2024 Mclaren Formula 1 Team

[the EDGE]

Other than the fuel pump, do we know what else prevented McLaren from running over the last couple of days?

[Marc.W]

I'll be ok with 4th fastest at the start of the season since we know they're already cooking some updates, in 2022 lots of people were putting McLaren as second/third fastest after Barcelona, and in 2020 people were putting McLaren as the slowest team in testing, and look at how those predictions turned out.

From the on boards I saw the car runs very smoothly like the Red Bull while the Merc and Ferrari look to be very bumpy, it all means nothing for the next 7 days though.

[Xero]

Other than the fuel pump, do we know what else prevented McLaren from running over the last couple of days?

Clutch issue today for Lando.

I don't think the numbers and graphs paint a total picture. For example, somebody using Max's theoretical best lap time as a base and failing to apply that to everyone else is bizarre. Oscar locked up in turn one and lost 0.25s on his best lap. Take that out and theoretically he was 2nd fastest ahead of the Ferrari's. Not seen a single mention of it. The media just seem to regurgitate paddock speculation all the time. Lost count how many times they gloss over simple facts.

[Darth-Piekus]

I would like to make a bold prediction. I put Red Bull at first with a 3 tenths faster car than the rest. Then we have Ferrari/Mclaren/Mercedes having a difference of 2 tenths between all three depending on circuit. Then Aston Martin is 3 tenths further back and then RB Beta with Alpine 3 tenths further from Aston Martin. Both are for race pace and qualifying. Considering Red Bull will screw Perez again if Mclaren gets another huge upgrade like in Austria by the time they bring their upgrades in the following races then Im confident we are gonna be 2nd best, maybe challenge Red Bull on merit and as Makclaren said have a serious shot at the Constructors Championship with Max getting his Drivers Championship. This year has to be the turning point.

[McL-H]

Regardless of where McLaren stands in the pecking order, if Red Bull again really has such an advantage over its rivals and we’re up for another season like last year’s, I am not getting a subscription on any service to watch F1 this year.

I already found it off putting the way this cartel is closing down on new competitors like Andretti in this so called “sport”. If it wants to be WWE, fine. But if it ain’t a sport and it fails to deliver as a show, then what is it?

Will try some streams on Kodi to watch it. But I’m not paying anymore. I rather pay to watch MotoGP, that actually is a sport that delivers on entertainment time and time again.

Would you feel the same if Mclaren swapped with Red Bull?

No, I wouldn’t as long as the team would be dominant for just one season and we’d have Piastri and Norris battle it out on track. I love this team. I’d take a subscription today. But in general my feeling about this racing category would remain the same. It’s no longer a sport when competitors decide which competitors can enter and which ones can’t and when one owner can run two out of ten teams. It has become a joke. And I have not even started about the zillion street circuits they’re adding and the Americanisation of it all. It’s not what it once was..

[Mostlyeels]

James Allison said redbull are far in front, mercedes faster in race pace than Ferrari, Ferrari better in 1 lap pace
And followed by Aston
Didn't mention mclaren

Yeah not many teams/pundits are talking about mclaren in the ranking at all which is somewhat frustrating. It is RBR, Ferrari, Merc and then straight to AMR, Alpine, RB.

Is it because the laptimes are so bad they can’t understand it so leave them out of the conversation?

Nah, reporters would love a story like that. It'd be everywhere if they thought McLaren had muffed it.

[Mansell89]

I think the reality is that last year we all felt glass half full after the surprising Silverstone renaissance - but really we’ve always been in a super close swing between us, Ferrari, Merc and Aston.

We could start 2nd, we could start 5th- neither is a success nor failure- Bahrain potentially being one of our weaker tracks too.

We have to respect now that these are 4 very talented teams and frustratingly we are all chasing the genius of Newey for now.

[BMMR61]

I've seen references to Bahrain being a circuit being one which doesn't play to McLaren's strengths. I think this is solely based on the last two years being stricken with an underprepared team, unreliability and starting off the back. If we look at Bahrain in 2020 and 2021, Lando scored fourth places at both races. So I don't think we can be complacent on those grounds, sure if we're only a few tenths off at Bahrain GP then I'll be excited about Silverstone to name just one track.

[organic]

I've seen references to Bahrain being a circuit being one which doesn't play to McLaren's strengths. I think this is solely based on the last two years being stricken with an underprepared team, unreliability and starting off the back. If we look at Bahrain in 2020 and 2021, Lando scored fourth places at both races. So I don't think we can be complacent on those grounds, sure if we're only a few tenths off at Bahrain GP then I'll be excited about Silverstone to name just one track.

Im mostly basing on minisector performance. McLaren rarely if ever set purple minisectors in the 1st sector and majority of their purple minisectors were in the twisty parts of s2

[LionsHeart]

Other than the fuel pump, do we know what else prevented McLaren from running over the last couple of days?

Clutch issue today for Lando.

I don't think the numbers and graphs paint a total picture. For example, somebody using Max's theoretical best lap time as a base and failing to apply that to everyone else is bizarre. Oscar locked up in turn one and lost 0.25s on his best lap. Take that out and theoretically he was 2nd fastest ahead of the Ferrari's. Not seen a single mention of it. The media just seem to regurgitate paddock speculation all the time. Lost count how many times they gloss over simple facts.

Regarding the lost time in the first corner: earlier Oscar had done two fast laps with a 0.15 second gap in the first sector, then an impressive loss in the second and third sectors. On his fast lap he collected the second and third sectors, but the loss on the first sector was 0.3 seconds. So the loss on the first sector was only 0.15 seconds, and so at the finish of the lap we should have seen 0.55 seconds off Charles' time.

Max is 0.43 seconds off his best time on the same C3 tyres. It may be a test, but in this case McLaren is only 0.1 seconds behind Red Bull on the same C3 tyres. Yes, again, it's just a test. The gap could be more impressive in qualifying.

[Mostlyeels]

https://www.mclaren.com/racing/formula- ... est-day-3/

Not a massive amount of detail on how the test went, but Piastri says they're about where they think they should be, Norris says they have a good understanding of the car, and Stella says:

Going into the Bahrain Grand Prix we have to be prudent because some teams seem to have made a good step over the winter and Bahrain is not the ideal track layout for our car. We will find out where we are in qualifying next Saturday.

Other positives: no installation issues, the car was (mostly) reliable, and they got a decent amount of laps in and got their testing schedule (mostly) done. I think it's important that the fundamentals are solid.

[organic]

Stella himself says Bahrain doesn't suit the car. That confirms it

[BMMR61]

Stella himself says Bahrain doesn't suit the car. That confirms it

Well he has the data, who am I to argue. I interpreted comments on this forum that it was a McLaren - general thing for Bahrain. Of course the nature of the McLaren started to change significantly from Austria, then probably more profoundly in terms of characteristics, at Singapore where low speed understeer was greatly improved.

So how would we (or better, Stella) describe the characteristics - strengths and weaknesses - of the MCL38?

[FittingMechanics]

Stella himself says Bahrain doesn't suit the car. That confirms it

Well he has the data, who am I to argue. I interpreted comments on this forum that it was a McLaren - general thing for Bahrain. Of course the nature of the McLaren started to change significantly from Austria, then probably more profoundly in terms of characteristics, at Singapore where low speed understeer was greatly improved.

So how would we (or better, Stella) describe the characteristics - strengths and weaknesses - of the MCL38?

Probably still the same as last year. The car is best in high speed corners.

[haza]

Not really anything indicative atm I don’t think McLaren ever really did a proper push lap, but looking at how the car drives the car looks a lot more compliant in s2 both drivers seem able to wind the car into slow speed corners better compared to the v style turn in they had to adapt to last year, car sounds to be set up very low to the ground however this could be the ice skates/tea tray scraping not porpoising as some people have suggested other than that there’s not really much else to look into any race runs etc should be taken with a pinch of salt as we don’t know fuel loads engine modes etc next week will give us a better image but so far I’m happy with the teams progress they’ve just quietly got along with there programs looking forward to the race next week