This forum contains threads to discuss teams themselves. Anything not technical about the cars, including restructuring, performances etc belongs here.
Yes, it looks. Lando was fast, confident in the last sector, the car is good on straights and also cornering.
For this weekend I have tickets on the straight heading to Turn 6 and McLaren looked impressive until now both in speed and cornering. Also Hamilton had same confidence in this area, but he is not looking good on the last sector. Leclerc had few laps, Russell some brake issues and he was braking too early this area and Max and Carlos were missing FP1.
Also Hirakawa looked very well and he did a lot of tests, single lap, pitting, out again, a lap, pitting. They really used him for a lot of tests and correlations. I hope FP2 will confirm this.
Yes, it looks. Lando was fast, confident in the last sector, the car is good on straights and also cornering.
For this weekend I have tickets on the straight heading to Turn 6 and McLaren looked impressive until now both in speed and cornering. Also Hamilton had same confidence in this area, but he is not looking good on the last sector. Leclerc had few laps, Russell some brake issues and he was braking too early this area and Max and Carlos were missing FP1.
Also Hirakawa looked very well and he did a lot of tests, single lap, pitting, out again, a lap, pitting. They really used him for a lot of tests and correlations. I hope FP2 will confirm this.
I hope you get to enjoy a nice Sunday with a big celebration at the end.
Yes, it looks. Lando was fast, confident in the last sector, the car is good on straights and also cornering.
For this weekend I have tickets on the straight heading to Turn 6 and McLaren looked impressive until now both in speed and cornering. Also Hamilton had same confidence in this area, but he is not looking good on the last sector. Leclerc had few laps, Russell some brake issues and he was braking too early this area and Max and Carlos were missing FP1.
Also Hirakawa looked very well and he did a lot of tests, single lap, pitting, out again, a lap, pitting. They really used him for a lot of tests and correlations. I hope FP2 will confirm this.
I hope you get to enjoy a nice Sunday with a big celebration at the end.
Thank you. I only can imagine what is now in Woking and Maranello.
What do you think has caused Oscar's form to drop since the middle of the season?
To be fair it didn't drop until USA/Mexico, not in a noticeable way. Since the summer break it was 3-2 to Lando and it was also close finishes between then in those 5 races although USA was due to what happened to Lando in that race and he was noticeably not as fast as Lando. Since and including Usa, which wasn't a bad performance, just not what we'd expect from him, he hasn't looked the same. It's be interesting to do some analysis against each race based on circuit configuration (% Low speed, short vs long corners and other attributes), weather, track temps etc and see if there is a correlation because it is obviously down to tyres.
In Qualy, it is about your ability to extract the max from the car. The race is a different style and you are driving in a different way to a delta that you can get from the tyres based on capabilities of man and machine. You are not going at full speed, you are working the car around the track in a way the gets you to the next pit in the fastest way you can. Lando is a bit of a tyre whisperer, to my mind. In particular when he is closing someone down ahead who is slower. He manages the tyres and the battery so well and can often make it count so that he ca get the overtake done without hurting the tyres too much. Or he knows also how to manage the tyres better in dirty air.
Oscar at the moment is lacking in this area still. Some of his better races come in low deg situations, that much I can tell. But he is still behind Lando in terms of the tyres and this is likely because the simulator can't help you much here. You need real races to build that up.
What is nice is that this year Oscar has hit some peaks and you can see he has it in him to work at that level through his race management, attacking and defending through to his tyre management - at the good races. He needs to raise the bar of his lowest performances whilst still maintaining the peaks and if he does that next year then he's golden.
Naturally, he needs to find that final tenth in Q. I'm sure that will come, but the average gap between them time wise is actually not very big, there's not much more he needs to find to start improving his Q head to head, but that last little bit is always the hardest to find and his competitors won't stop improving either.
Oscar has the same RW as Lando in first FP. So McLaren decided to put the "Brazil" RW on both cars. McLaren is looking very good. Same the Ferrari's. Max is struggling to rotate the car.
Oscar has the same RW as Lando in first FP. So McLaren decided to pot the "Brazil" RW on both cars. McLaren is looking vey good. Same the Ferrari's. Max is struggling to rotate the car.
Both McLaren looks like they are effortlessly quick. Not stellar top speed though.
Oscar has the same RW as Lando in first FP. So McLaren decided to pot the "Brazil" RW on both cars. McLaren is looking vey good. Same the Ferrari's. Max is struggling to rotate the car.
Both McLaren looks like they are effortlessly quick. Not stellar top speed though.
Indeed. McLaren is not as fast as the Ferrari's (they have amazing speed on straights) but McLaren look more stable all over the track length and this excellent balance is helping MCL38 to have best overall behavior.
Not over until it's over, but credit where credit is due, Mercedes has done a fantastic job from the PU department. It could be that Ferrari has the highest peak at the moment, but even if that is the case, Mercedes is not far behind with reliability being top notch. On top of that of course, McLaren builds some of the mechanical components themselves so they deserve credit too.
Although to be fair, the factory hasn't faltered much this year. A little disappointing they couldn't conjure up some unique and interesting development, but at least the car has been good for the most part. Next year will be tricky though.
So far so good. Positives are seeing the car being top from practise where Mclaren usually holds back a lot and the 10 places grid penalty of Leclerc. Negative is that it's only practise and things can quickly change from one day to the next.
and McLaren looked impressive until now both in speed and cornering. Also Hamilton had same confidence in this area, but he is not looking good on the last sector. Leclerc had few laps, Russell some brake issues and he was braking too early this area and Max and Carlos were missing FP1.
