2023 - McLaren Formula 1 Team

[mwillems]

If they force a 3-stopper it might hurt McLaren in the sense that alternative strategies will be difficult, but the increased number of pitstops should mean that there are more opportunities to pass with under/overcuts and get clean air

I can see it both ways, but it would be nice if we were able to get some easy positions through strategy to get us back to where we probably should be.

On the other hand, the car is fast and we don't need the points, so it is a good opportunity for both of the pilots to practise their race craft and make some positions.

[Dafnalina]

I don't think this bodes well for us

[mwillems]

I don't think this bodes well for us

Ahahaha I wouldn't assume that, hopefully lessons are learnt and today is a better day.

[Dafnalina]

I don't think this bodes well for us

Ahahaha I wouldn't assume that, hopefully lessons are learnt and today is a better day.

Hopefully. I just think Lando and Oscar both use a ton of kerb and this is kind of nerfing them. I can see them being a lot more cautious/slow during the shootout, especially Lando. But I hope there were lessons learned

Also I think making these corners slower will benefit Mercedes and Aston. And the mandatory 3-stop will help Ferrari, so I'm not so sure getting a podium is that achievable now.

[mwillems]

The Shootout will start 20 minutes later due to a track familiarisation session.... which I assume is a practise for the drivers around this modified layout?

[FittingMechanics]

The Shootout will start 20 minutes later due to a track familiarisation session.... which I assume is a practise for the drivers around this modified layout?

Yes.

[McL-H]

So they have made the track slower. And that hurts us more than others. Really unacceptable. Just tell the teams the tyres are a risk when running for more than 20 laps and let them decide. This is competition falsification.

[mwillems]

Karun Chandok making a spurious claim that if you take all the faster mini sector times of the two Mclaren drivers then the car is actually fast enough for pole, which ignores the fact the exit of one corner affects the entry of the next... but still, it is a fast car, if not a pole car.

[FittingMechanics]

So they have made the track slower. And that hurts us more than others. Really unacceptable. Just tell the teams the tyres are a risk when running for more than 20 laps and let them decide. This is competition falsification.

I really think people need to relax. If the car is fast, it will be fast even if they make one of the corners less wide. It is debatable whether this is good or not - but if it was easy flat for everyone then it might be better for McLaren as it has more downforce.

We'll see. It is what it is. There is no conspiracy.

[mwillems]

So they have made the track slower. And that hurts us more than others. Really unacceptable. Just tell the teams the tyres are a risk when running for more than 20 laps and let them decide. This is competition falsification.

It's still high speed, it may not be that big a deal as the corners are huge. It will slow it down a bit but mainly they didn't want them on the kerb for a long period of time as that was what they think was initiating the issues with the tyres.

The FIA wanted to not get in the way of the strategy and want to ensure that there are no spectacular failures, it was probably necessary unfortunately.

[Marc.W]

So they have made the track slower. And that hurts us more than others. Really unacceptable. Just tell the teams the tyres are a risk when running for more than 20 laps and let them decide. This is competition falsification.

I agree to an extent, let the teams decide if they want to take the risk and run those kerbs, personally it just shows incompetence within the FIA that there isn't a standardised kerbing accross the board to stop this kind of issue, but I don't think it hurts us any more than everyone else.

[mwillems]

I don't think this bodes well for us

Ahahaha I wouldn't assume that, hopefully lessons are learnt and today is a better day.

Hopefully. I just think Lando and Oscar both use a ton of kerb and this is kind of nerfing them. I can see them being a lot more cautious/slow during the shootout, especially Lando. But I hope there were lessons learned

Also I think making these corners slower will benefit Mercedes and Aston. And the mandatory 3-stop will help Ferrari, so I'm not so sure getting a podium is that achievable now.

They still have the same opportunity to push the car to the limit to get speed, the principle exists still, it's just siuated differently.

The only time the kerb has actually helped the cars speed directly is when Lando uses them at Austria to sort of bounce the car into a straight line on exit, but that is unique to some corners at Austria. At Qatar he isn't using the kerbs in that way, they are just going to the edge of the track limits, which they will continue to try to do in a different position.

[mwillems]

So they have made the track slower. And that hurts us more than others. Really unacceptable. Just tell the teams the tyres are a risk when running for more than 20 laps and let them decide. This is competition falsification.

I agree to an extent, let the teams decide if they want to take the risk and run those kerbs, personally it just shows incompetence within the FIA that there isn't a standardised kerbing accross the board to stop this kind of issue, but I don't think it hurts us any more than everyone else.

There are rules around the kerbs and the kerbs themselves aren't an issue, it's just the amount of time spent on them at very high speeds that makes them worry about the tyre construction.

If you leave it at the teams discretion to slow down and not destroy the tyres then just recall what happened at Austria a few years back when the kerbs were destroying the cars. Even when the teams intervened some of the drivers ignored them because they perceived others getting an advantage by using the kerbs and there were a bunch of issues.

The FIA have to intervene on safety grounds I think, especially with the speeds involved on those high kerbs, you don't want an accident there.

I'm not sure they could see this coming either until they see the tyres. Either they are beginning to deconstruct or not, so if last year was a little slower and not deconstructing there'd be no evidence to inform them that this year needed changes in advance, the evidence has only become apparent since yesterdays running which was the first evidence of deconstruction they'd seen.

[mwillems]

Interesting, even with the two laps in Norris' race engineer urging third fast lap to cover them off, still worried of deleted lap times.

[FittingMechanics]

That is a lap. Maybe Lando was not wrong that he had a pole car yesterday.