[ 2020 ] Mclaren F1 Team - Renault

[mwillems]

This is my take on the new used tyre talk after watching FP2.
Carlos was in the pits when Lando red flagged the session.
He did a new tyre run then did a second run on the same set of tyres and set 2 personal best in sectors 1 and 2 and his overall laptime was within 2ths of his previous new tyre lap.
That is why the team was happy with the used run laptime.
Obviously it goes to show that his new tyre run wasn’t the best.....
Does any know what the laptime delta is between and new and old quali sim?

Lando looked better yesterday than Carlos and I think he’d have been up there with Renault on the timesheets- I think he said that as much himself?

Anyway today is Saturday and I’m hoping we can show the same improvement from Friday to Saturday as we have over the last few weekends but I’m hoping the lack of turning engine up doesn’t hold us back now... Carlos said last weekend that Renaults ‘party mode’ has ‘saved’ a few of Mclaren’s qualifying sessions this season

No parties any more though, just one mode, but that seems to work in our favour.

I'm surprised to see us struggling to find the sweet spot here, at least more than others, but we will see what FP3 and Qualifying give us.

[Andres125sx]

Maybe McLaren is hidding the real pace?

The weak point of the car are slow corners, wich does not exist in this track... so it should be best track of the season, at least if the high DF package is any efficient.

[mwillems]

Yeah I would have thought exactly the same, and I hope they are hiding their pace, but 1.6s down on Verstappen and Stroll also on mediums is stopping my optimism from rising too much.

Let's see what happens, hopefully we will find some time, and I'm sure we will, just not sure it will be enough to stop us scrapping for P10.

[101FlyingDutchman]

We shall see in a bit but the engine looks mega turned down when you look at the end of s3 into s1. No reason to be this far off in s1 alone.
Looks decent in middle sector

[Ground Effect]

Looks like the team is having a tough time

[BrunoH]

could it be that the Renault PU is having a harder time to harvest than the other engines? ( renault team also seem to be not in a very good shape )

[ThePapayaJaguar]

Yeah, we are definitely having a tough time out there.

[Emag]

They are saying solid practice on the team stream. I don't know if that's solid because they have adjusted expectations after yesterday, or because they know they can get more on qualifying.
Still, it doesn't look like this is going to be a good one for the team.

[Chalke]

Form seems to have shifted somewhat inline with engine manufacturer, maybe more so than ther others Renault asked for lower settings before quali after the heavy loads at Spa and Monza? If not Q3 looks like it's going to be one of the tougher ones this year for McLaren.

[CjC]

No soft run from Norris?

[Ground Effect]

Maybe Monza took so much life out of the Renault engines that they’re reeeeally turning them down for FP’s or am I grasping at straws?

[Macklaren]

Ummm... Are we going to talk about the Ferrari powered cars are suddenly super quick at the anniversary race including Alfa and Haas? Engine modes or something else??

[Chalke]

No soft run from Norris?

I think he was out when Gasly brought out the yellows, cutting through the gravel. Lando might have lost his run then.

[Xero]

It does look like they focused on race pace a bit more, but there's no denying it looks like it's going to be a difficult weekend. They just haven't managed to dial the car into this circuit, for whatever reason. Be delighted with any haul of points at this stage.

[mwillems]

This race will be hard on the engine, it wouldn't surprise me if they are being super cautious in all of the practise sessions, and I am sure they are turned down a lot. But it still feels like there is some time they are not able to bring to the table and that it will be a struggle to get to Q3.

Now watch them turn it up massively in Qualy and prove me wrong...