2024 Mclaren Formula 1 Team

[De Wet]

Positive afternoon so far...

[BMMR61]

Sounds pretty negative to me. My outlook is, there will be a truckload of parts flying out over the next few days. We still don't know how far we are from Red Bull and how other circuits will favour McLaren. It's all to play for, an intriguing time of the year.

I sound negative or Stella sounds negative? He is the one saying “There's one car that seemed to have found a big step. Unfortunately, the car that was already the quickest last year", not me

If McLaren want to challenge them... they MUST do the same

Look I don't want to start an argument over it but your use of the word "unacceptable" sticks in my throat. The team are competitive, Oscar is currently lapping within a quarter of a second of Max.

[Seerix]

race sim stared possibly,
Oscar started with outlap straight into box (formation lap), practice start from pit lane and now going on C3s
38.6s 1st lap

[mwillems]

Who says I'm not applauding them? And where did I criticise their leadership?

I am simply pointing out the reality of the situation. And not just for McLaren, but for every team on the grid

We do not yet know the level of performance of RB, but you can sure as hell guarantee it will be a good step ahead, either now, or by the end of the season. Their operation has moved to the next level. Every team will have to now step up, Every team will have a hell of a lot of work to do this year to even just keep up

This is not me being negative, it is an obvious & clear cut reality.

I'm not sure who else could that criticism be directed at to be honest but perhaps it wasn't meant the way it sounded. It sounded like a Darth-Edge kind of rant, you didn't lend out your keyboard did you..??!

They had less time on the 2024 car than RB. I was highly surprised the team thought they would keep up, but was happy to buy into the idea we could, but the reality is that the major work to move the car forward happens under the skin on areas that require crash testing and major structural changes. We get one chance a year to update and what we learnt this week is just how much there was to do.

I think that if they worked on that car since March till Dec/Jan and we started the car in July August then suggesting we should maintain development parity was optimistic. I was surprised by Zak and Stella here. I get disappointment but "totally unacceptable" to not find the same time as RB in anywhere between 30-50% less development time seems very harsh IMO because we are still in the fight for the front runners and we are still finding time as they suggested we would. We can't control RB.

[the EDGE]

Sounds pretty negative to me. My outlook is, there will be a truckload of parts flying out over the next few days. We still don't know how far we are from Red Bull and how other circuits will favour McLaren. It's all to play for, an intriguing time of the year.

I sound negative or Stella sounds negative? He is the one saying “There's one car that seemed to have found a big step. Unfortunately, the car that was already the quickest last year", not me

If McLaren want to challenge them... they MUST do the same

Look I don't want to start an argument over it but your use of the word "unacceptable" sticks in my throat. The team are competitive, Oscar is currently lapping within a quarter of a second of Max.

Well perhaps my choice of words was not the best, but I did start of by saying i'll settle for second & finish by saying I hope they are on the way with their new signings

I think people 'still' read to much into testing times, we will not know where anyone stands until next weekend. These times are completely irrelevant and meaningless. They always have been, and always will be.

I have lost count of the number of times testing has pointed to 'great cars' that have turned out not to be and vice versa. Its all about engine modes, fuel levels, DRS use & how hard the driver pushes. The only thing for certain is nobody is showing their hand this week

[Ben1980]

Adrian Newey is a great of F1. He has been around being successful much longer than the lead development officers in all the other teams. He has more knowledge than pretty much anyone, and is backed up by a well oiled team. It's not unacceptable to be behind him. If anything it's totally understandable.

[organic]

I’m very pleased to see strong S2 performance. Something that was highlighted by Palmer too. It’s quite obvious that the car works really rather well. We are still down on power. See S1 performance which is relatively non technical. I’d say we are right with FER on ult pace. Not sure about race pace though. That is way too murky for me

S2 performance bodes well for rest of the season. Bahrain rewards downforce less than most tracks

[the EDGE]

Who says I'm not applauding them? And where did I criticise their leadership?

I am simply pointing out the reality of the situation. And not just for McLaren, but for every team on the grid

We do not yet know the level of performance of RB, but you can sure as hell guarantee it will be a good step ahead, either now, or by the end of the season. Their operation has moved to the next level. Every team will have to now step up, Every team will have a hell of a lot of work to do this year to even just keep up

This is not me being negative, it is an obvious & clear cut reality.

I'm not sure who else could that criticism be directed at to be honest but perhaps it wasn't meant the way it sounded. It sounded like a Darth-Edge kind of rant, you didn't lend out your keyboard did you..??!

They had less time on the 2024 car than RB. I was highly surprised the team thought they would keep up, but was happy to buy into the idea we could, but the reality is that the major work to move the car forward happens under the skin on areas that require crash testing and major structural changes. We get one chance a year to update and what we learnt this week is just how much there was to do.

I think that if they worked on that car since March till Dec/Jan and we started the car in July August then suggesting we should maintain development parity was optimistic. I was surprised by Zak and Stella here. I get disappointment but "totally unacceptable" to not find the same time as RB in anywhere between 30-50% less development time seems very harsh IMO because we are still in the fight for the front runners and we are still finding time as they suggested we would. We can't control RB.

Okay get the message. I withdraw the word 'unacceptable'

But I don't, it is. Not from my point of view, but for any team with aspirations of challenging for titles, or even wins

I say again, it looks like the bar has been set very very high, and it is going to take a hell of a lot of work to reach it

[BMMR61]

I sound negative or Stella sounds negative? He is the one saying “There's one car that seemed to have found a big step. Unfortunately, the car that was already the quickest last year", not me

If McLaren want to challenge them... they MUST do the same

Look I don't want to start an argument over it but your use of the word "unacceptable" sticks in my throat. The team are competitive, Oscar is currently lapping within a quarter of a second of Max.

Well perhaps my choice of words was not the best, but I did start of by saying i'll settle for second & finish by saying I hope they are on the way with their new signings

I think people 'still' read to much into testing times, we will not know where anyone stands until next weekend. These times are completely irrelevant and meaningless. They always have been, and always will be.
I have lost count of the number of times testing has pointed to 'great cars' that have turned out not to be and vice versa. Its all about engine modes, fuel levels, DRS use & how hard the driver pushes. The only thing for certain is nobody is showing their hand this week

Sometimes you have to be an optimist to be a McLaren fan! It's clear we will start this year in better shape than we started either the last two years, quite possibly it will be the best start for a decade. I think at this time of the year a week is a long time in terms of new components and understanding the car.

[Dafnalina]

Issues with tyre deg? Oscar started his run with laps around Aston's times and now they're 1 second slower

[organic]

Issues with tyre deg? Oscar started his run with laps around Aston's times and now they're 1 second slower

Don't worry. You need to compare with Leclerc who is the only other driver doing a proper race simulation. Fernando, Max went into the box between stints so fuel load unknown.

Leclerc stint 1 deg seems comparable to Piastri

Don't look at the times of the long run

[mwillems]

Who says I'm not applauding them? And where did I criticise their leadership?

I am simply pointing out the reality of the situation. And not just for McLaren, but for every team on the grid

We do not yet know the level of performance of RB, but you can sure as hell guarantee it will be a good step ahead, either now, or by the end of the season. Their operation has moved to the next level. Every team will have to now step up, Every team will have a hell of a lot of work to do this year to even just keep up

This is not me being negative, it is an obvious & clear cut reality.

I'm not sure who else could that criticism be directed at to be honest but perhaps it wasn't meant the way it sounded. It sounded like a Darth-Edge kind of rant, you didn't lend out your keyboard did you..??!

They had less time on the 2024 car than RB. I was highly surprised the team thought they would keep up, but was happy to buy into the idea we could, but the reality is that the major work to move the car forward happens under the skin on areas that require crash testing and major structural changes. We get one chance a year to update and what we learnt this week is just how much there was to do.

I think that if they worked on that car since March till Dec/Jan and we started the car in July August then suggesting we should maintain development parity was optimistic. I was surprised by Zak and Stella here. I get disappointment but "totally unacceptable" to not find the same time as RB in anywhere between 30-50% less development time seems very harsh IMO because we are still in the fight for the front runners and we are still finding time as they suggested we would. We can't control RB.

Okay get the message. I withdraw the word 'unacceptable'

But I don't, it is. Not from my point of view, but for any team with aspirations of challenging for titles, or even wins

I say again, it looks like the bar has been set very very high, and it is going to take a hell of a lot of work to reach it

I'm not sure if we didn't just leave ourselves with too much to do and perhaps got a bit too much optimism from last years progress. I'm sure it will be a lessons learnt and I understand folks disappointment that the optimism wasn't met in reality, I feel it too. And if you mean that they refuse to accept being second then I agree and I'm sure they would too.

But I do think it was unrealistic to suggest we would maintain parity with RB since they also knew the RB were starting work on the 24 car early. I don't think they will make these kind of comments again lol

Still an exciting fight ahead though and plenty of opportunity to make ground on RB as the season goes on. It's good to see your keyboard has been returned to you

[Ben1980]

I think the teams(s?) honestly though RBR would get nearer the development edge, knowing that they were ahead already. May still be the case, or the new RBR car has just pushed that edge further than the others expected.

[mwillems]

Verstappen is on 36.8 pace on C1s ...

Piastri just did 1:37.331, how many laps has he done so far in this stint?

[Macklaren]

21 laps now still in the 1.37s. pretty great!