2023 - McLaren Formula 1 Team

[mwillems]

Quite true, the teams have a vast amount of data to base their decisions on and in the majority of cases will make the right decision in hindsight.

I think the only thing that gets me sometimes is the reluctance to split strategies if the pit strategy decision isn't obvious. Like today, when it seemed like there was an argument for either strategy at the end Ferrari went all in on staying out while Mercedes went the opposite way with both cars.

I don't think split strategy had any benefit here.


Different for Monza. They were always stuck behind Albon on track at Monza therefore covering no one so the ultimate.ate choice to pit the following driver didn't make sense and they could have sent one to attack Albon with an undercut. If they got ahead and needed a second stop they may well have had plenty of clean air to make the gap.

Sorry, I wasn't clear. I meant a split strategy for either Ferrari or Mercedes. You're right that the McLaren's were far enough apart for that to make no sense.

Well Ferrari did split their strategy. And then kept their faster driver on softs behind the slower one. Go figure. Ferrari are a repeating example of why "The team know best" doesn't really ring true. At the end of the day they are human and can make bad calls. Not sure if todays was, but it sure doesn't make sense on face value.

I'd need to look at the data, but where do you think Merc needed to split the strategy? Their call looked pretty spot on, they weren't getting past Lando on the same old tyres and were not far away from taking a 1-2 but for some brave and clever driving from Carlos, ably assisted by Lando.

[Ben1980]

Ferrari split strategy worked, well, as the aim was purely to get passed Russell and into 2nd with Charles, then control the race. Only issue was getting the gap for the safety car correct.

It was good, at times frustrating, to see a planned race, work out.

[mwillems]

Ferrari split strategy worked, well, as the aim was purely to get passed Russell and into 2nd with Charles, then control the race. Only issue was getting the gap for the safety car correct.

It was good, at times frustrating, to see a planned race, work out.

Hmm, looked to me like Leclerc ended up losing a lot from being stuck behind Carlos when much faster. He could have at least been given clean air to give tyres a little more life and to pull ahead a bit whist Carlos managed the race pace.

[trinidefender]

Bear in mind that this call was after Merc pitted and before Carlos was slowing to collect Lando. The idea that it was easy to predict Carlos behaviour at that point I think is lit with Hindsight. By doing so, Carlos put his head into the Lions mouth. If Lando made one mistake when the Mercs caught or if he just didn't have the pace then it was game over for Carlos as he'd not pulled a gap and instead got in touch with the Mercs when their tyres were at their freshest. He walked a very fine line and played it brilliantly. But it was anything but obvious and came with a lot of inherent risk.

I'm genuinely not trying to brag here but lying in the comfort of my bed watching the race I realised that Carlos' only option to win was to try pulling Lando along. If I realised it then I'm sure other viewers saw it and had the same thought.

I mentioned the first bit about him driving slowly bunching up the pack also had the benefit of protecting his own tyres. You could see he realised early on there might be a situation towards the end of the race that he might need the extra tyre life for.

I would imagine Carlos thought process went something like this:
1. Ferrari struggling with degradation forcing their strategy to be careful with tyre usage for him to win. Monza showed this Achilles heel.
2. Drive only as fast as needed to not get overtaken protecting tyres, protecting from undercut and trying to save tyres for any situation later on in the race. Unfortunately this causes him to be under constant pressure but at Singapore that's ok.
3.The first safety car happened slightly early and swapping on to hards with Ferrari's degradation meant that he needed to be even more careful with his tyres for later in race.
4. VSC happens and the two mercs who have been on his and Landos tail for the whole race dive into the pits and come out 13 to 14 seconds behind if I remember correctly.
5. Knowing how easily they have kept up whole race, them being on fresh tyres in a Merc that's great on low fuel and him being on worn tyres in a Ferrari that chews it's tyres he sees the danger immediately.
6. Sees the gap dropping rapidly (something like 3 seconds a lap if I recall) shows its even worse than he thought.
7. Starts weighing options
(I) push hard and till the end? Won't work,
he'll overheat his tyres and then
probably even get beaten by Lando.
(II)save tyres and hope leclerc and Lando
can act as buffer. His only option to
maintain a chance to win (it's an all or
nothing strategy)
8. Leclerc has been slow all day and is out of DRS so he won't be of help.
9. Knows that the only way he can stop from being overtaken by the mercs is a DRS train which works with his current strategy of protecting his tyres.

He executes this plan flawlessly. Almost in a way I would imagine Perez could do it in his tyre Whisperer days if he could ever qualify P1

I totally agree he walked a very fine line but his strategy of protecting his tyres the whole race is what allowed this strategy to work at all. I'm sorry to say but Charles just doesn't seem have that ability to think forward enough.

Now to ensure this post still remains somewhat on topic I will say that in a way Carlos being in front of Lando and being smart enough to drive the way he did is what enabled that P2 for Lando.

[mwillems]

Bear in mind that this call was after Merc pitted and before Carlos was slowing to collect Lando. The idea that it was easy to predict Carlos behaviour at that point I think is lit with Hindsight. By doing so, Carlos put his head into the Lions mouth. If Lando made one mistake when the Mercs caught or if he just didn't have the pace then it was game over for Carlos as he'd not pulled a gap and instead got in touch with the Mercs when their tyres were at their freshest. He walked a very fine line and played it brilliantly. But it was anything but obvious and came with a lot of inherent risk.

I'm genuinely not trying to brag here but lying in the comfort of my bed watching the race I realised that Carlos' only option to win was to try pulling Lando along. If I realised it then I'm sure other viewers saw it and had the same thought.

I mentioned the first bit about him driving slowly bunching up the pack also had the benefit of protecting his own tyres. You could see he realised early on there might be a situation towards the end of the race that he might need the extra tyre life for.

I would imagine Carlos thought process went something like this:
1. Ferrari struggling with degradation forcing their strategy to be careful with tyre usage for him to win. Monza showed this Achilles heel.
2. Drive only as fast as needed to not get overtaken protecting tyres, protecting from undercut and trying to save tyres for any situation later on in the race. Unfortunately this causes him to be under constant pressure but at Singapore that's ok.
3.The first safety car happened slightly early and swapping on to hards with Ferrari's degradation meant that he needed to be even more careful with his tyres for later in race.
4. VSC happens and the two mercs who have been on his and Landos tail for the whole race dive into the pits and come out 13 to 14 seconds behind if I remember correctly.
5. Knowing how easily they have kept up whole race, them being on fresh tyres in a Merc that's great on low fuel and him being on worn tyres in a Ferrari that chews it's tyres he sees the danger immediately.
6. Sees the gap dropping rapidly (something like 3 seconds a lap if I recall) shows its even worse than he thought.
7. Starts weighing options
(I) push hard and till the end? Won't work,
he'll overheat his tyres and then
probably even get beaten by Lando.
(II)save tyres and hope leclerc and Lando
can act as buffer. His only option to
maintain a chance to win (it's an all or
nothing strategy)
8. Leclerc has been slow all day and is out of DRS so he won't be of help.
9. Knows that the only way he can stop from being overtaken by the mercs is a DRS train which works with his current strategy of protecting his tyres.

He executes this plan flawlessly. Almost in a way I would imagine Perez could do it in his tyre Whisperer days if he could ever qualify P1

I totally agree he walked a very fine line but his strategy of protecting his tyres the whole race is what allowed this strategy to work at all. I'm sorry to say but Charles just doesn't seem have that ability to think forward enough.

Now to ensure this post still remains somewhat on topic I will say that in a way Carlos being in front of Lando and being smart enough to drive the way he did is what enabled that P2 for Lando.

In that case I give you full Kudos and I take my hat off!

I think Carlos bunched the pack in case of a safety car though, at least that was the main driver but for sure tyre life was part of it, so that undercuts were minimised as it was a high chance of SC. But if you saw it I have no reason to doubt you!

I'll be honest and say I saw 2nd place disappearing quick when the pits happened and panicked before realising what Carlos was doing!

So I'll change my statement. Very few people would have predicted that Carlos would back up to tow Lando!

[mwillems]

Charles has gone backwards this year. His drives for Ferrari are riddled with mistakes since last year. And yet he still appears to be the Ferrari darling. But today I felt he was retarded by not being set free and could have been more of a challenger. It feels to me like his head isn't in the right place though.

[CjC]

Charles has gone backwards this year. His drives for Ferrari are riddled with mistakes since last year. And yet he still appears to be the Ferrari darling. But today I felt he was retarded by not being set free and could have been more of a challenger. It feels to me like his head isn't in the right place though.

Perhaps he has his eye on a Red Bull seat

[Szabi1112]

Also Merc should have told the FIA to pound sand about giving the place back to Norris!
https://i.ibb.co/r7B5XtR/Lewis-past-Norris.gif

Feels like Lando did get lucky with Ham giving the place back, he was in control and past Lando.

Russell ran him off the road so he accelerated away and round the bollard, but was not carrying too much speed in the corner for the Norris overtake.

I agree with Norris saying that Hamilton count on that he wasn't able to pass the turn 1 and in this case he could use the bypass like Raikkonen did in Spa in 2009. What if there was a wall? He would have braken heavily making it impossible to pass Norris.

[trinidefender]

Bear in mind that this call was after Merc pitted and before Carlos was slowing to collect Lando. The idea that it was easy to predict Carlos behaviour at that point I think is lit with Hindsight. By doing so, Carlos put his head into the Lions mouth. If Lando made one mistake when the Mercs caught or if he just didn't have the pace then it was game over for Carlos as he'd not pulled a gap and instead got in touch with the Mercs when their tyres were at their freshest. He walked a very fine line and played it brilliantly. But it was anything but obvious and came with a lot of inherent risk.

I'm genuinely not trying to brag here but lying in the comfort of my bed watching the race I realised that Carlos' only option to win was to try pulling Lando along. If I realised it then I'm sure other viewers saw it and had the same thought.

I mentioned the first bit about him driving slowly bunching up the pack also had the benefit of protecting his own tyres. You could see he realised early on there might be a situation towards the end of the race that he might need the extra tyre life for.

I would imagine Carlos thought process went something like this:
1. Ferrari struggling with degradation forcing their strategy to be careful with tyre usage for him to win. Monza showed this Achilles heel.
2. Drive only as fast as needed to not get overtaken protecting tyres, protecting from undercut and trying to save tyres for any situation later on in the race. Unfortunately this causes him to be under constant pressure but at Singapore that's ok.
3.The first safety car happened slightly early and swapping on to hards with Ferrari's degradation meant that he needed to be even more careful with his tyres for later in race.
4. VSC happens and the two mercs who have been on his and Landos tail for the whole race dive into the pits and come out 13 to 14 seconds behind if I remember correctly.
5. Knowing how easily they have kept up whole race, them being on fresh tyres in a Merc that's great on low fuel and him being on worn tyres in a Ferrari that chews it's tyres he sees the danger immediately.
6. Sees the gap dropping rapidly (something like 3 seconds a lap if I recall) shows its even worse than he thought.
7. Starts weighing options
(I) push hard and till the end? Won't work,
he'll overheat his tyres and then
probably even get beaten by Lando.
(II)save tyres and hope leclerc and Lando
can act as buffer. His only option to
maintain a chance to win (it's an all or
nothing strategy)
8. Leclerc has been slow all day and is out of DRS so he won't be of help.
9. Knows that the only way he can stop from being overtaken by the mercs is a DRS train which works with his current strategy of protecting his tyres.

He executes this plan flawlessly. Almost in a way I would imagine Perez could do it in his tyre Whisperer days if he could ever qualify P1

I totally agree he walked a very fine line but his strategy of protecting his tyres the whole race is what allowed this strategy to work at all. I'm sorry to say but Charles just doesn't seem have that ability to think forward enough.

Now to ensure this post still remains somewhat on topic I will say that in a way Carlos being in front of Lando and being smart enough to drive the way he did is what enabled that P2 for Lando.

In that case I give you full Kudos and I take my hat off!

I think Carlos bunched the pack in case of a safety car though, at least that was the main driver but for sure tyre life was part of it, so that undercuts were minimised as it was a high chance of SC. But if you saw it I have no reason to doubt you!

I'll be honest and say I saw 2nd place disappearing quick when the pits happened and panicked before realising what Carlos was doing!

So I'll change my statement. Very few people would have predicted that Carlos would back up to tow Lando!

I'll admit I was very nervous when I saw how quickly the Mercs were catching Leclerc, Norris and Sainz. I too thought they would get by.

In an interview after the race with Zak Brown he said that he turned to Andrea Stella after the Mercs pit and asked him if he's confident that Norris can hold off the Mercs. Apparently Stella didn't seem that confident either.

[mwillems]

I'm genuinely not trying to brag here but lying in the comfort of my bed watching the race I realised that Carlos' only option to win was to try pulling Lando along. If I realised it then I'm sure other viewers saw it and had the same thought.

I mentioned the first bit about him driving slowly bunching up the pack also had the benefit of protecting his own tyres. You could see he realised early on there might be a situation towards the end of the race that he might need the extra tyre life for.

I would imagine Carlos thought process went something like this:
1. Ferrari struggling with degradation forcing their strategy to be careful with tyre usage for him to win. Monza showed this Achilles heel.
2. Drive only as fast as needed to not get overtaken protecting tyres, protecting from undercut and trying to save tyres for any situation later on in the race. Unfortunately this causes him to be under constant pressure but at Singapore that's ok.
3.The first safety car happened slightly early and swapping on to hards with Ferrari's degradation meant that he needed to be even more careful with his tyres for later in race.
4. VSC happens and the two mercs who have been on his and Landos tail for the whole race dive into the pits and come out 13 to 14 seconds behind if I remember correctly.
5. Knowing how easily they have kept up whole race, them being on fresh tyres in a Merc that's great on low fuel and him being on worn tyres in a Ferrari that chews it's tyres he sees the danger immediately.
6. Sees the gap dropping rapidly (something like 3 seconds a lap if I recall) shows its even worse than he thought.
7. Starts weighing options
(I) push hard and till the end? Won't work,
he'll overheat his tyres and then
probably even get beaten by Lando.
(II)save tyres and hope leclerc and Lando
can act as buffer. His only option to
maintain a chance to win (it's an all or
nothing strategy)
8. Leclerc has been slow all day and is out of DRS so he won't be of help.
9. Knows that the only way he can stop from being overtaken by the mercs is a DRS train which works with his current strategy of protecting his tyres.

He executes this plan flawlessly. Almost in a way I would imagine Perez could do it in his tyre Whisperer days if he could ever qualify P1

I totally agree he walked a very fine line but his strategy of protecting his tyres the whole race is what allowed this strategy to work at all. I'm sorry to say but Charles just doesn't seem have that ability to think forward enough.

Now to ensure this post still remains somewhat on topic I will say that in a way Carlos being in front of Lando and being smart enough to drive the way he did is what enabled that P2 for Lando.

In that case I give you full Kudos and I take my hat off!

I think Carlos bunched the pack in case of a safety car though, at least that was the main driver but for sure tyre life was part of it, so that undercuts were minimised as it was a high chance of SC. But if you saw it I have no reason to doubt you!

I'll be honest and say I saw 2nd place disappearing quick when the pits happened and panicked before realising what Carlos was doing!

So I'll change my statement. Very few people would have predicted that Carlos would back up to tow Lando!

I'll admit I was very nervous when I saw how quickly the Mercs were catching Leclerc, Norris and Sainz. I too thought they would get by.

In an interview after the race with Zak Brown he said that he turned to Andrea Stella after the Mercs pit and asked him if he's confident that Norris can hold off the Mercs. Apparently Stella didn't seem that confident either.

I think Hamilton having little nibbles at Russell might have just swung it. Or at least getting close and panicking Russell.

I think Ham was not doing anything silly, just ensuring he was ready to pounce if need be.

[MCLvamos]

That race win for Lando is so damn close... Just hope the circumstances can fall into place in one of the races this year, he so deserves it.

[BMMR61]

The slooow pace that Carlos employed was, I think, to look after medium tyres Ferrari were not at all confident of AND to provide a bunching which would discourage any undercut attempts. The Sargeant safety car prevented us from seeing what the tyre life and planned tactic would have been around laps 25-30. Carlos was also protecting Charles’ soft tyres - so he had plenty in hand. This whole phase was frustrating for everyone and the euphoria about Singapore being a great race was based on the last 10 laps. Carlos played one of the best gambits I’ve seen for a while. So good I don’t believe Ferrari had much of a hand in it, the wily Sainz has shown great tactical nous especially since being at Ferrari - out of necessity.

Let’s be thankful that he used Lando as a shield against the Mercs. Next time at Suzuka, McLaren may have the upper hand but RedBull will be back for sure.

[billamend]

I remember Vettel also doing his own tactics. You need to learn that at Ferrari.

[Mostlyeels]

I'm guessing plenty of fans wish Japan weekend started tomorrow

I need some time to decompress after all the Singapore excitement! I didn't realise it was going to be next weekend though, should be awesome (and during the afternoon here in Aus, which is always great).

[PikeStance]

The discussion about Piastri/Lando is a little surreal. F1 is a team sport. McLaren is always going to choose a strategy that maximizes its points regardless of the driver. McLaren is not going to purposely choose a strategy that will result in a net loss in points. Now, whether or not they chose the right strategy is certainly a discussion point.

Did the new TD affect Red Bull. Too early to tell but it is a little serendipitous. We have a small sample size to jump to any conclusion. We probably should leave it to the youtube Tabloids for now. LOL

It looks to me that Hamilton took too much speed into the corner and couldn't make the corner. If he had braked (I doubt this was possible) he would only be able to come in behind Lando. This is why he gave two places back. His move attempted to take two places and he had to leave the track to earn the two.

I don't think we had an alternative except to continue on with the hard tires. I believe we only have used soft tires. That is not going to last 15 laps. If you going to play "Monday Morning QB" then discussion about better tire management throughout the weekend would be something to discuss. I believe I read that if they had gone Full Safety car they would have pitted. This makes sense since this would reduce the number of race laps.

Piastri did exceptionally well. From the back of the field to 7th!