2024 Mclaren Formula 1 Team

[De Wet]

Drag? Unbelievable. And I thought I wouldn't see this problem this season.

https://i.ibb.co/N2w0x1K/61-A0-D25-C-55 ... 3-AB81.png

We have higher downforce Rear Wing...

[BMMR61]

Speaking as the realistic optimist.....
I refrained from getting hysterical through the testing, refrained from being downcast from the avalanche of negative media talk.... only slightly worried by the Lando talk.
My expectations before the MCL38 hit the track were that McLaren would significantly lower the gap to Red Bull, and eliminate weekends that were off the pace, and to see Oscar greatly improve his race management. For this weekend if I were told we would qualify 7th and 8th I'd have been slightly disappointed. Taking in that it was Bahrain would have lessened the blow, but seeing the closeness of the top 10 and taking account of the errors, I think we are in really good shape for the season to fight for 2nd place.

I think the speed traps and the sector two times are potentially predictive of decent race pace and tyre degradation. With expected 2 stop strategy being the norm, there is plenty of chance to jump some drivers in front. Both drivers in top 6 would be my hope.

[De Wet]

Speaking as the realistic optimist.....
I refrained from getting hysterical through the testing, refrained from being downcast from the avalanche of negative media talk.... only slightly worried by the Lando talk.
My expectations before the MCL38 hit the track were that McLaren would significantly lower the gap to Red Bull, and eliminate weekends that were off the pace, and to see Oscar greatly improve his race management. For this weekend if I were told we would qualify 7th and 8th I'd have been slightly disappointed. Taking in that it was Bahrain would have lessened the blow, but seeing the closeness of the top 10 and taking account of the errors, I think we are in really good shape for the season to fight for 2nd place.

I think the speed traps and the sector two times are potentially predictive of decent race pace and tyre degradation. With expected 2 stop strategy being the norm, there is plenty of chance to jump some drivers in front. Both drivers in top 6 would be my hope.

[mendis]

Will Lando ever manage to put together consistent Q3s? While Max and Leclerc have sort of mastered the art of pulling best possible lap in Q3, Lando has been fluffing it so very often. His race starts are also a problem as he more often loses positions than he gains. In a tightly bunched field behind Red Bull, it's important to cover all bases to get good results.

[haza]

I don’t think lando is the problem I think the cars a bit peaky I think it’s the knife edge trait that appeared with the upgrades last year, I’ve been watching both drivers onboard through out the weekend whenever there on a push lap I’ve noticed a few things in particular they both have struggled throughout turns 1 to 3 and 10 to 11. The car looks dynamite in the middle sector I don’t think any team managed to match it but sectors 1 and 3 they both seem to not be able to keep the car hooked up either getting snaps of oversteer corner exit or under steering wide bleeding time into the next 1-2 corners

[BMMR61]

Yeah, I've been compiling my own mental file on Lando's qualifying gaffes. I think there are three things, any or all of which are possible factors;
The car is really tricky to drive right on the edge
He's overdriving a car which is close but not quite there and his ambition needs moderating
He is exposing himself publicly with his admissions of stuffing up especially comments like "we should have had pole" and in so doing he is unnecessarily heaping pressure on himself.

I think yes to all three and when he gets the pole with a win things will start to line up for Lando. He owned Oscar today but typically Oscar, session by session, chipped away at the deficit. He's a bit of a quiet assassin that boy.

[FittingMechanics]

If the car was good enough only for Q2, I doubt we would see Lando make these types of mistakes. He is definitely overdriving the car to get to the absolute limit. I can understand him, last year Verstappen was so good so only perfection would be able to match him but Lando should realize that sometimes it is more important to get a good lap then a perfect lap. This may be especially important if the season remains this tight.

I am still hopeful our race pace will be better than the rest and that they will go forward.

For the sake of the season, I hope VER is unable to pull away.

[CjC]

I just think Lando needs that first win now.
He’s seen the likes of Ocon and Gasly win… his mates Russell, Verstappen and Sainz have won…. Even his team mate won to some degree with the sprint win during his rookie season- it will play on his mind it’s only natural.

I think we’ll see a different Lando once he’s won a race it’s just a case of when and where.

[PapayaFan481]

some interesting bits during fp3 about updates

https://www.mclaren.com/racing/formula- ... rand-prix/

Beyond this, there’s generally a further update planned for the summer months, often incorporating real-world data from the launch car, and perhaps a further update to come after the summer break. As the season goes on, the size and frequency of updates becomes question of balancing resource allocation. For a team locked in a tough fight for championship position, there’s a desire to keep improving the car – but any resources still dedicated to it are resources not being used on the next car. This tends to provide some fairly robust conversations in the summer months.

#THEFIFTHDRIVER
14:29
The minute the launch spec is frozen, the design team turns its attention to the first update. In the past, when winter testing would go on for a couple of months, that update might arrive for race one, with a second update scheduled to arrive when the teams arrived in Europe after the first set of flyaway races. That’s changed a bit with launch and race one only a week apart, so the first round of updates, having already been designed before the cars have turned a wheel, arriving four or five races into the season.

#THEFIFTHDRIVER
14:28
Designing these updates is an on-going project, with nominal release dates pencilled-in to the calendar well in advance of the season starting. The car will go through a series of design freezes. Manufacturing is a long lead-time job, dominated by skilled craftspeople rather than automation (though there’s quite a bit of that too). Thus, the launch spec of the MCL38 will have been frozen towards the end of 2023, to give the manufacturing operation time to produce the launch cars and an appropriate number of spares.

#THEFIFTHDRIVER
14:28
Beyond that, there are the genuine updates. There are different ways of defining these, but a good rule of thumb is that they alter the car to the point where the new and the old configurations aren’t interchangeable – e.g. the floor for a B-spec car can’t be fitted to the launch model.

Further to this, they mentioned on Sky F1 (might have been Ted's Notebook I'm not sure) that they won't be bringing the first major upgrade until after Miami, the implication being that they could bring it earlier but don't want to, as they don't want to introduce it at one of the Sprint weekends with only 1 Practice session.

[Mansell89]

Ozzy looked very good in race trim on Friday- is there a chance that he may have compromised quali a little yesterday to keep that race pace promise?

[Emag]

Ozzy looked very good in race trim on Friday- is there a chance that he may have compromised quali a little yesterday to keep that race pace promise?

He said the car felt off compared practice after quali yesterday, so I doubt it.

Track conditions might have changed.

Hopefully race pace today will be as good as it looked on thursday. They were 2nd fastest after RBR.

[Vanja #66]

Could I trouble you for a MCL comparison? Suppose it’s not really a fair one as the BAH MCL60 was a dog compared to the one introduced at Silverstone

It really did not make a lot of sense to be honest, since both MCL36 and MCL60 (until Austria) were quite poor. Interesting thing is that drag still isn't resolved to the extent it should be at this point, but last year they didn't seem to harvest at all on SF straight, probably in anticipation of a race with a lot of overtakes. Overall, MCL38 is an improvement everywhere, but mostly in medium and high speed sections - as expected.

[101FlyingDutchman]

Could I trouble you for a MCL comparison? Suppose it’s not really a fair one as the BAH MCL60 was a dog compared to the one introduced at Silverstone

It really did not make a lot of sense to be honest, since both MCL36 and MCL60 (until Austria) were quite poor. Interesting thing is that drag still isn't resolved to the extent it should be at this point, but last year they didn't seem to harvest at all on SF straight, probably in anticipation of a race with a lot of overtakes. Overall, MCL38 is an improvement everywhere, but mostly in medium and high speed sections - as expected.

https://i.ibb.co/fdWGLjk/mcl.jpg

Thank you my friend. The straight line speed difference may be because of tow in ‘23. It looks too big a gap to make sense

[Darth-Piekus]

So any predictions before the race?

[SilviuAgo]

Not bad in S2 and S3. Anyway, McLaren is better than expected. Or better than "experts" expected, because us, MCL fans we knew the team will deliver right from the start, not like in 2022 or 2023 when we struggled a lot in the first part of the season.



and teams improve vs Bahrain 2023: