2024 Mclaren Formula 1 Team

[SoulPancake13]

I think Lando pushed too hard at the beginning of the second stint while the temps were still quite high, and that quickly damaged the tyres (his lap times even discounting the ones with traffic and on track battles were going up too much). Not his fault because as this situation was generated by the lack of pace over the Ferraris in the first stint.
As a matter of fact, his first flying lap in the last stint was pretty much identical to the one he made at the start of the second stint. He knew he had to keep the tyres alive for way more laps and that he probably went a bit too fast before.

Just before 2nd stop, on lap 25, Lando lapped faster than Perez. Of course he was slower than Max( who drove in free air almost all the race) but his tires were not destroyed at all, there was still decent life, good 7-8 laps at least in them. to stop behind Leclerc (whom Ferrari would obviously ask to pit immediately after mistake), giving up basically on the advantages of 2-stop strategy, was just a braindead call by Mclaren, this was purely on them. That call made no sense at all, I was screaming in front of my TV "what are you doing again!?" when I saw that. Lando's driven a great race again, outdriving Leclerc in much faster Ferrari second weekend in a row.

Lando on fresher hards than Charles's mediums was lapping slower. Out driving Leclerc is really funny considering Lando's second stint cost him lots. That isn't strategies fault.

[avantman]

Lando on fresher hards than Charles's mediums was lapping slower.

wasn't the case.

[avantman]

Lando on fresher hards than Charles's mediums was lapping slower.

wasn't the case. he went slower only on two laps (22 and 23), when fighting and getting overtaken by perez(lap 22), also having to drop behind him on the next lap to get some clear air. Lando was waster on all other laps literally. and somehow you again seem to miss the fact that ferrari were clearly and comfortably superior than mclaren, proven by sainz second weekend in a row. well, not 2nd, 4th in fact.

[SoulPancake13]

Lando on fresher hards than Charles's mediums was lapping slower.

wasn't the case.

Yep, after Charles made mistake, Lando was pretty much matching him or slower. Not out driving him there.

[SoulPancake13]

Lando on fresher hards than Charles's mediums was lapping slower.

wasn't the case. he went slower only on two laps (22 and 23), when fighting and getting overtaken by perez(lap 22), also having to drop behind him on the next lap to get some clear air. Lando was waster on all other laps literally. and somehow you again seem to miss the fact that ferrari were clearly and comfortably superior than mclaren, proven by sainz second weekend in a row. well, not 2nd, 4th in fact.

I didn't miss that fact, but Norris's second stint wasn't good, strategy was also poor don't get me wrong. Either way, saying he out drove the only driver to make a one stop work at Suzuka this weekend is pretty funny.

[AR3-GP]

Lando on fresher hards than Charles's mediums was lapping slower.

wasn't the case.

Yep, after Charles made mistake, Lando was pretty much matching him or slower. Not out driving him there.

Did you mean when Lando went off at Degner 2? Leclerc pitted after he went off at degner 2.

[SoulPancake13]

wasn't the case.

Yep, after Charles made mistake, Lando was pretty much matching him or slower. Not out driving him there.

Did you mean when Lando went off at Degner 2? Leclerc pitted after he went off at degner 2.

Sorry, I meant when Charles got overtaken by Max. Mixed up the Red Bull passing him, my bad.

Keep in mind, I use "matching him" very loosely because for the rest of the laps, Charles is within ~4 tenths, and on that tyre delta, I would expect more from someone out driving Charles. It's not like the McLaren's are more than 1-2 tenths off per lap than the Ferraris.

[avantman]

Lando on fresher hards than Charles's mediums was lapping slower.

wasn't the case.

Yep, after Charles made mistake, Lando was pretty much matching him or slower. Not out driving him there.

after charles made a mistake, they were on the same hard tires for the rest of the race. read what you wrote again.

[SoulPancake13]

wasn't the case.

Yep, after Charles made mistake, Lando was pretty much matching him or slower. Not out driving him there.

after charles made a mistake, they were on the same hard tires for the rest of the rest. read what you wrote again.

It's almost like I corrected myself later...

[avantman]

Sorry, I meant when Charles got overtaken by Max.

I didn't miss that fact,

it seems you did miss a lot of facts.

point is, Norris finished [super close] behind only because of completely wrong strategy calls of his team. in a car which is at least 0.2s, closer to 0.3-0.4s slower than Ferrari.
and I've no Idea how people made a hero of Leclerc today, even if it's clear 1 stop was a slower strategy. He finished a lot closer to Sainz at the end, only because a) Ferrari again waited too long(extra 3 laps) with Sainz 2nd stop, which costed him 8-9 seconds of race time to Perez. b) Sainz was cruising at the end(having nothing to push for), whereas Leclerc seemed like he was pushing harder.

[SoulPancake13]

Sorry, I meant when Charles got overtaken by Max.

I didn't miss that fact,

it seems you did miss a lot of facts.

point is, Norris finished [super close] behind only because of completely wrong strategy calls of his team. in a car which is at least 0.2s, closer to 0.3-0.4s slower than Ferrari.
and I've no Idea how people made a hero of Leclerc today, even if it's clear 1 stop was a slower strategy. He finished a lot closer to Sainz at the end, only because a) Ferrari again waited too long(extra 3 laps) with Sainz 2nd stop, which costed him 8-9 seconds of race time to Perez. b) Sainz was cruising at the end(having nothing to push for), whereas Leclerc seemed like he was pushing harder.

You are having a laugh right? 0.3-0.4 slower than the Ferrari? You pulled that number out of your ass. People are praising Charles for making a one stop work at a track which is notorious for high deg. Your own drivers said they couldn't have done a one stop here - the Red Bull drivers agreed that Charles on deg was great. The finishing gap between Lando and Charles isn't representative because Charles was over managing the tyres(team came to him on the radio 9-10 times telling him to worry about the tyres, ended up not needing to as shown by him hitting PB after PB at the end while still having some margin).

[mwillems]

From Lando:

“Tough race! We gave it a good try, but we just didn't have enough pace today, so trying to cover and stay ahead of the Ferraris was challenging. I think we still did a good job and maximised the points but starting third and finishing fifth is never the nicest thing to happen. It’s the maximum of what we could achieve today though, so I think we have to be happy with it as much as it doesn’t feel like a great result.”

From Stella:

Overall, it’s a positive outcome to the race here in Suzuka in terms of scoring valuable points with both cars. Obviously after a strong qualifying, we could have hoped for trying to consolidate a podium finish, but it wasn’t on the cards, in terms of car performance today. I think, if we look at the classification, at least for the first five, it’s in competitiveness order. We tried to go for a podium with Lando, stopping early, making sure we stayed ahead of Carlos, but ultimately, we didn’t have the pace. It also meant that we found ourselves on a slightly slower strategy and we finished behind Leclerc. But we are happy that we are pushing for podium finishes even if today it was out of our grasp.

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

[mwillems]

https://www.planetf1.com/news/lando-nor ... y-japan-gp

“And anyhow, it wasn’t the fastest strategy. So like I say, good for Ferrari that they could keep their tyres for so long, but it wasn’t about the one-stop or two, it was more about genuine car pace, like is very often the case here in Suzuka.”

Whichever call was made, the other camp would be calling for them to have tried to go for an undercut against Charles when we were inevitably slower than Ferrari.

Also, it is worth remembering that Charles used 3 sets of tyres as he changed to another set of new mediums at the restart, though that would have been only a minor help for him.

[BMMR61]

https://www.planetf1.com/news/lando-nor ... y-japan-gp

“And anyhow, it wasn’t the fastest strategy. So like I say, good for Ferrari that they could keep their tyres for so long, but it wasn’t about the one-stop or two, it was more about genuine car pace, like is very often the case here in Suzuka.”

Whichever call was made, the other camp would be calling for them to have tried to go for an undercut against Charles when we were inevitably slower than Ferrari.

Also, it is worth remembering that Charles used 3 sets of tyres as he changed to another set of new mediums at the restart, though that would have been only a minor help for him.

Largely agree. Except "genuine car pace" I would redefine as race pace, the characteristics of the MCL38 even at Suzuka, couldn't cut it on a hotter day than expected, even with two sets of new hards at their disposal.

Watching the car against it's rivals getting through and out of the hairpin was painful to watch, really bad. Traction out was also noticeably poor after a half dozen or so laps on the tyres and this to me was a compounding problem. So even though we got a real shellacking by Ferrari on this day, the old and much discussed problem had a greater affect than had the weather remained cool, in my opinion.

My other immediate thought after waking up to all the comments on strategy was that much of the theories were destined to have ultimately failed to have prevented the Red Bull and Ferrari steamroller result. I agree on various points of disagreement about Lando's timing for both his stops and especially not adopting the "if he pits we do the opposite". I don't want to argue this other than as a general tactic which should be adopted. I firmly believe that tyre performance knowledge was extremely compromised by the dual effect of very reduced running on Friday, and the big temperature difference on Sunday. McLaren were hopeless on mediums and the hards needed more respect in the early laps than would be expected of this compound which we normally enjoy. And enjoyment or lack of, is what I come out of this race with - high expectations, which I tempered with knowledge of the increased race day temperatures, were dashed not by execution so much as it wasn't ever going to work out better than 5th and 6th, also ruined by Alonso. Nothing played our way.

[BMMR61]

I didn't talk about Oscar. Despite the critics, not so much here, he is making progress on the tyre management at one of the toughest tracks on tyres on a day that was a tyre wrecker for us. I don't know how he could have jumped Alonso, certainly on track it looked impossible, he is still the great driver he always was. It was strange that Stroll called on the radio his car was slow on the straights, no such problem for Fernando, even when Oscar got under his gearbox at the chicane there was never the opportunity to pull that turn one pass. I really don't see what Oscar could have done better other than that lockup that cost him a place after George had got under his skin!