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Yessss_cerber1 wrote: ↑23 Oct 2024, 20:18Andrea Stella confirms more updates are incoming
Speaking after an underwhelming US GP, Andrea Stella explained that more upgrades are on the way:
“I think the next circuit should be a little bit more suitable to the characteristics of our car,” he told the media in Texas.
“We also have to keep developing the car. Like here, we took some developments at the front of the car.
“But they were nothing too large in terms of potential lap-time impact.
“We have a couple more things that are coming in the next two races. We will see if we are in condition to alter the competitiveness of the car.”
https://lastwordonsports.com/motorsport ... ing-races/
McLaren do need to be aware of the threat in the WCC from Ferrari. They may be 48 points behind McLaren, but they have had the pace to challenge McLaren for several races now.
Yeah, on the WCC front while McLaren have a very good shot at the title, it's far from certain.PapayaFan481 wrote: ↑23 Oct 2024, 22:38McLaren do need to be aware of the threat in the WCC from Ferrari. They may be 48 points behind McLaren, but they have had the pace to challenge McLaren for several races now.
If Ferrari were to score another 1-2 and even if McLaren finish 3-4, that is 43 points to 27 points, dropping the gap to 32 points. A McLaren DNF whilst a Ferrari wins severely cuts that gap.
Yes McLaren are now the favourites for the WCC, but Ferrari are a very real threat. Let's not forget, Ferrari also haven't won a championship of either flavour since 2008.
Pretty much what we already knew but it's good to definitively know the timeline and that none of the new infrastructure benefited the '23 car."The aerodynamic package brought to Austria was achieved with the same infrastructure that was available in previous years, we did not yet have the new wind tunnel and new CFD systems for aerodynamic development, there was no new composite materials department, as well as no new simulator. Well, the same people were able to produce a major leap in performance. "The upgrades in infrastructure came after the close of 2023, so the subsequent development in Singapore was also studied and carried out with the methodologies, tools and people who up to a certain point in the previous season had not been able to put a competitive car on the track."
So much for the reporting that McLaren were surprised by how good the upgrades were. I never believed this narrative anyway. With how successful they have been it seemed obvious to me they were delivering what McLaren intended and expected.In the first five races you paid a 99-point gap to Red Bull. What couldn't you focus on at the beginning of the season?
"There is a very rational explanation. The upgrades we brought in Austria and Singapore 2023 allowed us to close a huge performance gap, about a second, but in order to do that we used a lot of the gasoline we had in the tank at the knowledge level, and that had an impact on the 'launch' car for the 2024 season. If we take the Red Bull example, we see that during 2023 they brought less development to the track, so they accumulated a lot of ideas and knowledge that was poured into the 2024 car. The evaluation of a team's development should be observed over a long enough period to overcome these fluctuations, which also depend on when new things are brought to the track."
Didn't any alarms sound after the first five races of the season?
"There was no concern, when we put the 2024 launch car on the track, noting that Ferrari and Mercedes over the winter had made a bigger leap forward than ours, we didn't worry too much. We were actually the fourth force in the field, but at the same time we saw in the development going on in the background that we kept improving, and when it came time to bring the updates to the track, on the Miami weekend, we made the leap forward that we expected."
"At this stage of the season, it is clear that the 2024 program is basically closed, this does not mean that we will not see new things for the next races, but the development program is finished. The activity of most of the team has shifted to the 2025 project, but at the same time, as the work in the wind tunnel and CFD for the 2026 car will start from January 2, there will be phase an advance of work to allow us next January 2 to press the green button and start the development work. This is what happens in a Formula 1 team, I must say that it is easier now than a month ago, when we had three strands of development happening under one roof, as work on the current single-seater was still operational."
He says that all the focus on their wings is psychological warfare from their opponents attempting to put the team in a bad light, which to a certain extent has worked, I think.How much did the controversy over the Baku wing bother you?
"Our wings complied with the technical regulations and passed all the flexibility checks in place, at the same time we had conversations with the International Federation receiving all the appropriate reassurances. Of course we read a lot of comments in the media, opinions that came mainly from our opponents, not necessarily from journalists, and certain articles seemed to be a vehicle to spread the word [of] some of our opponents on the track."
Cheap theater from Marco. Oscar has no reason to go to Red Bull, especially since the team is losing specialists, going there would be shooting himself in the foot.
I'm surprised they didn't pit Oscar for fastest lap, he had enough of a gap to retain positionFittingMechanics wrote: ↑24 Oct 2024, 12:20I've seen that they told Oscar to slow down on the last lap and he let off the gas so he doesn't end up ahead of Lando after the penalty. That is good teamwork. Good job Oscar, good job team for making the call and informing him in time. A shame the rules allow Verstappen to run people off otherwise it would be P3 and P4 for McLaren.
I'm still very optimistic for the season. People are highly reactive and as soon as one team does well on a track, they extrapolate that to the end of the season. So right now they are on the Ferrari hype train while a week ago everyone was on McLaren 1s ahead hype train. I think it will be close to the end of the season but McLaren with upgrades and more time to setup and understand the car should do well.
If anything, having a resurgent Ferrari may be a blessing for Lando title hopes. To win the WDC he needs for Verstappen to lose a lot of points. Having Ferrari in the mix allows that opportunity. It will have to be hard fought on track but if it ends up dropping Max to P5 the opportunity is there.
The reporting that came directly from the mouth of Mclaren? loldeargodhelpme wrote: ↑24 Oct 2024, 05:06So much for the reporting that McLaren were surprised by how good the upgrades were. I never believed this narrative anyway.
I think that comes to two reasons. One is that they were catching Verstappen quite quickly, perhaps they hoped to overtake Verstappen or just force him to lose time defending. With Norris almost making 5 seconds that was a good idea. Second idea may be to get close to VER if he gets a 5 second penalty. By the time it was clear nothing of that will happen, it was too late to pit.