2024 Mclaren Formula 1 Team

[BMMR61]

I hope next time in the same situation the team will pit Piastri first and let Hamilton undercut Lando. It would be a much better treatment than securing his P2 by placing him at the front

Hardly, Lando came out 4,5s ahead of HAM. They easily had at least 2 more laps to order pits however they wanted.

2 more laps and 4.5 would have reduced to 2-3. A small mistake in the pits and he would have rejoined behind HAM on a track where it's very hard to overtake.

The panic on the Lando pit wall must have been extreme - "OMG, Lewis is catching at a second a lap on his new tyres!"
Both our drivers were circulating serenely (mostly) in the low 24s and Lewis on fresh new tyres emerged doing low 23s.

This is symptomatic of the malaise on that side of the garage. They had laps to spare with an inherently much quicker car with the favoured medium tyres to go on. For some reason they compounded the team order snafu by waiting another two laps to service Oscar.

We love our team but when you wait 3 years for a 1-2 finish and it's tainted this way..... words can't express it. What "they" did put their drivers through unnecessary stress when an effortless cruise to the chequered flag was given a bitter taste. Not proud of this one and I think Andrea is protecting some butts that need kicking, though not publicly. I thought having Singh on the podium felt like an "up yours" to those questioning clearly faulty decision making. I think Tom Stallard would have been a far more appropriate person to get sprayed but there you are, I'm not the manager.

[BMMR61]

its probably his worst season.

Still way ahead of Piastri in points.

I know. Such a selfless guy. £20m plus all the hard work of a team behind him able to deliver a championship car without having to sit next to Max Verstappen, all coming at around about the time that he is just getting good enough to challenge Max, having been supported by the team to make him mentally stronger and make him as capable as he is today. All done in a way that is a total contrast with how other teams can treat F1 drivers. He really has had to put up with a lot, poor guy.

No sarcasm, just warm truthful humour, my friend

He did carry McLaren on his back during the Ricciardo years. They hired and treated Daniel as a superstar, and then Lando had to bring the points himself with a shitty car.

And it's not like he couldn't go to another very very well paid seat. It's not a secret that most teams wanted him. He could be in the RB seat since very early in his career.

I think he should count himself lucky to be at a team like this, quite honestly, as would any driver. This is where we are today. If he doesn't like it then I don't doubt we could attract any top talent on the grid when they are available. That is the truth of todays Mclaren.

Yeah, like drivers don't want to drive for Mercedes, Ferrari, or RB when they have a record of being ruthless with driver calls to win championships — like McLaren should have done today.

Drivers will flock to Mclaren, no one would doubt that they will sort that out the strategy.

Lando could go to another seat, others could come here. We are not beholden to him. As for the Ricciardo years. yes, he did well, that's why he got a massive contract, so he wasn't doing anyone any favours. His career was enhanced and he was hugely enriched. That's how deals work, everyone wins. So no, we don't owe Lando any more than we already gave him. And now, there is a car that can challenge to be the best, and that is rarer than a driver that can challenge, in my opinion.

As for Lando being Well ahead of Oscar on points, this isn't really the case. Oscar is not far from Lando and having a good season. Less consistent than last season but with higher peaks and signs that he's getting on top of managing his Sundays now, as there have been some weekends when he has just nailed it and been a championship level driver.

Totally agree. I like Lando, he's a good kid, a bit immature for one running so high. Natural speed, a little muddled in his thinking at times, but when he gets into his rhythm he's about as quick as anyone. Racecraft? Hmmmm not yet top shelf. I'm still hoping for a little more. I have no issue with how he handled a bad situation at Hungary, and after the race he was gracious in "defeat". He'll have plenty more good days. Suggestion - a change of engineer to someone more strong and assertive.

Oscar is seriously mature for a kid so young, very self contained and seriously committed to his craft. I can't recall him lucking into anything after 36 GP weekends, he's certainly been deprived of some great results through no fault of his own. I don't think his speed separates him from the competition, it's his incredible racecraft and accuracy of overtaking. Suggestion - get a session at the MTC in private with Mika and Webber.

I'm still trying to get the disappointment of being a winner and feeling like a loser, oh the embarrassment of being a McLaren fan after Hungary 2024. I have to commit to the idea that they're a year ahead of schedule and didn't study "winning world championships" to minimise careless errors like we have had race after race.

[mwillems]

I think Lando's racecraft is top shelf. Overtaking and tyre management are as good as anyone. And he's very intelligent too. It's probably just that mentality that Oscar has that excites me a lot, that Lando doesn't have at this point. Oscar looks at home under pressure. He's not without mistakes, but mentally he looks a natural fit at the front.

[Big Tea]

The drivers and the team are not used to wining and have to take time to adjust the mind set. If this had been win number 20 for Lando or Oscar it would be no big deal and they would have followed the plan from the morning brief with no fuss. As it is ,there is always the thought in the back of the head "is this the only win I/we will get this year, and do we need to tip toe around it"
Things take time to become the norm.

[Macklaren]

some of the comments here (and elsewhere online) are ridiculous. Can you imagine if McLaren had pitted PIA and NOR in that order and VER and HAM jumped both of them with undercuts and overcuts respectively to leave us with a P2-4 finish instead of P1-2? I'm sure everyone online would be defending them saying "oh, they lost out the result but they pitted the drivers in the order that we thought was right......." Right? SMH

[venkyhere]

After watching the race and reading the comments here :

1. Team strategy is still in 'reactive to others' mode, and not trying to control the race by making the 'lets make the decision first'. Probably because they haven't been in the forefront of a race for many years, and lack match sharpness.

2. Despite 1 above, what they did by undercutting their lead car with their own second car (protecting the threat from mercedes was a BS excuse) was stupid, and led to 'oops' moment within the team. They tried to correct it by asking for swapping towards the end, when they could see that there was no way Piastri was catching Norris.

3. Team made a mistake, and to compensate, they gave both their drivers a sour feeling despite finishing P1,P2. Norris was pained that he was forced to give it up (he is not a winning veteran, just has one win under his belt) & Piastri is left with an 'incomplete' feeling that his first race win (the most memorable to any driver) had to come this way and not on pure merit.

4. And no, Norris didn't lose the victory in turn1. He was managing tyres superbly, and was on for a win, even if the team did their pit strategies for the two drivers in a 'regular vanilla way'.

[Macklaren]

After watching the race and reading the comments here :

1. Team strategy is still in 'reactive to others' mode, and not trying to control the race by making the 'lets make the decision first'. Probably because they haven't been in the forefront of a race for many years, and lack match sharpness.

2. Despite 1 above, what they did by undercutting their lead car with their own second car (protecting the threat from mercedes was a BS excuse) was stupid, and led to 'oops' moment within the team. They tried to correct it by asking for swapping towards the end, when they could see that there was no way Piastri was catching Norris.

3. Team made a mistake, and to compensate, they gave both their drivers a sour feeling despite finishing P1,P2. Norris was pained that he was forced to give it up (he is not a winning veteran, just has one win under his belt) & Piastri is left with an 'incomplete' feeling that his first race win (the most memorable to any driver) had to come this way and not on pure merit.

4. And no, Norris didn't lose the victory in turn1. He was managing tyres superbly, and was on for a win, even if the team did their pit strategies for the two drivers in a 'regular vanilla way'.

So if the team thinks that the second stint should run until Lap 45 and another driver stops on Lap 40 instead potentially ruining their own race, the team should still be "proactive" and bring in our drivers on Lap 39??

[Ground Effect]

A bit off topic, I just heard Seidl is out at Sauber/Audi.

[Emag]

A bit off topic, I just heard Seidl is out at Sauber/Audi.

Scapegoat if true. They should get rid of James Key. Look at what he has done at Sauber. 2 relatively big upgrades on that car now and they're still at the bottom.

I guess you could say he is partly to blame though, because he was very keen on getting him when McLaren let him go.

[franbatista123]

A bit off topic, I just heard Seidl is out at Sauber/Audi.

Scapegoat if true. They should get rid of James Key. Look at what he has done at Sauber. 2 relatively big upgrades on that car now and they're still at the bottom.

I guess you could say he is partly to blame though, because he was very keen on getting him when McLaren let him go.

Weren't the upgrades that turned Mclaren's season around last year still done under James Key?

[emp]

^Nope, they were under A. Stella.

[mwillems]

A bit off topic, I just heard Seidl is out at Sauber/Audi.

Scapegoat if true. They should get rid of James Key. Look at what he has done at Sauber. 2 relatively big upgrades on that car now and they're still at the bottom.

I guess you could say he is partly to blame though, because he was very keen on getting him when McLaren let him go.

He was having a political battle with Oliver Hoffman for supremacy in the team, fighting to create a single voice that Audi had never hired either of them for.

They accepted the structure and gave the new single person role to Binotto instead.

It wouldn't surprise me if there was one eye on the comments from and results at Mclaren after he left, when they looked at the behaviours of Seidl at Audi and made a decision on the structure and personnel.

[mwillems]

A bit off topic, I just heard Seidl is out at Sauber/Audi.

Scapegoat if true. They should get rid of James Key. Look at what he has done at Sauber. 2 relatively big upgrades on that car now and they're still at the bottom.

I guess you could say he is partly to blame though, because he was very keen on getting him when McLaren let him go.

Weren't the upgrades that turned Mclaren's season around last year still done under James Key?

Nope. The floor at Baku came as a result of JKs work, but it was a minor step. Everything came after.

[Emag]

A bit off topic, I just heard Seidl is out at Sauber/Audi.

Scapegoat if true. They should get rid of James Key. Look at what he has done at Sauber. 2 relatively big upgrades on that car now and they're still at the bottom.

I guess you could say he is partly to blame though, because he was very keen on getting him when McLaren let him go.

Weren't the upgrades that turned Mclaren's season around last year still done under James Key?

The Baku package was overseen by James Key. The one that had barely any impact in the car's performance basically.

The Austria package was developed entirely by the team Andrea Stella put in place with Peter Prodromou leading aero efforts.

[BMMR61]

His wrong turn leaving McLaren to go to head a lemon project was our gain, sad but true, taking Key with him. We haven't looked back with gains at every turn.