2024 Mclaren Formula 1 Team

[Gillian]

Social media is defiantly an issue and not just with F1.

What a lot forget is this is Landos first season in a race winning car in F1, he has to learn from all of the new experiences he’s encountering.

The ‘mega’ Leclerc, Hamilton and Verstappen had the luxury of racing in race winning machinery in their 1-2 seasons in F1 so any mess ups they made (there was many) it gets chalked up as rookie/ in-experienced mistake. Lando isn’t being afforded such slack in his 5th season.

Haters and just gonna hate though no matter what but it’s only their race/ mood/ day they are spoiling so just leave them too it. Life is too short

Well Hamilton beat a 2-time WDC in his debut season, Leclerc beat a 4-time WDC in his second season and Verstappen came in as youngest F1 driver ever with almost no single seater experience at all, immediatly winning his first race for RB. Norris just hasnt impressed in any similiar way in his first season(s).

Its entirely not true to say these drivers didnt get slack for their mistakes. Verstappen got a huge amount of hate because of his reckless driving in his early career. Anytime Hamilton got outqualified by Bottas, there would be a lot talk about how he "lost it", "got old", bla bla.

Norris was super fast today, but theres no denying he was taking huge risks for no reasons whatsoever besides showing he's the real deal. The kid is just doubting himself (check back the interviews, his comments about Hamilton, Verstappen etc, he's just insecure in some way) and needs to prove something. It could have easily been a P1 for Verstappen and DNF for Norris today. To me it seems this is the root cause of all the hate atm. Not saying he deserves. Its similiar to how Rosberg got a lot hate for hia 2016 win for example.

[geogate]

lets take all that at face value for arguments sake ... so effing what? Hes not Verstappen or Hamilton (gonna ignore the Leclerc thing to make the argument stronger).
Formula One is about car/driver combinations - deal with it!
This simply doesn't explain the venom directed at the guy - I could list dozens of drivers that had moderate success, that Norris could almost certainly trounce in the same car, yet are fondly remembered and never received any of the venom Norris does.
Norris is a fantastic driver. One of the fastest guys on the grid - is he one of the formula one greats? No, not from his career so far. What does that make him fair game for the abuse he gets, even after he has had a great weekend

[Watto]

Very good drive by Lando.

A few little scares.But he controlled the race very very well. Managed his tyres the whole race, especially the start when Max was kinda close.

Had a nice start and I think that would have been above anything nice for his piece of mind. Had he lost the lead again, even if he won I think it just continues to grow on your mind. But today his start was good.

[Darth-Piekus]

And yet people still forget that Max was worse at first. 3 straight years he crashed so much with the whole grid named him Crashstappen. In 2021 he lost a 40 points lead from mistakes despite having a better car from someone who was in his late 30s despite having the FIA pampering him the whole year refusing to penalize him for his unsportsmanlike behavior. Sure he got his first victory but only because both Mercedes took themselves out. I suppose then Vettel who won in a Torro Rosso, Hamilton who beat Alonso in his first year and had his rookie championship stolen, Alonso beating Schumacher and Kimi back to back in an inferior Renault must be gods. Let me not talk about what Schumacher, Senna, Prost and Hakkinnen could do. You overestimate Max's skill and if you look at history compared to the previous champions he's no special.

[Watto]

Ah yes. Red Bull magically lost a 0.8 sec advantage over Mclaren after Miami and then is 0.5 at a disadvantage for some reason other than the asymmetric braking being removed. Look nobody wants anyone to be cheating but you cant help it. Red Bull is full of controversy. Budget gate, Abu Dhabi fix, Horner gate, Jos vs Red Bull, asymmetric helping wheels, special rules for Max. Take your pick.

Andrew Shovelin was asked by Ted last week I think it was if Red Bull were caught out by the asymmetric breaking ban, Shovelin said no, just that Red Bull had taken a bad development path Take Miami as McLaren brring a major update and RBR bringing updates that made the cars worse (Shovelin even called them downgrades) the paddock tends to know fairly well whats going on behind the scenes and if he denied it (and Ted said anyone else he asked said the same, andy was just the one who put a name to it.

I think its a case really of McLaren developing extremely well, 2 drives that are driving well an RBR are struggling to understand their car, saw some speculate they might have fallen into the trade some other teams fell into seeking more down force whivh maybe they got but more than the car could handle

[Balalu]

The guy just demolished the field in 2 out of the 4 last races, in a season that is known to be extremly tight between the top 7 cars, and he still get's all this gibberish?

Most of it seems to be comming from fans of other drivers/teams that are popping up en masse here latey, for no other reason than to discredit McLaren's/McLaren drivers' achievements. And they make it so obvious. It seems that Mclaren/Lando/Oscar are hurting feelings....

Onwards and Upwards

[BMMR61]

I wonder if there's a cannibal thing (genes, culture?) in many of the English. In New Zealand they have the "tall poppy" syndrome, in Australia it's "good onya mate!"

Lando isn't my favourite driver, but he's one of my favourite drivers. I felt the impulse to defend him at many times this season. He has only this year had a genuine race winning car and now has three wins. How much do people put on a driver having all the tools sharpened to do the job? Lando is blindingly smooth and fast. He qualifies well. He has learned the black art of tyres well. He also has the best teammate of all the top drivers, ready to pounce should he slip ever so slightly. I put similar things at the door of McLaren strategy team, they are learning on the job. There will be days when the RB works well and is going to beat McLaren. It's a very long shot for Lando to win the drivers title.

So over the hyperventilating of people who should know better - Will Buxton, are you there?

[BMMR61]

Ah yes. Red Bull magically lost a 0.8 sec advantage over Mclaren after Miami and then is 0.5 at a disadvantage for some reason other than the asymmetric braking being removed. Look nobody wants anyone to be cheating but you cant help it. Red Bull is full of controversy. Budget gate, Abu Dhabi fix, Horner gate, Jos vs Red Bull, asymmetric helping wheels, special rules for Max. Take your pick.

Andrew Shovelin was asked by Ted last week I think it was if Red Bull were caught out by the asymmetric breaking ban, Shovelin said no, just that Red Bull had taken a bad development path Take Miami as McLaren brring a major update and RBR bringing updates that made the cars worse (Shovelin even called them downgrades) the paddock tends to know fairly well whats going on behind the scenes and if he denied it (and Ted said anyone else he asked said the same, andy was just the one who put a name to it.

I think its a case really of McLaren developing extremely well, 2 drives that are driving well an RBR are struggling to understand their car, saw some speculate they might have fallen into the trade some other teams fell into seeking more down force whivh maybe they got but more than the car could handle

Agree, and it's only the understanding and correlation of McLaren with this year's car and the updates that give me a faint hope of beating Max to the title. The relative performance of the McLaren since the summer break has been extra impressive. Four races, two dominant races, two races able to fight for the win.

It now looks possible for McLaren to dominate most of the six races remaining. The two street races just gone were Ferrari's to lose, which they did, for different reasons. Now with the permanent circuits in the Americas it will come down to whether Red Bull find their missing form, Ferrari should fall away. Hopefully Mercedes can also get in Max's way.

[Watto]

I wonder if there's a cannibal thing (genes, culture?) in many of the English. In New Zealand they have the "tall poppy" syndrome, in Australia it's "good onya mate!"

Lando isn't my favourite driver, but he's one of my favourite drivers. I felt the impulse to defend him at many times this season. He has only this year had a genuine race winning car and now has three wins. How much do people put on a driver having all the tools sharpened to do the job? Lando is blindingly smooth and fast. He qualifies well. He has learned the black art of tyres well. He also has the best teammate of all the top drivers, ready to pounce should he slip ever so slightly. I put similar things at the door of McLaren strategy team, they are learning on the job. There will be days when the RB works well and is going to beat McLaren. It's a very long shot for Lando to win the drivers title.

So over the hyperventilating of people who should know better - Will Buxton, are you there?

I think a lot has to go right.

But, but I actually don't mind his chances. Today was an extremely good drive - he did what Max and Lewis did at their peaks, controlled the race start to finish.


I think in a way Max - as well as he drove and would have taken 2nd over day of the week if you asked him before teh weekend (even more after FP2)- was probably a little lucky, if the Ferraris didn't mess up quali their race pace was very good and very likely would have made it past Max. Ditto Oscar, may have meant Lando closed the gap by 15-17 points. and suddenly Max's lead looks very venerable. I think think Max will win the WDC, but I am not so sure I would really want to but a hell of a lot of faith in it especially if their Austin update doesn't work well. I don't think have any chance of beating McLaren on pure pace but close enough to take advantage. And maybe make them more clear 2nd best team.