2023 - McLaren Formula 1 Team

[PhillipM]

I don't, I keep having people DM me asking me to send them to the telegram/discord servers with the team members in, when there isn't such a thing, so stuff like that just adds to it. Hence clearing it up.

Anyway, that's all I'm here for so I'm out again.

[mwillems]

I don't, I keep having people DM me asking me to send them to the telegram/discord servers with the team members in, when there isn't such a thing, so stuff like that just adds to it. Hence clearing it up.

Anyway, that's all I'm here for so I'm out again.

It doesn't matter. I never said you weren't open about offering an interpretation. You just saw some words and assumed the worst from it and took it personally. Your opinions when given are based on facts, therefore they are interpretations. You hear things from different people who no doubt heard it from other people and these can be single sources etc that will include chinese whispers. We've all heard opinions in the office before and know how it works.

This does not equate to "PhilipM is alaways unrealiable and his information is always interpreted and he presents his opinions as facts". My language is not that loose, just your sensitivity.

Apologies if you took it the wrong way, I hope you chill out a bit and do hope to see you back at some point because you were 95% of the time very informative.

[MrGapes]

https://www.planetf1.com/news/shock-red ... rediction/

“The only surprise I think we’ll see is McLaren’s possible progress during the next two months."

“Just in terms of the speed of the car, they will probably challenge Red Bull.”

think this is quite optimistic by Mika

but still has ties to the team, I wonder what he's been told..

[mwillems]

https://www.planetf1.com/news/shock-red ... rediction/

“The only surprise I think we’ll see is McLaren’s possible progress during the next two months."

“Just in terms of the speed of the car, they will probably challenge Red Bull.”

think this is quite optimistic by Mika

but still has ties to the team, I wonder what he's been told..

What does he "know"?

What was he smoking when they told him??!

I hope he is right, seriously, for him to say that gives a little confidence to how much the car might improve.
Does he have a habit of just coming and making bold statements? I'd not seen that from him, he is typically on the nose when discussing things. Not a flight of fancy guy. Here's hoping.

[JordanMugen]

like head of aero to come from a race winning team

McLaren already have this! Peter Prodromou from the race winning Red Bull team, head of aero at McLaren since 2015.

I never had him down for a comedian

Mr. Hakkinen also says that Nokian tyres are the best, so I dunno. Where is Nokian's tender for F1 tyre supply if Nokian tyres from Finland are the finest on the road?

[MrGapes]

like head of aero to come from a race winning team

McLaren already have this! Peter Prodromou from the race winning Red Bull team, head of aero at McLaren since 2015.

I never had him down for a comedian

Mr. Hakkinen also says that Nokian tyres are the best, so I dunno. Where is Nokian's tender for F1 tyre supply if Nokian tyres from Finland are the finest on the road?

F1 old heads always have the wackiest takes

[PikeStance]

Perhaps my memory is poor, but initially, McLaren struggled to get past Q1, now they seem to be consistently challenging to be in Q3. There is still a long long way to go.

[mwillems]

Qualifying is better than race pace in part due to the tyres and we are often at the edge of Q3.

Unfortunately we don't translate the starts into good points as often as we should.

[McL-H]

Mika is right. McLaren has the potential to make a big leap forward. I don’t understand why there always have to be so much pessimism about the team. They can jump Mercedes and Aston this year. Maybe not fight Red Bull yet, but if they can do so next year at some races, then in 2025 McLaren can really make a challenge for the title as Zak promised they would.

[AR3-GP]

Mika is right. McLaren has the potential to make a big leap forward. I don’t understand why there always have to be so much pessimism about the team. They can jump Mercedes and Aston this year. Maybe not fight Red Bull yet, but if they can do so next year at some races, then in 2025 McLaren can really make a challenge for the title as Zak promised they would.

You think Mclaren is going to jump Aston and Mercedes this year? That's just disrespectful to Aston and Mercedes, who have shown a greater understanding of the regulations to this point.

[genarro]

Mika is right. McLaren has the potential to make a big leap forward. I don’t understand why there always have to be so much pessimism about the team. They can jump Mercedes and Aston this year. Maybe not fight Red Bull yet, but if they can do so next year at some races, then in 2025 McLaren can really make a challenge for the title as Zak promised they would.

You think Mclaren is going to jump Aston and Mercedes this year? That's just disrespectful to Aston and Mercedes, who have shown a greater understanding of the regulations to this point.

Yeah...Last year Aston were setting the concept directions of the new regulation design..oh wait...

[mwillems]

Mika is right. McLaren has the potential to make a big leap forward. I don’t understand why there always have to be so much pessimism about the team. They can jump Mercedes and Aston this year. Maybe not fight Red Bull yet, but if they can do so next year at some races, then in 2025 McLaren can really make a challenge for the title as Zak promised they would.

Everyone has the potential to take a big leap forward, but the bigger the leap the harder it is to reach that potential.
Leaping Mercedes and Aston would be a huge leap. I mean, if we gained upwards of a second in the upgrades this year and Red Bull stood still, we'd be challenging them (Unless they are hiding speed). But I doubt we will gain upwards of a second and I doubt Red Bull will stand still.

Given that other teams would make time, I'd estimate we'd need to make .7s-.8s to be thinking about being reliably ahead of Aston after all of their upgrades.

These times are plucked guesstimates, but there really just to illustrate the gap and what would be required to achieve what you say. It could happen, but I highly doubt it. The fan in me hopes so though.

Not sure why anyone would suggest disrespect because you have unrealistic hopes though, I suspect Mercedes and Aston, if bothered, would laugh and ask you for some of what you're smoking

I mean, could... I...? Have some of what you're smoking?

[McL-H]

You think Mclaren is going to jump Aston and Mercedes this year? That's just disrespectful to Aston and Mercedes, who have shown a greater understanding of the regulations to this point.

Everyone has the potential to take a big leap forward, but the bigger the leap the harder it is to reach that potential.
Leaping Mercedes and Aston would be a huge leap. I mean, if we gained upwards of a second in the upgrades this year and Red Bull stood still, we'd be challenging them (Unless they are hiding speed). But I doubt we will gain upwards of a second and I doubt Red Bull will stand still.

Given that other teams would make time, I'd estimate we'd need to make .7s-.8s to be thinking about being reliably ahead of Aston after all of their upgrades.

These times are plucked guesstimates, but there really just to illustrate the gap and what would be required to achieve what you say. It could happen, but I highly doubt it. The fan in me hopes so though.

Not sure why anyone would suggest disrespect because you have unrealistic hopes though, I suspect Mercedes and Aston, if bothered, would laugh and ask you for some of what you're smoking

I mean, could... I...? Have some of what you're smoking?

Our weaknesses were Seidl and Key. They are gone now. And the car has greatly improved already since the season opening, with Norris qualifying well in front of both Astons last GP. That is while still working with a very weak base Key left behind and small changes the team made to it. From Austria and Silverstone forward the team can actually make the drastic changes they want. For 2024 car they can change the fundamentals of the car with aid from the new wind tunnel and simulator. It is no disrespect to Mercedes and Aston. Just a fair observation. Mercedes already spent everything on their B-spec and little more upgrades can follow this season, while Aston has only fallen back since the season started. Fallows made Aston copy Red Bull, but now he has to come up with improvements without Newey’s mastermind and we’ll have to wait and see how that goes. And for Red Bull, they’ve said they are done with big upgrades on this year’s car. Not saying that it will happen, but ingredients to a McLaren surge are all there. You wait and see.

Who said you could not just combine the red and the blue pill? Red Blue gives you Wings and a jet engine. I can flyyyy. Red Bull here we come.

[mwillems]

You think Mclaren is going to jump Aston and Mercedes this year? That's just disrespectful to Aston and Mercedes, who have shown a greater understanding of the regulations to this point.

Everyone has the potential to take a big leap forward, but the bigger the leap the harder it is to reach that potential.
Leaping Mercedes and Aston would be a huge leap. I mean, if we gained upwards of a second in the upgrades this year and Red Bull stood still, we'd be challenging them (Unless they are hiding speed). But I doubt we will gain upwards of a second and I doubt Red Bull will stand still.

Given that other teams would make time, I'd estimate we'd need to make .7s-.8s to be thinking about being reliably ahead of Aston after all of their upgrades.

These times are plucked guesstimates, but there really just to illustrate the gap and what would be required to achieve what you say. It could happen, but I highly doubt it. The fan in me hopes so though.

Not sure why anyone would suggest disrespect because you have unrealistic hopes though, I suspect Mercedes and Aston, if bothered, would laugh and ask you for some of what you're smoking

I mean, could... I...? Have some of what you're smoking?

Our weaknesses were Seidl and Key. They are gone now. And the car has greatly improved already since the season opening, with Norris qualifying well in front of both Astons last GP. That is while still working with a very weak base Key left behind and small changes the team made to it. From Austria and Silverstone forward the team can actually make the drastic changes they want. For 2024 car they can change the fundamentals of the car with aid from the new wind tunnel and simulator. It is no disrespect to Mercedes and Aston. Just a fair observation. Mercedes already spent everything on their B-spec and little more upgrades can follow this season, while Aston has only fallen back since the season started. Fallows made Aston copy Red Bull, but now he has to come up with improvements without Newey’s mastermind and we’ll have to wait and see how that goes. And for Red Bull, they’ve said they are done with big upgrades on this year’s car. Not saying that it will happen, but ingredients to a McLaren surge are all there. You wait and see.

Who said you could not just combine the red and the blue pill? Red Blue gives you Wings and a jet engine. I can flyyyy. Red Bull here we come.

Conditions for the last Qualy were a total outlier, I mean even more extreme and lucky for us than an outlier, it negated many of our issues and promoted our strengths. Seidl and Key are easy targets but it wasn't Seidl and Key that missed how the floor really needed to work and make our "real" car arrive 2 months late, that is the departments working on the airflow around the floor.

I don't know who was to be blame but I've said before, if we'd have spotted earlier the correct way to use the floor after the rule change last year, would the Baku car have been in Testing, would the Aus/Sil car have arrived in Baku and would we be leading the midfield now? Quite possibly, at least close to it for a little while. Would we be happy? A good chance some of us would, the usual hormonal lot would still be around though, I'm sure!

It's fine margins in this sport and by Silverstone and Hungary we will know if the team managed to find the sweet spot in design.

I don't want to dent your optimism, you're welcome to it, but I do think you're going to need those pills

[mclaren111]

Qualifying is better than race pace in part due to the tyres and we are often at the edge of Q3.

Unfortunately we don't translate the starts into good points as often as we should.

Can't blame the tyres... Eveyone has the same tyres... Let's see after the updates...

Not too sure about how good our suspensions are either...