2024 Mclaren Formula 1 Team

[Darth-Piekus]

I prefer to see the glass half full. We can all agree that the current car has a much better start than last year since it is clearly 3rd fastest and was close to 2nd fastest in Australia and Suzuka. Its also the base car with 0 upgrades compared to both Ferrari and Red Bull bringing small upgrades. Nothing suggests that we wont have a miracle upgrade like last year. After all if they did that with the old tunnel I expect them to do much better with the upgrades of the new structures.

[De Wet]

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.

I do think that with hindsight, we can say they shouldn't have pit with LEC. They were worried about Russel who ended up being non factor as his pace was much worse. Norris would surely clear him easily with better tires 7-8 laps later. However at the moment, it was a completely acceptable call but maybe a little bit on cautious side (maybe they should have went opposite of LEC).

However the big question is was a one stopper a better strategy? LEC did a M-H one stopper while McLaren did a very short stint 1, but M-H-H. If they could have extended each of their hard stints by 4-5laps would they lose 20 seconds? I doubt it.

I wish if they at least tried to split strategies. In my opinion team is risk averse with strategy.

Thinking about it, maybe they would have if Piastri was better with tire management. Kept Lando on a conservative, play safe strategy, and put Piastri on a riskier one stop.

Piastri is simply not good enough yet with tyre management...

[bauc]

I prefer to see the glass half full. We can all agree that the current car has a much better start than last year since it is clearly 3rd fastest and was close to 2nd fastest in Australia and Suzuka. Its also the base car with 0 upgrades compared to both Ferrari and Red Bull bringing small upgrades. Nothing suggests that we wont have a miracle upgrade like last year. After all if they did that with the old tunnel I expect them to do much better with the upgrades of the new structures.

Yeah, but we are in for a hard race in China. I guess we will be 5th team in there, I expect both AM and Mercedes to be Infront, and then hopefully in Miami we can return to the fight with the first upgrade package.

[Darth-Piekus]

Yeah, but we are in for a hard race in China. I guess we will be 5th team in there, I expect both AM and Mercedes to be Infront, and then hopefully in Miami we can return to the fight with the first upgrade package.

Its gonna be indeed a hard race. A GP full of straights and slow corners.

[mwillems]

It is vs Red Bull that the Hairpins hurt more, not so much against Ferrari. The longer slow and medium corners are where it hurts vs Ferrari. Coupled with the straights and the epic DRS zones, we will be firmly behind Ferrari here, you'd have thought.

1,2,3,4 and 11,12,13,14 are going to hurt and we will likely be a distant third, as I am not sure that Merc will catch us in their current configuration, thought it might be a lot closer to Merc and AM and Merc may yet find time or bring upgrades. I still think we will be third fastest with no chance of anything more, unless there are mishaps.

In any case, this is the final race before the first upgrade, so for me at least, this next race is just a little bit of a fun throwaway, I'm not too worried about where we finish.

[Big Gun]

Oscar Piastri's race pace doesnt seem to get any better, IMO Lando is much faster than Oscar, In qalifying and especially race pace. I dont know i this can be fixed unfortuneatly.

Alonso in a slower car an slightly older tires taught Piasti a lesson, Alonso Slowed down enough to give Oscar DRS to protect him against Russell on the start finish straight lap after lap until Oscar made a error, And as soon as Russell got passed Piastri Alonso drive a second faster on the last lap. Cant but be impressed with Alonso and his cunning.

Oscar is gunna have to improve on his race pace, otherwise Norris is gunna have a field day with no competition....

[Sphere3758]

Oscar Piastri's race pace doesnt seem to get any better, IMO Lando is much faster than Oscar, In qalifying and especially race pace. I dont know i this can be fixed unfortuneatly.

Alonso in a slower car an slightly older tires taught Piasti a lesson, Alonso Slowed down enough to give Oscar DRS to protect him against Russell on the start finish straight lap after lap until Oscar made a error, And as soon as Russell got passed Piastri Alonso drive a second faster on the last lap. Cant but be impressed with Alonso and his cunning.

Oscar is gunna have to improve on his race pace, otherwise Norris is gunna have a field day with no competition....

It is not about consistency, but the lack of a single race so far where he has been genuinely faster than Lando when on an equal footing. Apart from Spa/Qatar weekend last year where he showed glimpses of it, but those felt more situational rather than a pure pace advantage. Even when he outqualifies Lando, it seems to be when Lando falters rather than Oscar being faster.

He needs a few good races before the summer break. All the talk of a generational talent and a potential future WDC will die down otherwise. I am rooting for him though !

[Big Gun]

Oscar Piastri's race pace doesnt seem to get any better, IMO Lando is much faster than Oscar, In qalifying and especially race pace. I dont know i this can be fixed unfortuneatly.

Alonso in a slower car an slightly older tires taught Piasti a lesson, Alonso Slowed down enough to give Oscar DRS to protect him against Russell on the start finish straight lap after lap until Oscar made a error, And as soon as Russell got passed Piastri Alonso drive a second faster on the last lap. Cant but be impressed with Alonso and his cunning.

Oscar is gunna have to improve on his race pace, otherwise Norris is gunna have a field day with no competition....

It is not about consistency, but the lack of a single race so far where he has been genuinely faster than Lando when on an equal footing. Apart from Spa/Qatar weekend last year where he showed glimpses of it, but those felt more situational rather than a pure pace advantage. Even when he outqualifies Lando, it seems to be when Lando falters rather than Oscar being faster.

He needs a few good races before the summer break. All the talk of a generational talent and a potential future WDC will die down otherwise. I am rooting for him though !

Has there actually been a race where Oscar showed must better race pace?

[Marc.W]

Oscar Piastri's race pace doesnt seem to get any better, IMO Lando is much faster than Oscar, In qalifying and especially race pace. I dont know i this can be fixed unfortuneatly.

Alonso in a slower car an slightly older tires taught Piasti a lesson, Alonso Slowed down enough to give Oscar DRS to protect him against Russell on the start finish straight lap after lap until Oscar made a error, And as soon as Russell got passed Piastri Alonso drive a second faster on the last lap. Cant but be impressed with Alonso and his cunning.

Oscar is gunna have to improve on his race pace, otherwise Norris is gunna have a field day with no competition....

It is not about consistency, but the lack of a single race so far where he has been genuinely faster than Lando when on an equal footing. Apart from Spa/Qatar weekend last year where he showed glimpses of it, but those felt more situational rather than a pure pace advantage. Even when he outqualifies Lando, it seems to be when Lando falters rather than Oscar being faster.

He needs a few good races before the summer break. All the talk of a generational talent and a potential future WDC will die down otherwise. I am rooting for him though !

Has there actually been a race where Oscar showed must better race pace?

I don't think so, but Lando went a full 2 years before he could match Carlos in race pace

[billamend]

I don't think so, but Lando went a full 2 years before he could match Carlos in race pace

Not 100% fair. He was close since day one. He was generally more unlucky, but he was never very far off. I think he was closer to Sainz than Piastri is from Lando.

[Darth-Piekus]

If Alonso made such a fuss to help Mclaren get Piastri he must be a generational talent. I think he needs time. Don't forget that Max Verstappen crashed the whole field 3 times in the first 3 years of his career. Oscar did a much better start.

[Mansell89]

Zero concerns with Piastri, he’s at a very promising level for this early stage of his career.

Remember that like Lando, he’s having to drive a car that whilst quick in certain parts, does have inherent weaknesses.

Piastri is one of those drivers who I think will be metronomically smooth when he gets a fully capable package. He can only get better and is a strong hand for our team.

I know last year he showed he didn’t quite manage the tyres like Lando, but in Japan both drivers lost the pace quite quickly which suggests it was a car thing rather than driver this weekend.

[mwillems]

It is not about consistency, but the lack of a single race so far where he has been genuinely faster than Lando when on an equal footing. Apart from Spa/Qatar weekend last year where he showed glimpses of it, but those felt more situational rather than a pure pace advantage. Even when he outqualifies Lando, it seems to be when Lando falters rather than Oscar being faster.

He needs a few good races before the summer break. All the talk of a generational talent and a potential future WDC will die down otherwise. I am rooting for him though !

Has there actually been a race where Oscar showed must better race pace?

I don't think so, but Lando went a full 2 years before he could match Carlos in race pace

There are races where he has matched the race pace, and quite a few, that feels like enough for me? I don't think there are many who would argue that on a Sunday there are few better than Lando. And certainly there are races where Oscar has had a better day. But for sure, there is work to be done on getting the car to do what he wants it to do whilst keeping the tyres alive.

[Xyz22]

First upgrades coming in Miami according to Formu1a.uno

https://formu1a.uno/it/mclaren-cina-in- ... ornamenti/

[Emag]

https://x.com/SmilexTech/status/1777995816117964956

Miami upgrades wont be enough to catch Ferrari according to Stella.

I am of the opinion that Ferrari is not beatable this year to be honest. They started with a balanced car that is good everywhere and if anything, they will probably be battleing it out with RedBull soon.

McLaren has crippling weakness which will take a long time to address. This season, 3rd in the constructors is the more realistic (optimistic) result for McLaren.