This forum contains threads to discuss teams themselves. Anything not technical about the cars, including restructuring, performances etc belongs here.
Not sure why are people thinkin we can catch Ferrari - we are 80 points behind with 4 races to go.
It would need a total domination to do so.
To be honest, I think this is ideal. McLaren will finish P4 but with probably P2 or P3 pace. This means more dev time to challenge next year.
Not to mention there is also Vegas and Mexico both of which are races where Ferrari can be quick.. particularly Vegas. We haven't seen the low downforce option McLaren have developed - one more thing to look forward to
I think the bumps were detrimental aswell... you can go watch t1 for example especially on later stints on lighter fuel the car never really stabilized during entry and that meant the car was quite inconsistent under braking, and sometimes meant he locked up which is really costly around Cota, because it takes 1-2 laps to bring the tyres back into a optimal window and ultimately increases wear.
To be honest this was better than I expected coming into this weekend.. I expected Ferrari and Merc to easily be ahead because there are quite a few negative variables in terms of track characteristics for the MCL60... bumps, slow speed (if someone said tell me where the mcl60 is lacking I'd literally just show them Cota t11) the car is not completely terrible in slow speed when its run at peak downforce, as soon as need to run slightly less df it becomes apparent.
Sucks for Oscar with the water leak, just one of those weekends, I'm happy Mexico is a normal race weekend he can use those 3 fp sessions.
I think Lando needs to take a new PU in Mexico.. especially with Vegas where there will be significant strain on the PU.
Last edited by MrGapes on 23 Oct 2023, 08:30, edited 1 time in total.
Not sure why are people thinkin we can catch Ferrari - we are 80 points behind with 4 races to go.
It would need a total domination to do so.
To be honest, I think this is ideal. McLaren will finish P4 but with probably P2 or P3 pace. This means more dev time to challenge next year.
I'm concentrating more on the possibility of Lando finishing P4 in the drivers standings than McLaren finishing P3 in the constructors. He's got a better shot at that, though that won't be easy either, those around him are pretty strong drivers who more often than not deliver.
Q: (Stefano Mancini – La Stampa) Kimi, will you help Vettel to win his championship this year?
Kimi Raikkonen: I can only drive one car, obviously.
@2018 Singapore Grand Prix drivers press conference.
I'd happily take P5 in the standings if we could but that's done and dusted
Great weekend this weekend, plus the easiest overtake of the season after the race. I guess Merc just didn't have enough time to understand the new floor and get the right setup but that's how it is, they will suck it up and we get P2.
Ferrari could have challenged us but probably didn't make the optimal calls. All in all a great result for us here, we did what we needed to do and others didn't and we take home some big points.
Great driving from Lando on a very tricky track and the start from both drivers was fantastic, this car has to be best in class when it comes to a drag race from a standing start, I might look at all the start data and work it out for the year.
Yeah, Lando admitted post race that the heat increased his tyre deg and the cooler temps of Saturday helped him.
It’s obviously an issue that needs address but they can’t fix it all in half a season. I think they done enough on this car considering
Yeah, Lando admitted post race that the heat increased his tyre deg and the cooler temps of Saturday helped him.
It’s obviously an issue that needs address but they can’t fix it all in half a season. I think they done enough on this car considering
In a way it's funny given that we used to have the opposite problem!
We only really pushed when Verstappen was behind us and that cooked our tyres a little on stint one and helped us decide to Undercut before we took a big performance hit, whereas Verstappen had to just wait, knowing we'd go on to hards and they were going on to mediums. There was no point fighting with us, they just had to stay in touch and then pass us whilst we waited for the Hard tyres to come to us.
Last edited by mwillems on 23 Oct 2023, 09:29, edited 2 times in total.
McLaren ran less wing - that probably doesn't help with tyre degradation.
Agreed. It wasn't a small wing by any stretch, but I did think that we would struggle. When it was in the heat of the day the rear was slipping around a lot on Friday and Saturday Sprint Q (The sprint race flattered it), on a few occassions the car was in a straight line and approaching mid to late throttle and around 120-130kph (They are typically around 160kph by full throttle) and the car has no issues with rear mechanical grip, so that DF would have helped plant the rear a bit more. It would have also just in general helped with cornering in particular the entry of a few of the slower corners. The car was great in a straight line, until DRS was open it was one of the fastest, so we had leeway to trade speed and DF. But the team had a plan with the Hards and this is how it goes sometimes, and there's no Guarantee it would have been faster, but it is certainly my thinking this weekend.
Last edited by mwillems on 23 Oct 2023, 09:49, edited 5 times in total.
Last edited by Ground Effect on 23 Oct 2023, 09:33, edited 1 time in total.
Q: (Stefano Mancini – La Stampa) Kimi, will you help Vettel to win his championship this year?
Kimi Raikkonen: I can only drive one car, obviously.
@2018 Singapore Grand Prix drivers press conference.
wheelbase .....
mclaren some times looks too stiff on rear axle ....i am waiting for them to grow up ...that can help the stability on braking ..slow speed rotate and straight line speed .......
I think Merc are the example of why that might not have been that straight forward, had they have been more cautious with their setup then they might not be DQ'd. They gave the example of not getting to be able to do full fuel runs as a reason but a few cars were checked on only the two failed, and there was already the suspicion that Ferrari were running a softer suspension setup, which didn't work out great for them.
But in terms of Wheelbase, RB did extend their wheelbase over the winter, albeit to accommodate the front suspension which "leans" on the front wheels. But I'd imagine that is more about keeping the front more stable and perpendicular in cornering and preventing dive in general, although I'd heard max complaining about his front stalling at least once this year.
Keeping the front in check does help of course, because when leaving a corner, if the nose has been jumpy in the corner the rear has more work to do. This may well affect us I don't know, but the issue that was more apparent was when we were putting the foot down to get away and the rear squirmed, so it isn't the same.
Last edited by mwillems on 23 Oct 2023, 10:51, edited 1 time in total.
