2023 - McLaren Formula 1 Team

[Darth-Piekus]

Great result that P2 and P3 but I was hoping to be closer to Red Bull. So half a second is the difference again on a track that suits both cars. We need a lot of work to do but for a car that was more than 1,5 sec behind gaining 1 second or more over the rest in one season is a huge leap. I am hoping next season now that our aerodynamic team are able to work freely to bring a car that will be on par with the best from the start and not play catch up again.

[mwillems]

I don't expect us to be as fast as Red Bull from the start of next year, just close that on some tracks we can trouble them. It's a huge gap to close up for next year and RB themselves will find time.

[the EDGE]

I hope McLaren don't decide they have to sacrifice Oscar to maximize their points haul again, I see why they do it, but he deserves better

Its great to see McLaren in a position where they can choose to run just 1 lap in Q1, It confirms they have left the midfield behind, at least here any way. 0.5 quicker than 4th best team is an incredible achievement

[mwillems]

I hope McLaren don't decide they have to sacrifice Oscar to maximize their points haul again, I see why they do it, but he deserves better

Its great to see McLaren in a position where they can choose to run just 1 lap in Q1, It confirms they have left the midfield behind, at least here any way. 0.5 quicker than 4th best team is an incredible achievement

It didn't maximise points haul (Monza), but that is another debate.

You're 1st or not 1st in this game but the goal of being 4th fastest car by year end appears to have been smashed (so far).

It will be interesting to analyse the gaps in pace in the race at the seasons end now the updates have finished coming because this is where he money is really at. How close are we at the seasons end in time to RB. Might be nice to get a graph of the % away from RB complete race time for each race. There would be variables interfering with the true picture, but you'll get a good approximation through the trend.

[Ground Effect]

It was a bit telling that Lando was pleased at how much closer they were to Red Bull on a Friday. So based on that, they knew they were on for P2 team, cause it's common for them to find performance as the weekend progresses, especially with recent updates. I'd like to believe the drivers just coincidentally put in under par runs in Q3. Even with that, they held on to P2 and P3. Checo will be obviously the biggest challenge tomorrow. If I'm remembering correctly, Friday's long runs weren't bad at all, matching Ferrari? I hope we stay P2 and P3 at the start and the Ferrari's can keep Checo behind for as long as possible.... preferably to the flag.

[Spoutnik]

Is the main loss is in S3 against Verstappen ?

[Emag]

I don't expect us to be as fast as Red Bull from the start of next year, just close that on some tracks we can trouble them. It's a huge gap to close up for next year and RB themselves will find time.

Yeah, RedBull has at least one more year of sealed championships in them. It may not be as dominant again, but you can't wipe out this sort of gap in just one year. They have done a phenomenal job.

[mwillems]

Is the main loss is in S3 against Verstappen ?

[geogate]

I really appreciate how well Lando always takes coming behind his team mate - whether it be Oscar in quali, a sprint race, or Carlos winning monza - he takes it like a champ. I think that shows confidence in his own ability

[organic]

Is the main loss is in S3 against Verstappen ?

You can see here the delta mostly builds in S1

[MCLvamos]

Is the main loss is in S3 against Verstappen ?

https://i.ibb.co/J35Cw79/MaxvPia.png

so basically, everywhere

[mwillems]

Is the main loss is in S3 against Verstappen ?

You can see here the delta mostly builds in S1
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F6slOKpWoAA ... &name=orig

That is clearly python also, and therefore FastF1, but also quite different from the F1Tempo map.

Who had purple sectors in S3 in Q3?

Edit: Verstappen did, so I'm not sure I'm onboard with your map, or it was close.

[MCLvamos]

is it true Oscar is running a new wing this weekend. I've heard he has some new-spec parts Lando doesn't have this weekend, but that may not be true as I haven't found any solid confirmation of it.

[FittingMechanics]

Considering both drivers had bad sector 2 and 3's and they were close to each other physically on the track I presume that it was getting very gusty.

I think what really saved them is having the extra set of new softs for Q3 allowing them to set a banker lap.

I just checked - Piastri would keep 2nd by 2 thousands of a second from Leclerc.
Norris would be P4 behind Leclerc.

It has to be said, amazing job by the team. Finally the team is strong enough to easily advance into Q3. It's great to watch relaxed.

What do you mean? Would have? I'm confused how you were able to work those times out.

Are you basing it off of Q2 times? If so then that's not accurate because it doesn't take into account track evolution and drivers realising where they can make up a bit of time.

Their second laps in Q3 were good for P2 and P4.

[the EDGE]

I don't expect us to be as fast as Red Bull from the start of next year, just close that on some tracks we can trouble them. It's a huge gap to close up for next year and RB themselves will find time.

Yeah, RedBull has at least one more year of sealed championships in them. It may not be as dominant again, but you can't wipe out this sort of gap in just one year. They have done a phenomenal job.

I'd like to be able to say the rule of diminishing returns would mean there was a chance to catch, but I think there's probably a lot more potential to be found still in the current ground effects formula, and RB are still best placed to be able extract it.

Starting the season off with a chassis optimized for the Aero package will be a big bonus for McLaren, along with the new facilities, so there I have hope a big step can be made by them over the winter.

RB's strength is the wide operating window their cars have, McLaren's main goal should be to emulate that to get the car working across all tracks, but hopefully next year they can take the fight to RB at tracks that suit McLaren's strengths