[ 2020 ] Mclaren F1 Team - Renault

[willmesquita]

Norris last lap, the fastest lap of the race

Great lap without DRS.

[Emag]

Lance was plagued by engine issues so I am not going to take his pace as representative. If you rewatch some moments of the race you can see that Perez had a lot of pace in that car. Although it is close between McLaren and RP on the same tire, I feel like they hold a slight advantage on race-trim at the moment. But I am sure if that is the case, the team will be the first to know since Seidl said that they were going to analyse everything tomorrow.

Also worth noting that McLaren themselves were almost 100% certain they were not going to be able to fight with the RacingPoint on Sunday and they surprised themselves on both Saturday and Sunday. McLaren went quite a bit quicker from Practice to Qualifying meaning they were leaving a lot in hand during the FP sessions. They either assumed that everyone was holding their hand just like them, or they found something to unlock some extra performance from the car inbetween sessions.

Either way, I am hopeful that the upgrades the team will bring in the upcoming races (particularly Silverstone since Sainz mentioned they were bringing a whole package there) will be enough to bridge that gap to RP so that the team can focus on fighting with Ferrari for 3rd (Assuming Ferrari doesn't leapfrog everyone in the midfield with that anticipated Hungary upgrade).

As for RedBull, I personally feel like they are a little too ahead this year to beat with upgrades. Maybe they can fight with Alex on his bad days but Max might be a little out of touch. Norris was losing more than 0.5s per lap in race trim to Max on this race and that is with the harder compound on the RedBull. The Austria lap is very short too, so the difference may be bigger on some other longer tracks.

I am going to mention again that this is still a pretty decent step in performance for the team. Very much continuing their trend set in 2019. This was only the first year of the season, so maybe we should wait a couple of races before we have a final verdict on that, but I am hopeful this car will not bring nasty surprises in the future because it has been so well behaved since the day it hit the track back in winter testing. If the compromises to fit the Merc engine do not hinder the performance too much next year then who knows, they might be able to take another small step forward.

But let's not get carried away. We don't know what the future will hold.
But the present is full of positives for the team and I couldn't be more happier as a long-time fan after struggling to see any silver lining since 2013.

[Jackles-UK]

I think early on in stints the RP was a match or slightly faster than the McLaren but as the stints progressed the McLaren looked much more comfortable and allowed both Sainz & Norris to gap Stroll & Perez respectively, even before Stroll’s engine issue.

I think this points to the RP being very fast but also a bit on-edge, similar to a number of the early 2010’s McLaren cars. I guess this is likely given their new car is such a radical departure from the 2019 car so they’re having to try and understand it on the fly; the MCL35 however is very much an evolution of the already very drivable MCL34 so setup and understanding can be carried over to a much greater extent.

[search]

the car looked good today indeed. Also no technical problems, which can't be said about many teams (only Ferrari and Sauber, apart from them?!)

[Jackles-UK]

Great video of last lap push with uncensored team radio:

**warning: some choice language! **

[Ground Effect]

I think the new RP is far superior to the 2019 RP. Also, if they had changed Perez's tires during one of the pace cars, it would have been much more difficult to get past him. So I'm not sure what you are jumping up and down about with regards to RP. Their pace is right there.

It's possible that Norris/Sainz would do the opposite of Perez, if he pitted for a second time one would stay out. It would make sense to take that gamble at least with one of the drivers. It's strange Perez didn't pit, he was the only medium runner so he had to expect to be borderline on the tire wear.

Checo only had a set of new hards left, even if he pitted when everyone else did, he would have been on the slower tyre. So likely they banked on his tyre management and hoped he’d make the mediums last.

[PhillipM]

Car seems to be very kind on it's tyres once again - they had a lot more pace towards the end of tyre stints compared to those around them versus on fresh tyres.

[Mansell89]

Car seems to be very kind on it's tyres once again - they had a lot more pace towards the end of tyre stints compared to those around them versus on fresh tyres.

Interesting wasn’t it how the pace stabilised once they got up and running a few laps into a stint. Hoping that’s a positive for the rest of the season.

PhillipM do you think the Ferrari is kind on its tyres? I thought they looked stronger as the race went on, even Seb as well before he lost the rear.

[mwillems]

Seemed like they needed a bit more time to warm the tyres, but race pace was pretty decent I thought.

To be fair the race fell into their hands but good strategy did play a part. I look forward to round 2, I still don't feel like I really know where the Mclaren is in the field. Competitive at least. Fingers crossed we can at least have some battles. Albon looks decent aside from the unfortunate incident but we might be crossing paths with him a bit still.

[diffuser]

I think the new RP is far superior to the 2019 RP. Also, if they had changed Perez's tires during one of the pace cars, it would have been much more difficult to get past him. So I'm not sure what you are jumping up and down about with regards to RP. Their pace is right there.

It's possible that Norris/Sainz would do the opposite of Perez, if he pitted for a second time one would stay out. It would make sense to take that gamble at least with one of the drivers. It's strange Perez didn't pit, he was the only medium runner so he had to expect to be borderline on the tire wear.

Checo only had a set of new hards left, even if he pitted when everyone else did, he would have been on the slower tyre. So likely they banked on his tyre management and hoped he’d make the mediums last.

Pretty sure he had his choice of tires that had 3 or fewer laps if he didn't unused tires. The reason why he didn't put afterwards was he didn't want to give up track position. Even if he would have waited till the 3ird pace car. Three lap old SS would have been better and got him to the end.

[JRindt]

I think the new RP is far superior to the 2019 RP. Also, if they had changed Perez's tires during one of the pace cars, it would have been much more difficult to get past him. So I'm not sure what you are jumping up and down about with regards to RP. Their pace is right there.

If they had changed Perez’s tires during on of the safety cars, he would’ve lost track position and he would’ve been the one that had to do the overtaking. I’m not sure how that would’ve played out, but Lando was able to keep him behind on equal tires in first stint. Also, Lando also said after qualy that the car was better on low fuel than high fuel. So, the odds are Mclaren would’ve still finished ahead of RP.

Besides, everyone including both the teams thought RP would be clearly faster. But, Mclaren to be “right there” with them is the reason for all this jubilation. I’m sure they would be faster with the Silverstone upgrades.

Although, I do think the team itself knew they had RP covered and were playing down their chances, straight out of Toto’s play book.

[SmallSoldier]

I think the new RP is far superior to the 2019 RP. Also, if they had changed Perez's tires during one of the pace cars, it would have been much more difficult to get past him. So I'm not sure what you are jumping up and down about with regards to RP. Their pace is right there.

If they had changed Perez’s tires during on of the safety cars, he would’ve lost track position and he would’ve been the one that had to do the overtaking. I’m not sure how that would’ve played out, but Lando was able to keep him behind on equal tires in first stint. Also, Lando also said after qualy that the car was better on low fuel than high fuel. So, the odds are Mclaren would’ve still finished ahead of RP.

Besides, everyone including both the teams thought RP would be clearly faster. But, Mclaren to be “right there” with them is the reason for all this jubilation. I’m sure they would be faster with the Silverstone upgrades.

Although, I do think the team itself knew they had RP covered and were playing down their chances, straight out of Toto’s play book.

I believe they were genuinely concerned about Racing Point, even Seidl made an statement after the race that based on what they saw on Friday, they didn’t expect to have enough pace to fight with Racing Point and alluded to potentially difference in fuel loads and engine modes playing a part on the apparent difference in expected pace.

The track was also warmer today and not sure how much that could affected Mclaren in a positive way and Racing Point in a negative way to close the apparent gap, with the midfield been very close so far, a couple tenth up for a team and down for the other could make a big difference.

Lastly, we need to consider that Austria was one of the best tracks for Mclaren last season, glad that it still suits the car well this year and that the team extracted a big amount of points in the first race.


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[Andres125sx]

McLaren 2nd in the WCC? Really?

Awesome job by both drivers, congrats to Lando for his very first podium! And very good job by Sainz too, 3rd and 5th was impressive.

This will not last long, but enjoy it for the rest of the week as its the result of some hard work by McLaren!!

[SAEED]

Does anyone know how Lando got passed by Charles? Lando could have got second place.

[genarro]

Does anyone know how Lando got passed by Charles? Lando could have got second place.

when lando was fighting with Perez, Leclerc cought up with them and overtook both.