost them a chunk of their budget to use that tunnel aswell.

It'll cost them a chunk here too with the energy price difference between the UK and Europe.

[Ground Effect]

They "Join" in 26 with an engine but by 24 they will have the team under their control and developing their cars, you may aswell call them Audi from this year now Seidl is there. They already own a stake of Sauber.

I get that, what I’m wondering is why Audi is considered a viable option for Lando. Is it because Seidl is there? There’s absolutely no guarantee they’ll be competitive from the get go. BMW also took over from Sauber, they didn’t set the world alight.

Same decision Hamilton faced with Merc who started by taking some of Mclarens best staff.

Things are a bit different now in the budget cap era, not possible for them to throw huge sums of money at the project. That said, you never know...

[McL-H]

The whole thing kinda blew out of proportions imo. Stella just said that this is not the final product and there will be alot of developement early on because they started some developements very late.

Nothing to worry yet

That’s the wording he used. But it’s not what he said. You can read a lot in between the lines.

You can indeed read much between the lines. So much in fact, that on many occations you end up with complete fiction.

Let’s see how much of it was fiction once the lights go out in Bahrain.

[Slahinki]

That’s the wording he used. But it’s not what he said. You can read a lot in between the lines.

You can indeed read much between the lines. So much in fact, that on many occations you end up with complete fiction.

Let’s see how much of it was fiction once the lights go out in Bahrain.

Exactly, if the car hits the track and doesn't work, you can be as gloomy as you want. But until then it's just pointless speculation based on vague statements.

[Darth-Piekus]

I am wondering. Is that the base car and we expect different more refined parts during the Bahrain Test or are we going like this for the test and the first 3 races? Did everyone else bring base cars or is everything on the table?

[McL-H]

I am wondering. Is that the base car and we expect different more refined parts during the Bahrain Test or are we going like this for the test and the first 3 races? Did everyone else bring base cars or is everything on the table?

At this stage no one has put all their cards on the table. Some teams have not even put one card on the table, like RBR. All teams will be arriving to Bahrain with different parts. For example, the front wing on the MCL60 that was shown during the presentation was the old wing of last year. Expect a different FW come Thursday and expect other parts to differ from the renders too.

[Macklaren]

Will be a new floor in Bahrain as well

[Darth-Piekus]

Considering I really loved the Mclaren Base Car design which in my opinion is one of the best on the grid I can't wait to see what other beauties they are preparing this Tuesday.

[ringo]

If Alpine is faster.. Piastri's move will be looking like Dan's but worse.

Not at all. Piastri's choice was McLaren or Williams, not McLaren or Alpine. He is also a free-agent for 2025 unlike Alpine's plan that Piastri would first move to Alpine only in 2025 while being on some ridiculously long contract.

If Piastri does well he can try to move to Red Bull or elsewhere in 2025, unlike "possibly having the chance" of moving to Alpine from Williams in 2025!

No. Dont get it twisted. Regardless of the different options and permutations before, in the end Piastri still had an opportunity to drive for Alpine in 2023. He was offered that by Otmar.
We all know this. He refused.
He was bedazzled by Zak Brown, and things may not be as rosey as we let on for mclaren.
Worst off with a very hungry Lando in the other seat.

[billamend]

No. Dont get it twisted. Regardless of the different options and permutations before, in the end Piastri still had an opportunity to drive for Alpine in 2023. He was offered that by Otmar.

Except that he didn’t really. He had been trying to get Alpine to sign the contract for the longest time, with no luck. They were even failing the payments for the superlicense.

Then, with Alpine authorization, Piastri signed with McLaren. For a 2023 seat, which he didn’t have at Alpine.

Then Vettel retired, Alonso signed with AM, and Alpine needed someone. By that time, Piastri had already signed with McLaren, and had no binding contract with Alpine (because Alpine stalled in signing it).

When a seat opened up at Alpine, Piastri had already signed with McLaren. He could not take that seat. And Alpine always knew that. They tried to throw him under the bus to save face.

This was all on Alpine and Otmar. Defending otherwise is just corporate shilling.

[JordanMugen]

No. Dont get it twisted. Regardless of the different options and permutations before, in the end Piastri still had an opportunity to drive for Alpine in 2023. He was offered that by Otmar.

This is just not correct. That seat was offered by Otmar to Fernando Alonso, at the time that a McLaren seat was offered to Piastri. The Alpine seat was NOT offered to Piastri until Piastri already had a deal with McLaren!

We all know this. He refused.

How can Oscar Piastri refuse a race seat that is being offered to Fernando Alonso and not to Oscar?! The very notion doesn't even make sense. In fact, if Oscar was actually offered the Alpine seat in the first place, and not Fernando Alonso, be that in March, April, or May 2022 then Oscar would have almost certainly taken it.

Instead, Alpine offered a race seat to Fernando Alonso, so Piastri took up a race seat offer from McLaren F1 Team. Which is entirely logical.

When a seat opened up at Alpine, Piastri had already signed with McLaren. He could not take that seat.

Indeed, it seems illogical in the extreme for Alpine to claim Oscar Piastri is their number one choice, when their race seat was being offered to Fernando Alonso and not to Oscar Piastri.

[taperoo2k]

They "Join" in 26 with an engine but by 24 they will have the team under their control and developing their cars, you may aswell call them Audi from this year now Seidl is there. They already own a stake of Sauber.

I get that, what I’m wondering is why Audi is considered a viable option for Lando. Is it because Seidl is there? There’s absolutely no guarantee they’ll be competitive from the get go. BMW also took over from Sauber, they didn’t set the world alight.

Same decision Hamilton faced with Merc who started by taking some of Mclarens best staff.

Lewis took a gamble with Mercedes, it paid off. It might not have, which is F1 in a nutshell. You simply never know
which teams are going to produce the cars that can win titles and the teams that are chasing that but never quite getting there.

If Lando goes to Audi, it would be the same kind of gamble Lewis took with Mercedes. But it's quite possible McLaren will do enough to convince Lando to sign a new deal with the team. A lot can happen between now and the next set of regulations coming in for 2026.

[mwillems]

I get that, what I’m wondering is why Audi is considered a viable option for Lando. Is it because Seidl is there? There’s absolutely no guarantee they’ll be competitive from the get go. BMW also took over from Sauber, they didn’t set the world alight.

Same decision Hamilton faced with Merc who started by taking some of Mclarens best staff.

Things are a bit different now in the budget cap era, not possible for them to throw huge sums of money at the project. That said, you never know...

It is different, but it is a big project with a big brand and they can offer a big drivers salary too.
They are also not subject to the same rules as a new engine entry.