2018 McLaren F1 Team - Renault

[CjC]

I think I'll wait till the latter stages of the season to make my mind up about it all. It's only the second quali session of the season

[Singabule]

MCL is auto pilot with no real leadership inside. The team is lead by Alo and PP. Thats it. They should bring fresh blood instead and kick EB. He is useless

[Fulcrum]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaU6pqhwur4

[Bisonas]

Common, i am the last person i would possibly speak about draggy chassis, but common.
The worst first and third sector from all Renault engines by HUGE margin. I mean common.
we are talking about 2-3 slow to medium corners and rest is full throttle on both S1 and S3 and they are 0.3s behind Renault on each sector. Not to mention slowest speed traps of Renault engines.
Instead of going forward they are going backwards . Jeez..
That new nose, carries a lot of weight in her shoulders it seems. It will dictate many things that may happen depending on its performance.

[Alonso Fan]

Those aero updates can't come soon enough

[Singabule]

Im still wondering the decision to not to place cooler above the engine and install only on side of it.. Backfire almost an instant.

[Benii6]

I think I'll wait till the latter stages of the season to make my mind up about it all. It's only the second quali session of the season

I'm disappointed about today, but I agree with you. Mainly because I don't understand where all the pace went. In Australia Alonso was 0,15s off Hulk, but today he was +1s off. And that's with the updates they brought here, which one would assume would bring them closer.

[Alonso Fan]

It's completely possible that this track layout doesn't suit the car at all. It's also known that the McLaren is light on its tyres which means that in the cooler conditions it can't heat them up quickly enough for 1 lap pace. The reassuring thing is that race pace looked decent (ahead of gasly ahem). Also remember Toro Rosso are on their second engine already, and they had an aero update for this race. Lots of parts still to come for mclaren.

They just inexplicably lost loads of pace in 2 weeks. I think (and hope) its specific to this track

[amho]

It's completely possible that this track layout doesn't suit the car at all. It's also known that the McLaren is light on its tyres which means that in the cooler conditions it can't heat them up quickly enough for 1 lap pace. The reassuring thing is that race pace looked decent (ahead of gasly ahem). Also remember Toro Rosso are on their second engine already, and they had an aero update for this race. Lots of parts still to come for mclaren.

They just inexplicably lost loads of pace in 2 weeks. I think (and hope) its specific to this track

I agree, mclaren pace in long runs is better than a single lap, it means that the car is gentle on tire and can't generate enough heat for tire over a single lap or their setup favours heavy fuel loads rather than a light car.

[bauc]

I just watched some onboards from Alonso and Vandoorne. The car lacks stability in turns 11, 12 & 13 as the drivers do quite a lot of steering adjustments and also it seems that the car is twitchy on acceleration at the exit from turn 10 as well.

Out of this, I think lack of grip is evident. Is it due to the the inability to put heat in the treys for 1 lap run? (remember the radio call to Alonso before Q2 where his racing engineer advised him to do the warm up lap as they practiced, also remember pre-season where the team spent the most of their laps with hyper soft tire which has the best grip and has the best worm up properties) or simply the car has some setup issue is yet to be explained

[Ground Effect]

What happened ? The car was nowhere

Out developed by others.
We'll see race pace but for this race it doesn't look good.

The only thing I can think of at the moment is that they went on the wrong side with the setup

If you go on the wrong side of the setup after 3 practice sessions... well...

[CjC]

I think I'll wait till the latter stages of the season to make my mind up about it all. It's only the second quali session of the season

I'm disappointed about today, but I agree with you. Mainly because I don't understand where all the pace went. In Australia Alonso was 0,15s off Hulk, but today he was +1s off. And that's with the updates they brought here, which one would assume would bring them closer.

Also Alonso:
"We think big upgrades will come to the car later in the season and that will hopefully put us in a more competitive group so in these first races we need to score points, that's the main priority."

Credit: http://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12433/ ... or-mclaren

This is more to suggest we need to wait till the latter stages of the season before we all go crazy

[7sn]

Some people can be so gullible sometimes. I believed them when they pointed their weekness towards honda’s engine. They criticised them openly in the media. Well I think it’s time Mclaren apologised for making them look like fools and acknowledge it’s Woking, which has become a sleepy town.
Sack the trio of baboons EB/PP/ZB and bring someone with determination and self respecto!

[Benii6]

I think I'll wait till the latter stages of the season to make my mind up about it all. It's only the second quali session of the season

I'm disappointed about today, but I agree with you. Mainly because I don't understand where all the pace went. In Australia Alonso was 0,15s off Hulk, but today he was +1s off. And that's with the updates they brought here, which one would assume would bring them closer.

Also Alonso:
"We think big upgrades will come to the car later in the season and that will hopefully put us in a more competitive group so in these first races we need to score points, that's the main priority."

Credit: http://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12433/ ... or-mclaren

This is more to suggest we need to wait till the latter stages of the season before we all go crazy

That and we need to be a bit more realistic with the upcoming upgrades. I doubt they'll magically gain those 1.5s and fight for podiums in the next 2 months.
That being said, I'm kind of excited for what can Alonso do tomorrow.

[Ground Effect]

I think I'll wait till the latter stages of the season to make my mind up about it all. It's only the second quali session of the season

I'm disappointed about today, but I agree with you. Mainly because I don't understand where all the pace went. In Australia Alonso was 0,15s off Hulk, but today he was +1s off. And that's with the updates they brought here, which one would assume would bring them closer.

Also Alonso:
"We think big upgrades will come to the car later in the season and that will hopefully put us in a more competitive group so in these first races we need to score points, that's the main priority."

Credit: http://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12433/ ... or-mclaren

This is more to suggest we need to wait till the latter stages of the season before we all go crazy

The thing is, Mclaren never start from a place of humility, or even modesty or restraint. They bragged about the chassis last year. I know they're trying to get sponsors, but they talk too much, too big and too loud. Fernando was already talking about leaving the midfield after a fortuitous 5th place. Less talk more action.