2018 McLaren F1 Team - Renault

[BrunoH]

China has a long straight, they might have to compromise a bit on wing level, but for some reason, im actually thinking they will do better than last weekend....

[Ground Effect]

Renault's power level is what it is in the race. Stating they haven't turned it on is the same as the PU's power is not there yet. The worst logic kept being repeated.

i didn't want to participate in this topic again but the degree of denial and delusion are way OVER .. so ALO got lapped
to save the PU yeah because 21 races \ 3 PU = 7 laps , beside is Mclaren gonna be lapped for the entire 21 races

Maybe he just didn't want to do the last lap. Vettel wasn't catching him prior to that. His last lap was a 1:50, which seemed to come out of the blue, he actually slowed down to get lapped. Nothing gained or lost by doing the extra lap, one more lap won't save the PU or destroy it.

[loner]

Renault's power level is what it is in the race. Stating they haven't turned it on is the same as the PU's power is not there yet. The worst logic kept being repeated.

i didn't want to participate in this topic again but the degree of denial and delusion are way OVER .. so ALO got lapped
to save the PU yeah because 21 races \ 3 PU = 7 laps , beside is Mclaren gonna be lapped for the entire 21 races

Maybe he just didn't want to do the last lap. Vettel wasn't catching him prior to that. His last lap was a 1:50, which seemed to come out of the blue, he actually slowed down to get lapped. Nothing gained or lost by doing the extra lap, one more lap won't save the PU or destroy it.

+1

[ivanlesk]

i didn't want to participate in this topic again but the degree of denial and delusion are way OVER .. so ALO got lapped
to save the PU yeah because 21 races \ 3 PU = 7 laps , beside is Mclaren gonna be lapped for the entire 21 races

Maybe he just didn't want to do the last lap. Vettel wasn't catching him prior to that. His last lap was a 1:50, which seemed to come out of the blue, he actually slowed down to get lapped. Nothing gained or lost by doing the extra lap, one more lap won't save the PU or destroy it.

+1

True, but when you add to that a fact that they where just behind first two in race and every news station around world doing short report of race will show winner crossing checkered flag, then is beneficial

[Macklaren]

Renault's power level is what it is in the race. Stating they haven't turned it on is the same as the PU's power is not there yet. The worst logic kept being repeated.

i didn't want to participate in this topic again but the degree of denial and delusion are way OVER .. so ALO got lapped
to save the PU yeah because 21 races \ 3 PU = 7 laps , beside is Mclaren gonna be lapped for the entire 21 races

Maybe he just didn't want to do the last lap. Vettel wasn't catching him prior to that. His last lap was a 1:50, which seemed to come out of the blue, he actually slowed down to get lapped. Nothing gained or lost by doing the extra lap, one more lap won't save the PU or destroy it.

Mclaren race commmentary confirmed it was because fuel was critical

[godlameroso]

If we take the gain McLaren made over last year on average being 2.5 seconds that means they would have qualified ahead of Red Bull last year in China. If the trend continues this weekend they stand poised to have a much better weekend.

It seems the tires work in the following manner.

The ultra soft is faster than the soft tire but lasts almost as long in the race. The yellow tire is marginally faster than the white tire but lasts less. If I were doing the race strategy, I'd do the opening stint on ultra softs, pit again for ultra softs and finish the race on mediums. The mediums are the ideal tire to stretch out the race but are not a good starting tire. The performance and life of the ultra soft renders the soft tire obsolete. Likely both the soft and ultra soft will be good for something like 14 laps, the softs will degrade in the rear too quickly relative to the front making the car undrivable. The ultra soft will suffer the same fate but because the tire has inherently more grip the window to the car becoming undrivable is similar to the soft. Thus stint one should go to lap 14-16 on either the ultra or soft tire, but the medium tire can easily do 35 laps with improving or at worst consistent pace throughout. That would mean 6 laps of holding on for dear life and likely having to defend against a faster car.

The only other option is US US M doing 2 13 lap stints, which would put you at lap 26, then 30 with the mediums, pushing like crazy in the corners the whole time. Such a strategy would allow you to fuel save during the second US stint while keeping up the pace, then going aggressive towards the end with tires that will hold up throughout.

[Prometheus]

Wow I see a lot of people who didn´t post after Merlbourne but have been quite fast to post their opinions (read, rants) after Bahrain, to the point this thread has grown around 15 pages in no time

Yeah Gasly and STR have been impressive in Bahrain, but one single result with one single car does not make a norm.

The next is not intended to get angry McLaren haters, it´s only to motivate McLaren fans who read this thread and are tempted to join the haters

2018 WCC standings:

1 FERRARI 65
2 MERCEDES 55
3 MCLAREN RENAULT 22
4 RED BULL RACING TAG HEUER 20
5 RENAULT 15
6 SCUDERIA TORO ROSSO HONDA 12
7 HAAS FERRARI 10
8 SAUBER FERRARI 2
9 FORCE INDIA MERCEDES 1
10 WILLIAMS MERCEDES 0


Yes that is correct, McLaren is 3rd team right not. We all know that´s due to RBR problems, but even so it´s encouraging. In the whole Honda era not a single time they scored points with both cars two consecutive GPs, but first two GPs with Renault, and both cars score points in both.

If that´s not a step forward please let me know what´s that

Don't think the standings mean much at this stage as most teams with new engines detuned them slightly - Mclaren included.
-but-
The result from Bahrain was significant when comparing Mclaren with Toro Rosso. A past world champion 48 seconds behind a seven race rookie, with both having new power plants in their cars. That is brutal.
The claim by Alonso that the season has only started is a defensive position and probably the only one he could take. For somebody of his ability to be 48 seconds behind in a 57 lap race, spells very big technical problems.If it were anybody else, the gap would have been significantly more. There must be alarm bells ringing at Mclaren.

[PhillipM]

That would be a more convincing arguement if:

a) Alonso hadn't been stuck behind a Renault he was clearly faster than and;
b)The gap between Alonso and Hartley was actually 48 seconds, when it was actually more like 19 or 20 seconds until Alonso backed right off on the last lap to let the leaders catch him.

[Ground Effect]

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/brow ... g-1024592/

[SameSame]

That would be a more convincing arguement if:

a) Alonso hadn't been stuck behind a Renault he was clearly faster than and;
b)The gap between Alonso and Hartley was actually 48 seconds, when it was actually more like 19 or 20 seconds until Alonso backed right off on the last lap to let the leaders catch him.

How some people seem to be oblivious to this is beyond me.

If McLaren had got exactly the same results as Torro Rosso in the last two races; they would face even harsher criticism than what they are subject to now. There really is no winning being in their position.

I would much prefer them having such strong race pace than qualifying strong and going backwards as they did last year. If they sort out qualifying they could really get strong results as they have the pace to keep at least the Red Bulls behind on the tighter tracks.

[RonDennis]

"We just miscalculated the weekend in terms of set-up," said Boullier. "It's a mistake we've done and we don't want to repeat it.

"We need to be where we believe we should be and can't have too many mistakes like this."

Alonso declared after Australia that McLaren could forget the midfield and target Red Bull, but admitted in Bahrain that would not be possible until the MCL33 received crucial developments.

"The car we have here on the track and the car we are developing at the factory is different," said Alonso.

"That car is fixing all our weakness, so we need to bring that car as soon as possible."

Boullier insisted he had "100%" confidence in McLaren's technical team, and explained that part of its Bahrain troubles was getting the most out of the tyres and the cars carrying too much downforce.

McLaren's pre-season reliability woe forced it to alter its updates schedule, and Boullier added: "That's why we have a lot to come and that's why Fernando is so positive in terms of upgrades and the next few races.

"Hopefully that will be enough to clear it [the midfield]."

So it seems some kind of b-spec is in development and they clearly need it.

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/13531 ... t-expected

[diffuser]

i didn't want to participate in this topic again but the degree of denial and delusion are way OVER .. so ALO got lapped
to save the PU yeah because 21 races \ 3 PU = 7 laps , beside is Mclaren gonna be lapped for the entire 21 races

Maybe he just didn't want to do the last lap. Vettel wasn't catching him prior to that. His last lap was a 1:50, which seemed to come out of the blue, he actually slowed down to get lapped. Nothing gained or lost by doing the extra lap, one more lap won't save the PU or destroy it.

+1

unless you're running low on fuel???

[diffuser]

So it seems some kind of b-spec is in development and they clearly need it.

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/13531 ... t-expected

The R & D is just running way ahead of production....I think they kept funding R&D over the winter(normal) and ramped up production slowly till they received the money from F1 in March(little later than normal).

Normally you'd want the nose out first but because it takes longer to produce and test, it might be last. lets hope it's on this weekend. I wouldn't be surprised if they had no updates this weekend.

[Maritimer]

I thought i read somewhere the nose is coming in May?

[Ground Effect]

I thought i read somewhere the nose is coming in May?

I read that too, new nose for Barcelona.