2023 - McLaren Formula 1 Team

[Xero]

I would like to make a bold prediction.The car is much better than what people think. I even dare say that Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri will challenge both Mercedes and the Astons.

Not sure I'd place them that high, but definitely in the mix for the minor points positions. Race pace doesn't look too bad.

[Darth-Piekus]

Im just basing my assumption comparing day 1 and day 2 times on the c3. Apart from Red Bull Lando Norris has the best C3 time on 1:32:132 while all the rest were from 1:32:250 and higher. Considering the huge difference between C3 and C4 I have a feeling that Lando could have gone to where Leclerc is today on C4. In any case everything will be revealed in the first race.

[mwillems]

I would like to make a bold prediction.The car is much better than what people think. I even dare say that Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri will challenge both Mercedes and the Astons.

Man I have no idea where you get these predictions from, but whatever. A little (in this case probably a bit too much) optimism is appreciated at this point.

A little smack bottom from PhilipM and there's a dutiful about face and stern march in the right direction

[mwillems]

I would like to make a bold prediction.The car is much better than what people think. I even dare say that Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri will challenge both Mercedes and the Astons.

It looks like it's going to be tying around the front of the midfield again, but the problem is so many of the midfield teams have improved, it's only going to take a slight setup change for the entire midfield to change every race, I think we're going to need 3-4 races just to see where the midfield actually is. On the upside just as viewers, we should have some fun races for the first few.

It is nice to hear then at least that the targets were to get us close to the leading pack and that they believe these targets will be met at race 4. This warms my cockles.

[Ground Effect]

I would like to make a bold prediction.The car is much better than what people think. I even dare say that Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri will challenge both Mercedes and the Astons.

Man I have no idea where you get these predictions from, but whatever. A little (in this case probably a bit too much) optimism is appreciated at this point.

A little smack bottom from PhilipM and there's a dutiful about face and stern march in the right direction

PhillipM has sent some of us to the naughty step...

[McL-H]

I will reflect on that Phillip. I know there used to be much more inside info around here in the past, but unaware it stopped because of team members disliking the sentiment here of some members. That is indeed a shame. In the future I will try to be more aware that team members are reading here too. I will stress again though that acting in a haughty manner will not make your comments more valuable. A stupid comment could become more valuable if corrected right. Better to inform people and argue why they are wrong than putting people down. I enjoy the forum for people's insight, what I learn here and what I take away from it. And you sure have some of the more knowledgeable comments out here.

[organic]

A little smack bottom from PhilipM and there's a dutiful about face and stern march in the right direction

very true the baku upgrade at least gives a glimmer of hope, and i don't suppose there will be a huge laptime difference between mclaren and the front of the midfield to be honest, even if they're not at the front of it come Bahrain

[PhillipM]

Hey I have zero issues with pessimism or calling out issues, that's more than fair enough - fake optimism all the time causes the same issues tbh as people get disheartened then - but I take issue when it's just devolved into literally insulting the team constantly all day, or insulting people at the team - with nothing constructive or useful added to the discussion, especially when we get to the people that are outright making up problems and issues just for their own attention or frustration.
It takes away from the wealth and knowledge of the amount of people here that actually do try to dig into what could be a cause or how it could be countered, etc, which are always good reads.

[mwillems]

A little smack bottom from PhilipM and there's a dutiful about face and stern march in the right direction

very true the baku upgrade at least gives a glimmer of hope, and i don't suppose there will be a huge laptime difference between mclaren and the front of the midfield to be honest, even if they're not at the front of it come Bahrain

I hope so, at least I hope I'm not reading too much into the Baku upgrade but it certainly feels like we are going into the right direction.

I said to somewhere else on here before the panic button was getting trashed in here, that Id rather be close at the end of the season than worry about how we start the season or the finishing position.

How worrying would it be if the team had a brilliant start to the season, enough to push us to fourth but everyone else actually became faster than us by seasons end? By the next year we may be further away from the wins than we'd like and the table doesn't reflect that.

To my mind, this year is a platform to the next year and so on until we can challenge for the wins. Until then the final position is less important than the progress we can make with the car and they aren't as tied together as some would thing, due to luck, crashes, drivers and timing.

[mwillems]

Hey I have zero issues with pessimism or calling out issues, that's more than fair enough - fake optimism all the time causes the same issues tbh as people get disheartened then - but I take issue when it's just devolved into literally insulting the team constantly all day, or insulting people at the team - with nothing constructive or useful added to the discussion, especially when we get to the people that are outright making up problems and issues just for their own attention or frustration.
It takes away from the wealth and knowledge of the amount of people here that actually do try to dig into what could be a cause or how it could be countered, etc, which are always good reads.

Now would be a good time to take a few minutes and moisturise your hand from all that spanking.

[McL-H]

Hey I have zero issues with pessimism or calling out issues, that's more than fair enough - fake optimism all the time causes the same issues tbh as people get disheartened then - but I take issue when it's just devolved into literally insulting the team constantly all day, or insulting people at the team - with nothing constructive or useful added to the discussion, especially when we get to the people that are outright making up problems and issues just for their own attention or frustration.
It takes away from the wealth and knowledge of the amount of people here that actually do try to dig into what could be a cause or how it could be countered, etc, which are always good reads.

I totally agree with you there. We shouldn't be making up problems that aren't there and pretend to be knowledgeable on car issues if we don't know the root cause of them. It doesn't contribute anything that's why I made no comments on it. I have made comments on Key's position that in hindsight I probably shouldn't have. Not my place. And I agree it shouldn't be all hosanna spread here either. If things are not good, we should be able to call it out. But with respect to the team that's doing their best out there.

[Ben1980]

Basically, no idea. I'm sure the car isn't good, but I'm sure it isn't bad. I'm still expecting it to be similar to last year, though with the AM caveat of joining them and Alpine.

But, its going to ge interesting!

[bauc]

I would like to make a bold prediction.The car is much better than what people think. I even dare say that Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri will challenge both Mercedes and the Astons.

It looks like it's going to be tying around the front of the midfield again, but the problem is so many of the midfield teams have improved, it's only going to take a slight setup change for the entire midfield to change every race, I think we're going to need 3-4 races just to see where the midfield actually is. On the upside just as viewers, we should have some fun races for the first few.

It is nice to hear then at least that the targets were to get us close to the leading pack and that they believe these targets will be met at race 4. This warms my cockles.

This is related to the target Mclaren set themselves, but we all know that the other teams will not stand still, so in essence it is a moving target and Mcalren will need find more lap time per upgrade comparted to the other teams to catch up, as simple as that.

[mwillems]

It looks like it's going to be tying around the front of the midfield again, but the problem is so many of the midfield teams have improved, it's only going to take a slight setup change for the entire midfield to change every race, I think we're going to need 3-4 races just to see where the midfield actually is. On the upside just as viewers, we should have some fun races for the first few.

It is nice to hear then at least that the targets were to get us close to the leading pack and that they believe these targets will be met at race 4. This warms my cockles.

This is related to the target Mclaren set themselves, but we all know that the other teams will not stand still, so in essence it is a moving target and Mcalren will need find more lap time per upgrade comparted to the other teams to catch up, as simple as that.

I'm just working from the idea that PhilipM believes that we will be fighting at the front of midfield with this car and that the Race 4 spec is going to be noticeably faster according to Mclaren themselves (A chunk of time from the front wing alone).

But yeah if we start the first few races 2 seconds back and get a chunk of time, we will just be where we started!
Hopefully that is not the case, my own gut feeling is that we will be about the same as last year at this point.

I suppose in my mind if the new spec had us less than a second from the front at this track then that is decent progress.

[Emag]

Will Buxton reporting that he saw Lando punch through a wall. Not sure how we should take this, because he does play a key part in dts ...

Either way, it would be such a shame to lose a star driver like Lando. But at the same time, it would be injustice to keep him tied here if McLaren doesn't deliver.