2025 McLaren F1 Team

[CjC]

Mclaren tend to run a faster profile on the Friday than many but top speed will impact race runs less.

Looking at the long runs and yikes, Red Bull and Merc are damn fast, Red Bull more scary than merc in my opinion, with Ferrari not far behind, but I'm not sure if they are hiding their pace. Red Bull and Ferraris later laps on the Meds were 10+ laps old so RB in particular looking fast in the race runs (Dependant on fuel, engine, recovery mode etc...)

Plenty of setup changes to come for FP3 and Q though and we all know how much it can swing. I have to agree with emag though, on race pace, this is as tight as it has appeared after an FP2 and I have to say, it looks like we may not be the fastest on race pace.

Qualy will be super important. but, with that all said, it's only Friday and it can all turn around so quickly, so best not to get into the Friday data too much.

So you are disagreeing with Mark Hughes? (You have every right to ) just wonder what data you have seen?

[Darth-Piekus]

How come Mclaren runs the engine on a higher mode on Friday? Isn't usually the other way around?

[search]

How come Mclaren runs the engine on a higher mode on Friday? Isn't usually the other way around?

I haven't read anything about it this year, but in 2024 the Mercedes engines were often run on higher modes early on in the season as well, before everyone switched to practice/race engine later on. My understanding was that they suffer less from wear than others, meaning they don't need to be as cautious in practice.

So the picture would likely change again when everyone introduces their 2nd or 3rd ICE, having one designated for practice only.

[mwillems]

Mclaren tend to run a faster profile on the Friday than many but top speed will impact race runs less.

Looking at the long runs and yikes, Red Bull and Merc are damn fast, Red Bull more scary than merc in my opinion, with Ferrari not far behind, but I'm not sure if they are hiding their pace. Red Bull and Ferraris later laps on the Meds were 10+ laps old so RB in particular looking fast in the race runs (Dependant on fuel, engine, recovery mode etc...)

Plenty of setup changes to come for FP3 and Q though and we all know how much it can swing. I have to agree with emag though, on race pace, this is as tight as it has appeared after an FP2 and I have to say, it looks like we may not be the fastest on race pace.

Qualy will be super important. but, with that all said, it's only Friday and it can all turn around so quickly, so best not to get into the Friday data too much.

So you are disagreeing with Mark Hughes? (You have every right to ) just wonder what data you have seen?

Just my own dashboards, but they are developing still so early days. I hadn't read Mark Hughes analysis and I may be totally wrong, but I don't think we are clear of anyone in FP2. You can see all teams have margin for improvement though and as per usual, FP3 could be a very different picture.

Temps will play a role and whilst there isn't any evidence to come to any conclusions, it looks possible that the Ferrari prefers the colder temps, so Ferrari may gain more ground from FP3 to Q and in the race tomorrow.

I maintain that our car is not much faster than others but, despite Lando's issues (which only equates to one not great race), the Mclaren is a much more consistent and stable car in the race meaning it can extract more from the tyres.
But over a lap, it is only a little quicker, once you average out the circuits.

Saturday is an important day for Mclaren this season because we don't run with so much top speed. We are set up to run from the front and so if we have a hiccup on the Saturday, we may struggle at some tracks, as we saw at Japan.

[CjC]

Mclaren tend to run a faster profile on the Friday than many but top speed will impact race runs less.

Looking at the long runs and yikes, Red Bull and Merc are damn fast, Red Bull more scary than merc in my opinion, with Ferrari not far behind, but I'm not sure if they are hiding their pace. Red Bull and Ferraris later laps on the Meds were 10+ laps old so RB in particular looking fast in the race runs (Dependant on fuel, engine, recovery mode etc...)

Plenty of setup changes to come for FP3 and Q though and we all know how much it can swing. I have to agree with emag though, on race pace, this is as tight as it has appeared after an FP2 and I have to say, it looks like we may not be the fastest on race pace.

Qualy will be super important. but, with that all said, it's only Friday and it can all turn around so quickly, so best not to get into the Friday data too much.

So you are disagreeing with Mark Hughes? (You have every right to ) just wonder what data you have seen?

Just my own dashboards, but they are developing still so early days. I hadn't read Mark Hughes analysis and I may be totally wrong, but I don't think we are clear of anyone in FP2. You can see all teams have margin for improvement though and as per usual, FP3 could be a very different picture.

Temps will play a role and whilst there isn't any evidence to come to any conclusions, it looks possible that the Ferrari prefers the colder temps, so Ferrari may gain more ground from FP3 to Q and in the race tomorrow.

I maintain that our car is not much faster than others but, despite Lando's issues (which only equates to one not great race), the Mclaren is a much more consistent and stable car in the race meaning it can extract more from the tyres.
But over a lap, it is only a little quicker, once you average out the circuits.

Saturday is an important day for Mclaren this season because we don't run with so much top speed. We are set up to run from the front and so if we have a hiccup on the Saturday, we may struggle at some tracks, as we saw at Japan.

Granted I only watch the F1 live timing app but I never saw a laptime on Verstappens run that was to within 6 tenths to Piastri

[mwillems]

So you are disagreeing with Mark Hughes? (You have every right to ) just wonder what data you have seen?

Just my own dashboards, but they are developing still so early days. I hadn't read Mark Hughes analysis and I may be totally wrong, but I don't think we are clear of anyone in FP2. You can see all teams have margin for improvement though and as per usual, FP3 could be a very different picture.

Temps will play a role and whilst there isn't any evidence to come to any conclusions, it looks possible that the Ferrari prefers the colder temps, so Ferrari may gain more ground from FP3 to Q and in the race tomorrow.

I maintain that our car is not much faster than others but, despite Lando's issues (which only equates to one not great race), the Mclaren is a much more consistent and stable car in the race meaning it can extract more from the tyres.
But over a lap, it is only a little quicker, once you average out the circuits.

Saturday is an important day for Mclaren this season because we don't run with so much top speed. We are set up to run from the front and so if we have a hiccup on the Saturday, we may struggle at some tracks, as we saw at Japan.

Granted I only watch the F1 live timing app but I never saw a laptime on Verstappens run that was to within 6 tenths to Piastri

I think they have a lot more in them, in fact I'd say without doubt they are within 6 tenths in race pace, especially since tyre deg won't be much of an issue here. Let's wait and see what happens.

[ringo]

Piastri looking more solid. Norris is more sensitive. If everything hooks up, Norris for pole, but that's less likely to happen.
The championship fight is going to break Norris' heart if Piastri swipes it from him in the end. He might just leave McLaren after.

[Emag]

Piastri looking more solid. Norris is more sensitive. If everything hooks up, Norris for pole, but that's less likely to happen.
The championship fight is going to break Norris' heart if Piastri swipes it from him in the end. He might just leave McLaren after.

You’re coming in with some crystal ball predictions at race 5/24

[Ben1980]

Almost every qualifying session, it's got tighter than people said it will. Practice is just that.

[FittingMechanics]

This is first FP that looked truly dominant in quali runs

[ringo]

Piastri looking more solid. Norris is more sensitive. If everything hooks up, Norris for pole, but that's less likely to happen.
The championship fight is going to break Norris' heart if Piastri swipes it from him in the end. He might just leave McLaren after.

You’re coming in with some crystal ball predictions at race 5/24

Not a fan of both, but both really good guys and it's tense watching where the pendulum swings between them both. It's really close. I would even say it doesn't even matter that Mclaren are dominant, F1 is entertaining because we have two fast guys in that car and none are contractually #2. The other cars are just there to make up numbers at this point, but it's all good, we have an intriguing battle at the front.

[Avocado]

Almost every qualifying session, it's got tighter than people said it will. Practice is just that.

Let's hope it stays the same this time, -0.600s.

[mwillems]

Well I'm thinking that at least I got the car order right

But in all seriousness, it will tighten up as typically show more than everyone, though we do look like we have a good gap. Fingers crossed.

Japan Fp3 to Q



Bahrain:

[Mcl_G10]

Yikes I get the feeling these mclaren boys are going to push each other to the limit, I just hope it doesn't go over that limit to the point where one of them start putting themselves into the walls through pushing too hard. There really is a rizla paper separating the two and that is very good for us but potentially catastrophic. We would certainly be better if one was consistently a tenth or 2 faster than the other but it's a great watch.

Fully expecting the others to close right in as the temps drop a little. Still think the top 5 (oscar, lando, Max, Charles and russell) to be very close in q3.

[KimiRai]

Congrats to McLaren, Stella, Rob and everyone else. This car is incredible.