2023 - McLaren Formula 1 Team

[PikeStance]

Yeah, Piastri should have let Sainz go. Sifts were not going to last. Anyway, it seems that Piastri was fish tailing on every corner. His tires were toast.

If we are smart tomorrow then we have the race pace for Norris to challenge for P1. Piastri needs to keep it cool and let race come to him tomorrow; he seems to struggle for pace.

Let’s put on the tinfoil hat,… Max goes over track limits and fail to make poke and in 24 hours the the turn is expanded. LOL.

[FittingMechanics]

As I expected, car is so improved that previous expectations need to be thrown away.

Lando was close to pole in both Sprint shootout and Qualifying.

Race pace also looks good, maybe slightly slower than Verstappen but faster than Ferrari and on par with Mercedes. Given that Norris had to use his tyres to overtake Sainz I think it is fair to say that Lando had slight edge on Hamilton as well.

Key to tomorrow is to take P1 in T1. Points haul is not important. I hope Lando goes super aggressive.

[mwillems]

I feel that Max has a clear edge and we are an unknown on the Hard tyre. But the Ferrari looks like it killed its tyres for sure, so that at least is less of a worry, but Max is certainly a big worry and I wouldn't rule out Hamilton, Ferrari will also have plenty of data to pore over from yesterday. It is also quite possible for us to go backwards over the first lap leaving us with a lot of work to do. Of course it could go the opposite direction and we get a clean overtake at the start and cruise around the track for many laps but personally I'm going to hold my breath for a bit and see where we are after the opening laps because it feels like the options available to us to get away from Max are limited, but not impossible.

[mwillems]

There's always the argument that Lando was on the backfoot from being behind Sainz and taking some life out of his tires, and perhaps that advantage might swing our way today if we can get ahead of Leclerc, but Verstappen looks the faster car to me and that he was driving to a delta from lap 7 onwards. But I certainly think that we are in a position to capitalise from the race going our way, which may require some misfortune for Max, which I won't begrudge

And to be fair we are due some misfortune that leads to a race win and not "just" a sprint win. But it will come this season I think, if we keep pushing like we do.

[FittingMechanics]

I don't doubt VER is faster, I doubt many are claiming Lando is faster than VER here.

My point is that VER starts in P6 and that Lando has decent chance to take P1 in T1. He had a good start yesterday (was ahead of HAM but got boxed in due to LEC and VER fighting).

If Lando ends up P1 and VER is in P5 or 6 who is to say Lando can't stay ahead over race distance. If VER is faster 0.5s a lap that might be not enough to overtake. Lando was about 1s faster tham SAI and struggled.

One of best chances for a win this year. What is amazing is that the track is not obviously suited to the car so I'd say the performance of the car improved so much that the car is good everywhere.

[geogate]

One of best chances for a win this year.

exactly. I'm looking for a shift in mindset from Mclaren - go for the win, they no longer in need of just podiums. Time to get punchy

[Ben1980]

I think they will go for the win, but it will need a lot of luck.

Lando needs to get into first early, and as he said, manage his tyres, and hope Max doesn't storm through.

Still think Max is favourite. But maybe Ferrari put Leckerc on softs, they held up well enough to keep Russell behind. And will get a better start.

[CjC]

I think we’ll see a few soft tyres at the start after seeing what Sainz did in the sprint. I’ll be interested to see what Sainz himself chooses to use…. Probably a medium

[mwillems]

I don't doubt VER is faster, I doubt many are claiming Lando is faster than VER here.

My point is that VER starts in P6 and that Lando has decent chance to take P1 in T1. He had a good start yesterday (was ahead of HAM but got boxed in due to LEC and VER fighting).

If Lando ends up P1 and VER is in P5 or 6 who is to say Lando can't stay ahead over race distance. If VER is faster 0.5s a lap that might be not enough to overtake. Lando was about 1s faster tham SAI and struggled.

One of best chances for a win this year. What is amazing is that the track is not obviously suited to the car so I'd say the performance of the car improved so much that the car is good everywhere.

It was a mix of response to yourself and Pikestance, I think it was Pikestance who was thinking of P1 and yourself I think said "slightly" slower than max, I guess towards you I was just saying we are more than slightly slower than Max, he looks Dominant on pace yesterday, it's going to be hard to stay in front of him.

As for the performance improvement of the car and it being well rounded, I totally agree and have been saying as much myself, I don't think Austin was going to be massively challenging for us and I thought we'd be top 6 here, but I tend to take a conservative view until I see the car more. I'll be happy with top 3 today, anything more is a bonus.

[Ben1980]

Didn't someone say that Norris had a bad start, the facts dont seem to show that.

Oscar had a shocker, obviously just one of those days.

[mwillems]

Didn't someone say that Norris had a bad start, the facts dont seem to show that.

Oscar had a shocker, obviously just one of those days.

Ahahaha indeed. And it is an interesting stat when considering rear mechanical grip, at least in a straight line. The Mclaren has been very good at the rear all year, both in corner exit and at the starts, even when we had a poor car at the start of the year, it was almost our redeeming trait if I recall correctly.

[MrGapes]

Don't like to post Helmut propoganda, but obviously he has a better picture of relative pace.

[mwillems]

Didn't someone say that Norris had a bad start, the facts dont seem to show that.

Oscar had a shocker, obviously just one of those days.

Looking at the last 4 races for that chart (Because I got tired of scrolling back), Norris has been Fastest or Joint fastest away from the line in 3 of the last 4 races, at Qatar where he had a absolute shocker was the slowest, he looks to be one of the very few who is consistent on his starts, but maybe he just got lucky these past few races.

Edit: Actually one race Verstappen is a bit faster but was down the chart due to a bad first few meters which he pulled back to become the fastest away.

[blastdoman]

Hopefully McLaren and Lando choose to do an aggressive two-stop race without managing tires throughout the race. Since both cars have two new hard tires, soft/hard/hard or medium/hard/hard strategies I would love to see.

[PikeStance]

I don't doubt VER is faster, I doubt many are claiming Lando is faster than VER here.

My point is that VER starts in P6 and that Lando has decent chance to take P1 in T1. He had a good start yesterday (was ahead of HAM but got boxed in due to LEC and VER fighting).

If Lando ends up P1 and VER is in P5 or 6 who is to say Lando can't stay ahead over race distance. If VER is faster 0.5s a lap that might be not enough to overtake. Lando was about 1s faster tham SAI and struggled.

One of best chances for a win this year. What is amazing is that the track is not obviously suited to the car so I'd say the performance of the car improved so much that the car is good everywhere.

It was a mix of response to yourself and Pikestance, I think it was Pikestance who was thinking of P1 and yourself I think said "slightly" slower than max, I guess towards you I was just saying we are more than slightly slower than Max, he looks Dominant on pace yesterday, it's going to be hard to stay in front of him.

As for the performance improvement of the car and it being well rounded, I totally agree and have been saying as much myself, I don't think Austin was going to be massively challenging for us and I thought we'd be top 6 here, but I tend to take a conservative view until I see the car more. I'll be happy with top 3 today, anything more is a bonus.

To be fair, I said "If smart...Challenge for P1." I do think car vs car, we are on par, if Perez's pace is anything to say about it. However, Max is clinical. We have to be smart and Max may need some bad fortune.

...If we are smart tomorrow then we have the race pace for Norris to challenge for P1. Piastri needs to keep it cool and let race come to him tomorrow; he seems to struggle for pace.