BMMR61 wrote: ↑20 Oct 2024, 11:36
Once again COTA's sinking soil have struck. You can do all the "resurfacing " you like but if the sub-base is unstable then that allows the base course and top layer to sink with it. This may prove to be an outlier for McLaren's post Miami car, or alternately may prove to show the team has learnt enough about setup changes to come back from poor sessions as Red Bull and Mercedes have done often enough. Today was a good recovery - part one getting better balance for the Sprint, and part two getting further tweaks to get close to Max. If McLaren are to become a championship winning outfit then this trait is essential.
I doubt that within the Sprint weekend format (yes all teams face the same challenge) McLaren will have found enough in setup analysis to make the car a Red Bull beater tomorrow. When you factor in that the RB20 is clearly working better (this is a three race trend) we need realistic expectations. I'm almost (not quite!) hoping that a battling second to Max tomorrow will bring some reality to the dreamers who think Lando being WDC is a reasonable dream. It isn't unless Max and/or RB bottle it. I hope we can calm down a bit and think in terms of a realistic (not guaranteed) WCC being on the table.
Said it in the Red Bull thread after quali.
Verstappen is fine for the WDC now.
He’ll out score Lando today and even if McLaren bring a nice upgrade which puts them half a second clear of the field, it looks like Max has Ferrari and Mercedes covered now.
As you say, the WCC isn't a shoe in either.
I doubt we’ll see a Mclaren on the podium today even starting from pole…. And Oscar… from being the top points scorer over the last 7-8 races looks absolutely no where near a podium it seems in Austin