2023 - McLaren Formula 1 Team

[mclaren111]

Congratulations to the team for a well deserved double podium. A car that was struggling in the final places in Bahrain for more than 1,5 sec each lap is now able to be in breath's range with first place. Only Verstappen is the last target which I'm hoping to be surpassed with a better start in 2024 now that our aerodynamisists have no more restriction from bad decisions. At the moment Max and out two drivers are getting the most of of their cars but Red Bull maximum is higher but I'm hoping that will change. Nobody wants another dominance like Mercedes.

I would Love It if we could do it...

[mclaren111]

What a nice sight...

[Tomsky]

https://www.racefans.net/wp-content/upl ... 240061.jpg


What a nice sight...

No, Rb is superfluous here, go ahead

[LionsHeart]

What about Qatar? What type of circuit is that?

There's a large number of medium-speed and fast corners. It should suit McLaren as well as Suzuka. But the geometry of cornering is different, because in Qatar the corners are sharper, which will require more stability from the rear end, and therefore more downforce will be needed. I'm thinking so far that Oscar drove with a loaded rear wing Singapore spec for a reason for two practices. Perhaps the team decided to collect more data on the speedway to understand how best to find the optimal settings for Qatar.

[MrGapes]

What about Qatar? What type of circuit is that?

There's a large number of medium-speed and fast corners. It should suit McLaren as well as Suzuka. But the geometry of cornering is different, because in Qatar the corners are sharper, which will require more stability from the rear end, and therefore more downforce will be needed. I'm thinking so far that Oscar drove with a loaded rear wing Singapore spec for a reason for two practices. Perhaps the team decided to collect more data on the speedway to understand how best to find the optimal settings for Qatar.

Rather sharper than the chicane and hairpin here to be honest, you can really take some wide entries into some of those medium slower corners in Qatar sooo..I strongly believe this is our best chance, lets be honest we won't be Max pace...but I think this is as close as we are going to get this year.

[Juzh]

I know norris can't have full picture so soon after the race, but he was only 6.2s ahead of LEC moments before VSC and he was 1.5s ahead after VSC. So he lost around 4.7s.

He was 5.1 behind max before VSC, 9s after VSC. 4.8s loss.

It was 10 seconds after just checked, Lando was a bit faster than Max for a couple laps after the restart, reduced it down to 9 and a bit before it started going up again. But yes you are right, not sure why I remember it as 10 seconds ish loss too, having looked back it is definitely, like you said, closer to a 5 seconds loss. Perhaps a bit of internal exaggeration from Lando and maybe some frustrated viewers like me in the heat of the moment.

If we tally that up with the (in my opinion) 3-4 second loss behind Piastri and Russell combined as opposed to Max cruising out in front, it's about a 10 second gap, which isn't too bad. The average race pace of 0.3s down on Max is pretty decent too, and hopefully we can be even closer somewhere like Qatar and be in a position to take advantage of any issues or circumstances that might go against Max during the race e.g. a well-timed SC or a better strategy.

It was 9s of real gap, not 10s. This is because of how VSC inherently works. If you look at gaps as soon as VSC ends you will notice Lando is actually 11.7s behind and just exiting spoon corner, but Max was in the middle of back straight at that time, therefore he was cruising for half the straight where ordinarily you are full throttle. As a result Lando gains back 2.7 seconds from spoon exit to final chicane. That's why when looking at VSC gaps you always have to look at the first available gap after a major braking event, as only then are gaps really reset to what they used to before VSC (in most cases).

We're really arguing semantics, but we are on f1technical after all.

In regards to total race deficit you can't really take it at face value. Verstappen was cruising for entire last stint, lifting trough 130r for no reason, coasting into braking zones, leaving meters of track on exits, etc... Even his fastest lap wasn't done on any special engine mode, he just pushed a little harder, but still not really going all out.

[billamend]

Not sure it's controversial at all.

You should have read the comments on Reddit and Twitter calling Lando a rich kid for wanting to swap rather than fight for position.

And hope in this forum people now shut up with the undercuts, because Piastri got the preferable strategy today, and on top of that Norris was f***ed by Perez on the VSC.

[bauc]

Great race by the team, we pulled the maximum today.

We will win agian! McLaren!

[mwillems]

I know norris can't have full picture so soon after the race, but he was only 6.2s ahead of LEC moments before VSC and he was 1.5s ahead after VSC. So he lost around 4.7s.

He was 5.1 behind max before VSC, 9s after VSC. 4.8s loss.

It's why I asked when the VSC ended. You drive to a delta not to speed and he caught some back after passing but you can't go too fast.

His wheel will display the delta to help him so he knows the numbers. VSC would have ended before he could catch up.

[mwillems]

Not sure it's controversial at all.

You should have read the comments on Reddit and Twitter calling Lando a rich kid for wanting to swap rather than fight for position.

And hope in this forum people now shut up with the undercuts, because Piastri got the preferable strategy today, and on top of that Norris was f***ed by Perez on the VSC.

He was clearly faster, what's the point in making him sit behind or have them fight.

Today was totally the correct decision.

[MCLvamos]

I know norris can't have full picture so soon after the race, but he was only 6.2s ahead of LEC moments before VSC and he was 1.5s ahead after VSC. So he lost around 4.7s.

He was 5.1 behind max before VSC, 9s after VSC. 4.8s loss.

It was 10 seconds after just checked, Lando was a bit faster than Max for a couple laps after the restart, reduced it down to 9 and a bit before it started going up again. But yes you are right, not sure why I remember it as 10 seconds ish loss too, having looked back it is definitely, like you said, closer to a 5 seconds loss. Perhaps a bit of internal exaggeration from Lando and maybe some frustrated viewers like me in the heat of the moment.

If we tally that up with the (in my opinion) 3-4 second loss behind Piastri and Russell combined as opposed to Max cruising out in front, it's about a 10 second gap, which isn't too bad. The average race pace of 0.3s down on Max is pretty decent too, and hopefully we can be even closer somewhere like Qatar and be in a position to take advantage of any issues or circumstances that might go against Max during the race e.g. a well-timed SC or a better strategy.

It was 9s of real gap, not 10s. This is because of how VSC inherently works. If you look at gaps as soon as VSC ends you will notice Lando is actually 11.7s behind and just exiting spoon corner, but Max was in the middle of back straight at that time, therefore he was cruising for half the straight where ordinarily you are full throttle. As a result Lando gains back 2.7 seconds from spoon exit to final chicane. That's why when looking at VSC gaps you always have to look at the first available gap after a major braking event, as only then are gaps really reset to what they used to before VSC (in most cases).

We're really arguing semantics, but we are on f1technical after all.

In regards to total race deficit you can't really take it at face value. Verstappen was cruising for entire last stint, lifting trough 130r for no reason, coasting into braking zones, leaving meters of track on exits, etc... Even his fastest lap wasn't done on any special engine mode, he just pushed a little harder, but still not really going all out.

wow, I wasn't watching Verstappen's onboard, but that's.... something. Looks like for sure only chance of a McLaren win any time soon then is a RB DNF (although this was probably true anyway, you've just made clear how much he still had in the pocket). Need some racing gods help for that, but these podiums feel pretty goddamn good too!

[LionsHeart]

What about Qatar? What type of circuit is that?

There's a large number of medium-speed and fast corners. It should suit McLaren as well as Suzuka. But the geometry of cornering is different, because in Qatar the corners are sharper, which will require more stability from the rear end, and therefore more downforce will be needed. I'm thinking so far that Oscar drove with a loaded rear wing Singapore spec for a reason for two practices. Perhaps the team decided to collect more data on the speedway to understand how best to find the optimal settings for Qatar.

Rather sharper than the chicane and hairpin here to be honest, you can really take some wide entries into some of those medium slower corners in Qatar sooo..I strongly believe this is our best chance, lets be honest we won't be Max pace...but I think this is as close as we are going to get this year.

Yeah, I have the same thoughts on that.

[organic]

Qatar will be good for the car IMO. Higher DF required. The kerbs could punish RB in a way that Suzuka does not

[sjy1969]

Am assuming Lando will need to take an engine grid penalty at some point. Seems like he's been on the current one for ages.

[MrGapes]

Am assuming Lando will need to take an engine grid penalty at some point. Seems like he's been on the current one for ages.

I think they should to be honest, either Cota, Mexico or Brazil, if they leave it to Brazil I wonder if they can try to replicate what’s Mercedes have done historically around Brazil by installing a new PUs with higher mappings and coming back.