Vodafone McLaren MP4-27 Mercedes

[Dann]

McLaren on managed to get 3rd from Lewis.
They couldn't capitalise on front row start. The real culprits were their pit-stops; all suck.
Typical McLaren mistakes.

[chepoi]

McLaren should restructure their pit stop team. the only who make a blunder better transfer to other assignment...

[AnthonyG]

McLaren on managed to get 3rd from Lewis.
They couldn't capitalise on front row start. The real culprits were their pit-stops; all suck.
Typical McLaren mistakes.

Hamilton stalled his car in the pits, nothing to do with the team.
It's race talk: but McLaren just had bad luck after the restart+some driver mistakes.

[Nando]

McLaren on managed to get 3rd from Lewis.
They couldn't capitalise on front row start. The real culprits were their pit-stops; all suck.
Typical McLaren mistakes.

Hamilton stalled his car in the pits, nothing to do with the team.
It's race talk: but McLaren just had bad luck after the restart+some driver mistakes.

Nope he did not. He was waiting for the green light.

Pit stop mistakes happened twice for Hamilton. None of which was his fault.
The only mistakes this time was from the team in terms of pitstops and strategy.

Both drivers apart from Button´s little incident drove perfect.

[JamesS]

Slow pit stops and being too cautious deciding when to change tyres ruined McLaren's and Lewis' in particular, chances of getting anything more than 3rd.

It left Lewis with too much to do towards the end. I felt he was saving the inters rather than pushing and burning them out too early.

Consistency is what you need to win the Championship and I think Lewis showed good maturity to secure good points.

Realistically Alonso is not a title contender with their current car, Lewis outscored his true rivals: Vettel, Button, Webber and the Merc's, who's race form really is looking rubbish.

[Nando]

Realistically Alonso is not a title contender with their current car, Lewis outscored his true rivals: Vettel, Button, Webber and the Merc's, who's race form really is looking rubbish.

+1

This is why Hamilton is somewhat happy despite being the second time he gets pole but finishes third.
He knows he still the "true" leader of the contenders right now.

Alonso will be back but it will take a while before he´s really fighting for any wins again.

[myurr]

Slow pit stops and being too cautious deciding when to change tyres ruined McLaren's and Lewis' in particular, chances of getting anything more than 3rd.

It left Lewis with too much to do towards the end. I felt he was saving the inters rather than pushing and burning them out too early.

Consistency is what you need to win the Championship and I think Lewis showed good maturity to secure good points.

Realistically Alonso is not a title contender with their current car, Lewis outscored his true rivals: Vettel, Button, Webber and the Merc's, who's race form really is looking rubbish.

Good post.

I also thought he was worried about burning through the inters but given his position they should have been more aggressive and burnt through the tyres and the switched to slicks much sooner. But they're still learning what the tyres can do, I'm sure they'll be more aggressive in the next wet race as the tyres actually look quite good.

In the final stint he was probably having to manage a braking problem. One of the brake ducts still had tape covering it but the other had had it removed, so one side would have been carrying too much heat. That will explain why he could only hold position rather than gain on those in front.

[ringo]

I think this car has 2weaknesses, race pace and wet wether running. doesnt seem to be able to catch other cars over mid fuel stints. hamilton in particular hasnt been able to chip away at lap times with it. the car is quite mellow.

[raymondu999]

I think this car has 2weaknesses, race pace and wet wether running. doesnt seem to be able to catch other cars over mid fuel stints. hamilton in particular hasnt been able to chip away at lap times with it. the car is quite mellow.

A bit like the Red Bull of last year in a way. Race pace was (relative to its other qualities) not very strong

[Lycoming]

Im not sure this is enough to say that it has poor wet weather performance as well... how you do in the wet is generally much less car dependent and relies more on the driver and race strategy, the latter of which it seems they got badly wrong today.

Still we are only 2 races in. I personally will reserve judgement on race pace. Its pretty clear now though that it is one mean qualifier to have locked out the front row on 2 very different tracks.

[scarlet]

Im not sure this is enough to say that it has poor wet weather performance as well... how you do in the wet is generally much less car dependent and relies more on the driver and race strategy, the latter of which it seems they got badly wrong today.

Maybe narrow window of performance is a better way of putting it. Seemed quick at the very start of the race and on full wets.

[Banki]

I think this car has 2weaknesses, race pace and wet wether running. doesnt seem to be able to catch other cars over mid fuel stints. hamilton in particular hasnt been able to chip away at lap times with it. the car is quite mellow.

It's not completely true. On the first 9 lap when it's raining they were good.

[MuseF1]

I think that maybe they ran too much or too little pressure on the inters.

To be honest nobody seemed to be going particularly fast on the inters. Vettel was on the inters and never caught Hamilton so I don't think its the pace of the car in the wet i think its more related to the intermediate tyre itself

[Lycoming]

Perhaps most critically, they did not get strategy right, particularly with Hamilton. I hope it doesn't end up like last year, they lost way too many points due to strategy blunders (they could have had a 1-2 in hungary had Hamilton not pitted for inters). I though the point of bringing in Sam Michaels was to work on that, I know they've been trying to develop the ability to pit both cars on the same lap... but perhaps they should be looking to poach some staff from Sauber. Even since 2010, although their use of tyres gave them lots of options, they certainly made the right calls consistently. Monaco 2011, Canada 2011, Valencia 2010...

I think theres a bit of cleverness in the understanding that their budget does not enable them to challenge the frontrunners on pace and to instead build a car that gives them tactical flexibility. After all, the top teams are more likely to make strategy/pit stop blunders than they are to produce dud cars.

[Nando]

It was interesting to see how Mclaren in Australia pitted both at the same time.

This race i think there was three other teams doing it as well.