2018 McLaren F1 Team - Renault

[M840TR]

He's getting unfair treatment because he's slow.

He was quicker than Alonso all weekend until having to do qualifying with a gearbox problem...

No where in the race. Not once was he asked to hold on the radio. I saw the whole race on F1tv onboards which has radios. McLaren live has a transcript as well.

Stoffel should have gone long like Hulk did and he would have finished a lot further. Stoffel also couldnt manage tires and had to pit early while others managed to do 50+ laps on those tires.

Can you share the transcripts?

[Per]

McLaren live has heavily redacted transcripts, sometimes even the TV broadcast has radio messages that don't make it to McLaren's website.

If indeed Stoffel couldn't manage his tyres, if McLaren had been concerned about his race they would have pitted him earlier because of this, so he could have stayed ahead of the Hartley train which he was now released into. Clearly they were keeping him out to open the window for Alonso - whether they instructed him about this or not.

[Henne]

He's getting unfair treatment because he's slow.

He was quicker than Alonso all weekend until having to do qualifying with a gearbox problem...

He was quicker because he was racing the new rear wing. He then had to hand the rear wing to Alonso for Qualy and Race. Same goes for the front wing. Alonso got a different spec front wing.

[Ground Effect]

McLaren live has heavily redacted transcripts, sometimes even the TV broadcast has radio messages that don't make it to McLaren's website.

If indeed Stoffel couldn't manage his tyres, if McLaren had been concerned about his race they would have pitted him earlier because of this, so he could have stayed ahead of the Hartley train which he was now released into. Clearly they were keeping him out to open the window for Alonso - whether they instructed him about this or not.

Well, to be fair, this is the first time this season where Stoffel could be considered to have being used as a buffer for Fernando, he hasn't been competitive enough in previous races, so clearly there's no pattern. It's usually bad starts and then he's on the back foot. He was also one of the few to loose a place at the start. I'm not saying he's no good, but he needs to improve a lot of aspects of his race craft. But I still feel he's strategy was dodgy, if his tyre management wasn't an issue, then Mclaren dropped the ball. He should have gone longer.

[Per]

Yes, he clearly has a problem with his starts. He has to sit his arse down together with some engineers and get on top of that. His race would have been even more compromised if it hadn't been for Sirotkin's stop&go penalty. I remember watching FP2 on Sky this weekend and I believe it was Ted Kravitz who was watching everyone's practice start at the end of the session. When Vandoorne did his, Kravitz' comment was immediately: "wow, that's by far the slowest start I've seen".

Alonso's start was not great either by the way, he had Sainz alongside him before Turn 1, but managed to outbrake him. So maybe the McLaren isn't a great starter either, but Vandoorne is certainly doing worse than Alonso on this front.

[diffuser]

Alonso is easy making the Mclaren in race pace 0.3 to 0.5 seconds faster than it should be with any other regular f1 driver.
Problem is i dont see him next year in Mclaren.
A Shame for the Gear box issue, wold have been again some good points for them.
Alonso is very good in Canada, hope Mclaren match it with a good working upgrade .

Question, is the Renault update coming for Canada?

Yep and the new MGU-K.

Unbelievable how you wait for weeks to lead to this disappointment. I hope they fix their transmission issues, which I think might be due to rear suspension, and bring a big upgrade because this is unacceptable.
And holy cow! What on Earth did they do to poor Stoffel. Should've put him on supersoft from the get go till the end; he could've easily gotten 6th since overtaking was impossible

That was ALO's first transmission of the year. It was due to be changed for Canada...So it isn't a big problem.

[diffuser]

Fun fact, Alonso’s Q3 time was slower than last year’s pole on a tyre more than a second faster.

Pirelli's new tyre for 2018, the hypersoft, has been "0.7s to 0.8s" faster than the ultrasoft, according sporting director Mario Isola.

Pirelli's tyre gap estimation
Mediums to softs: 0.8s
Softs to supersofts: 0.4s
Supersofts to ultrasofts: 0.6s
Ultrasofts to Hypersofts: 0.7/0.8s


Also the Ultrasoft being the same name as last years tire isn't the same tire.

[Chicane]

Mclaren were no where in qualifying at the start of the season and now have the pace to be in Q3 regularly since Spain. Alonso has mentioned on more than one occasion that they know where their weaknesses are. Vandoorne has said work is going on back at the factory to address the shortcomings.

The recovery of Mclaren began in Spain with the introduction of new nose. The gearbox failure was painful as only 20 plus laps were remaining and next race anyways new GB was available. They are improving but are chasing a moving target hence it is challenging but i feel things are in motion now.

[Darth-Piekus]

I have seen some older races and I noticed that both Coulthard and Button were very close to Hakkinen and Hamilton during their times when they were driving for the second car.

Vandoorme is nowhere near Alonso. He is constantly half a second slower and if he wants to keep his seat he has to cut that difference in half. He needs to show that he can be a top team driver.

[Ground Effect]

I have seen some older races and I noticed that both Coulthard and Button were very close to Hakkinen and Hamilton during their times when they were driving for the second car.

Vandoorme is nowhere near Alonso. He is constantly half a second slower and if he wants to keep his seat he has to cut that difference in half. He needs to show that he can be a top team driver.

He isn't "constantly" half a second slower

[Per]

The numbers behind the 6-0 qualifying battle. I think there are teams where the battle looks worse for one driver, but I didn't check... let me know if you want to have a specific team checked for comparison.

            Session  ALO [s]   VAN [s]  delta [s]    %    grid positions
Australia     Q2      83.692    83.853    0.161    0.19         1
Bahrain       Q2      90.212    90.525    0.313    0.35         1
China         Q2      93.232    93.505    0.273    0.29         1
Azerbaijan    Q1     104.010   104.489    0.479    0.46         3
Spain         Q2      78.100    78.323    0.223    0.29         3
Monaco        Q2      72.269    72.440    0.171    0.24         5

AVERAGE                                   0.270    0.30

However, I do think Vandoorne has more problems in terms of race pace than in qualifying.

[diffuser]

The numbers behind the 6-0 qualifying battle. I think there are teams where the battle looks worse for one driver, but I didn't check... let me know if you want to have a specific team checked for comparison.

            Session  ALO [s]   VAN [s]  delta [s]    %    grid positions
Australia     Q2      83.692    83.853    0.161    0.19         1
Bahrain       Q2      90.212    90.525    0.313    0.35         1
China         Q2      93.232    93.505    0.273    0.29         1
Azerbaijan    Q1     104.010   104.489    0.479    0.46         3
Spain         Q2      78.100    78.323    0.223    0.29         3
Monaco        Q2      72.269    72.440    0.171    0.24         5

AVERAGE                                   0.270    0.30

However, I do think Vandoorne has more problems in terms of race pace than in qualifying.

You can't compare Van Q2 vs ALO Q2 cause ALO was faster in Q3. The Gap is then .330 not .24.

You don't know if ALO was going all out in Q2 or holding back. I just double checked Monaco...I didn't do the others.

[M840TR]

Fun fact, Alonso’s Q3 time was slower than last year’s pole on a tyre more than a second faster.

Pirelli's new tyre for 2018, the hypersoft, has been "0.7s to 0.8s" faster than the ultrasoft, according sporting director Mario Isola.

Pirelli's tyre gap estimation
Mediums to softs: 0.8s
Softs to supersofts: 0.4s
Supersofts to ultrasofts: 0.6s
Ultrasofts to Hypersofts: 0.7/0.8s


Also the Ultrasoft being the same name as last years tire isn't the same tire.

“We decided not only to move all the range one step softer, but to introduce one more level of softer compound, that is the pink hypersoft.”

Hamilton’s q2 lap on ultras was about a second slower

[Per]

You can't compare Van Q2 vs ALO Q2 cause ALO was faster in Q3. The Gap is then .330 not .24.

You don't know if ALO was going all out in Q2 or holding back. I just double checked Monaco...I didn't do the others.

If he had such a small gap to P11, of course he was going all out. Besides, rule number 1 is don't compare times across different sessions. Track conditions are always improving during qualifying, as is the drivers' feeling of the car and track. They may also be on different tyres from Q2 to Q3, because Q3 participants receive an extra set of options. I know this was not the case in Monaco because both were already on hypers in Q2, but it may happen in other cases.

In short, taking times from the last session that both drivers participated in, is the most correct thing to do.

(If you must know, the only other occasion where they didn't both go out in the same session was in Azerbaijan, where Alonso lost 0.009s in Q2 compared to Q1. So all in all, this twisted logic moves the average delta up by 0.015s.)

[Mansell89]

I think one thing that seemed clear from Monaco was the lack of mechanical grip for McLaren.

It’s something that the top teams all seem to have under control- especially Mercedes since around 2013.

For the untrained such as myself- can anyone explain how you design a car to have improved mechanical grip? I see how McLaren are looking to improve their aerodynamics but is that not largely something that you see the benefit of at high speed? In the lower speed corners, what creates the so called “mechanical grip”?

And I guess then, why are Merc ,Ferrari and RBR strong in this regard?

Thanks