2018 McLaren F1 Team - Renault

[muramasa]

This drag talk is overrated way way too much. Someone will always have slowest top speed or such characteristic/concept car. It's just that the car is relatively bit on that side (perhaps bit too much than desired) atm, but it's not like they are lagging behind other 2 cars as if different engine, and their reference points are very high, one is RBR the other is Enstone instead of the likes of WIlliams or Sauber. The thing is that the car is good, the pace is good. They are in a pole position to challenge the top 3 and I expect they will finish 4th in WCC anyway, perhaps closer to Enstone than RBR tho. I expected the opposite (4th, closer to RBR or top 3 group) so in that sense you can say it's "disappointing", but no matter how I see it they are in good form and the car has very good potential.

[NL_Fer]

I am not sure about 4th. Yes they have performed better in the race than Enstone, but the Renault factory team has the faster car and their rate of development is impressing.

[mclaren111]

Let's hope the Spain upgrade works as planned. Looking forward to it.

Plus, there's 2 days of in season testing after Spain to futher develop and refine the package.

[ivanlesk]

The reshuffle is an indication that McLaren is coming to terms with the fact that it had to address shortcomings that were in effect masked during the Honda years.

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/tech ... e-1030399/

Above is a quote from Zak, I am happy he finally is admitting that the mclaren chassis was not efficient and bad and it was masked by honda because they honda only supplied one team and they had no comparision. if i was zak i will hire new chassis and aero guys with fresh ideas. get nando norris and build this team to compete for the title in 2 to 3 years time. no point wasting 30 million on a driver and the car cant deliver. build the young drivers and save money to build a proper car in a the meantime. Vandorne is a good driver , he and norris will make a solid driver pairing and with a good chassis in a few years . a title challenge is possible

You don't have problem with two young drivers (one completely inexperienced,and one relatively fresh in F1 with experience wiht ONE team) in MC and doing new development with new aero / chassis guys for 2-3 years. And when TR is doing same thing with their drivers, you are ranting them after few races.

Edit Thunder: Toned down.

[techman]

You don't have problem with two young drivers (one completely inexperienced,and one relatively fresh in F1 with experience wiht ONE team) in MC and doing new development with new aero / chassis guys for 2-3 years. And when TR is doing same thing with their drivers, you are ranting them after few races.

mclaren vandoren and norris is a way better driver line up than TR. norris is future lewis and vandorne has more experience and is quick in the race.

[RonDennis]

i said it before... but got bashed here, and now its happening... I think they should get a top mechanical and engineer from Force india .. they do a lot with very little resources...

I can see why you got bashed. They got rid of a seat cover and you're recommending a flash light as a replacement.

But he is correct, why not hire mr Green? He can do job of boulier and goss at the same time, a true leader

They should have kept Jost Capito, everyone was very impressed by him.

The good thing about the switch to Renault is that they can no longer hide, it shows McLaren weak points and lets hope that new front will be amazing.

[Darth-Piekus]

At the moment the car is probably 1.5 second slower than Ferrari in Qualifying due to mostly unable to heat up the tyres quickly for that one lap and probably 0.7 to 1 sec in race pace. I just really hope that the B Spec Car in Barcelona will give us a huge upgrade.

[BrunoH]

Qualy a bit worse than expected to be honest.

I was hoping they wold go very low drag wings to try and mitigate things but i guess not. worse than Williams... what a shame.

Hoping for Super Alonso to do his thing and maybe a few crashes up ahead can help ( safety car etc also )

[Macklaren]

Qualy a bit worse than expected to be honest.

I was hoping they wold go very low drag wings to try and mitigate things but i guess not. worse than Williams... what a shame.

Hoping for Super Alonso to do his thing and maybe a few crashes up ahead can help ( safety car etc also )

Not a surprise honestly given the extra power mode the Merc engine cars have for qualifying this race. With McLaren's better race pace and no extra power boost i expect Alo to jump both Williams and Force Indias in the race.

PS: Hul p9 so Alo picks up a spot

[Ground Effect]

Qualy a bit worse than expected to be honest.

I was hoping they wold go very low drag wings to try and mitigate things but i guess not. worse than Williams... what a shame.

Hoping for Super Alonso to do his thing and maybe a few crashes up ahead can help ( safety car etc also )

Not a surprise honestly given the extra power mode the Merc engine cars have for qualifying this race. With McLaren's better race pace and no extra power boost i expect Alo to jump both Williams and Force Indias in the race.

PS: Hul p9 so Alo picks up a spot

How was their long run pace compared to Renault, FI & Haas?

[Macklaren]

Very hard to tell given short stints and yellows but i read on the other thread they were very competitive

[nirvaand]

Starting P12 after Nico's gearbox penalty is not so bad. P11 would have been the best for Alonso, but P12 works fine. He can start on the SS tyres and if he can pick a few places up at the start he'll be right up there if anything goes wrong up front .

[diffuser]

Qualy a bit worse than expected to be honest.

I was hoping they wold go very low drag wings to try and mitigate things but i guess not. worse than Williams... what a shame.

Hoping for Super Alonso to do his thing and maybe a few crashes up ahead can help ( safety car etc also )

Part of their problem is the diffuser isn't giving them the DF that they need. That's why they're loosing so much time in S2 and why they can't take more wing off. The good news is a big Aero upgrade should get you more diffuser DF.

I also think that rear Mechanical grip might be an issue. S3 in Spain is a really good judge of mechanical grip, so we'll see.

[bauc]

More or less ALO is in the same position as in the last 3 races (13th) but VAN, damm that kid needs to raise his game FAST in Qually

[Ground Effect]

Starting P12 after Nico's gearbox penalty is not so bad. P11 would have been the best for Alonso, but P12 works fine. He can start on the SS tyres and if he can pick a few places up at the start he'll be right up there if anything goes wrong up front .

11th would definitely have been better, it's also the cleaner line, I believe. I just hope those young guns aren't over ambitious at the start. That's another downside from starting so far back, you're mixing it with some aggressive guys.