2023 - McLaren Formula 1 Team

[continuum16]

I will be honest, I did not have faith in McLaren. Objectively this is the best the team has looked in years. Let us not forget, however, that one lap pace and race pace are different beasts. Haas will tell you. Even Lando was P3 on the grid before these updates in Spain. While the race pace looked decent in practice we won’t know for sure until tomorrow afternoon how much the car has really improved. If both cars come home in the top 6 then maybe it’s time to crack open the champagne and celebrate a turnaround. Hopefully im not raining on the parade too hard; we’ve seen the team have good weekends before and fail to translate them into long-term success (how big was the turnaround that Spa, Monza, Sochi ‘21 provided? After that, Seidl, Key, and co. were lauded all over, including here), so we must wait and see what happens over the rest of the year.

As for these updates and whose credit they should go to, Key was officially let go (press release was issued) at the end of March. I hesitate to believe that they wholesale redesigned, tested, and produced “every part that touches the air” in three months. Already at the launch they mentioned that they were changing direction and were 2-3 months behind. To me it seems like fundamentally at least this package would have been in development while Key was at least still employed. For sure, the change of structure and personnel shifting will have an impact on decisions regarding certain aspects of this update and the general culture of the technical department. Conveniently we no longer hear about things like the wind tunnel or sim or whatever else being a bottleneck, which is nice even though nothings changed yet in that area (should be close, no?).

In short, there are less signs that this is a false dawn than in the past, and clearly the car is moving forward, which is good. Whoever gets credit is more of a semantic issue than a substantial one, and unless James Key, Pete Prod, and Neil Oatley are here (hello if you are!) we won’t know. Tomorrow will tell us more than today for sure.

[organic]

I am very impressed and overjoyed about the performance. Congrats to the team.

Hopefully it translates into excellent race pace. From fp2 Lando showed hints of this once he passed Alonso.. fingers crossed battle will be with Ferrari/Merc for at least Norris

If the results continue it is one of the best upgrade packages I've seen in years.

[SmallSoldier]

Mika Hakkinens words not quite so whacko now are they?! Crikey.

He either had a crystal ball or access to their wind tunnel numbers

Lol… Neither, but the team did know what they could expect in terms of lap time improvement from the new parts and with Mika been “a part of the Team”, I’m sure he was told that were expecting a considerable improvement from the new package.

[MTudor]

Don't really know where we are in terms of quali pace after last night changes.. I had a small look at FP2 the onboards, the balance looked okay, I think Oscar will be a surprise he looks proper quick this weekend. Best of luck to both drivers

You were right about Oscar

[MTudor]

Generally we can all agree that the car is way better after the upgrades. Now I wonder how much better it can become once it's complete the full upgrade and starts tweaking it.

Out of curiosity. What did Mclaren bring for Silverstone? Got any pictures to compare?

Red Flag. Lando might be lucky keeping his position the moment rain started dropping and the track might get wet a lot by the time they get back out.

Verstappen hitting the wall after coming out of his pitlane. I don't think that has ever happened before in F1.

Let's go Lando. P1 on Q1. The car does seem to like these changable conditions.

Mclaren are bringing the tyres in the right window from the start of the lap,same as Haas and that's why Mclaren loves the cooler track surface.

[MTudor]

Can we safely say that sacking James Key, getting Andrea Stella in a higher position releasing the potential of Peter Prodromou and bringing Neil Oatley on the front did make a difference after all.

Yes,yes and yes

[MTudor]

A trait of the RB is how it can follow other cars. I look forward to seeing how the Mclaren behaves in this regard tomorrow.

Mclaren still has a drag problem and the Mercedes PU dosen't help either(it's the 3rd slowest on the grid) so I expect that tomorrow we will fall in the 5-6 positions on the straits.

[thestig84]

Awesome result for them, really happy to see it.
Just my unqualified observation but it definitely seemed that the team were very reserved when interacting with Zak's high fives etc. I know the team were incredibly happy but they are not comfortable with him at all. Just what I thought watching them and was curious if anyone else noticed that? Maybe it is management style of "I am the ruthless cold boss and not your mate" taken to a high level.

Totally disagree and don't really know what you were watching. Everyone looked to be expecting and enjoying his enthusiasm. Well done McLaren and Zak, enjoy the evening and fingers crossed for tomorrow.

[saputra_25]

I will be honest, I did not have faith in McLaren. Objectively this is the best the team has looked in years. Let us not forget, however, that one lap pace and race pace are different beasts. Haas will tell you. Even Lando was P3 on the grid before these updates in Spain. While the race pace looked decent in practice we won’t know for sure until tomorrow afternoon how much the car has really improved. If both cars come home in the top 6 then maybe it’s time to crack open the champagne and celebrate a turnaround. Hopefully im not raining on the parade too hard; we’ve seen the team have good weekends before and fail to translate them into long-term success (how big was the turnaround that Spa, Monza, Sochi ‘21 provided? After that, Seidl, Key, and co. were lauded all over, including here), so we must wait and see what happens over the rest of the year.

As for these updates and whose credit they should go to, Key was officially let go (press release was issued) at the end of March. I hesitate to believe that they wholesale redesigned, tested, and produced “every part that touches the air” in three months. Already at the launch they mentioned that they were changing direction and were 2-3 months behind. To me it seems like fundamentally at least this package would have been in development while Key was at least still employed. For sure, the change of structure and personnel shifting will have an impact on decisions regarding certain aspects of this update and the general culture of the technical department. Conveniently we no longer hear about things like the wind tunnel or sim or whatever else being a bottleneck, which is nice even though nothings changed yet in that area (should be close, no?).

In short, there are less signs that this is a false dawn than in the past, and clearly the car is moving forward, which is good. Whoever gets credit is more of a semantic issue than a substantial one, and unless James Key, Pete Prod, and Neil Oatley are here (hello if you are!) we won’t know. Tomorrow will tell us more than today for sure.

fair enough about race pace. I hope you are wrong and we get podium tomorrow. Who knows, perhaps tomorrow would one of those days where Max makes mistake and ends up behind after first few corners

[mwillems]

A trait of the RB is how it can follow other cars. I look forward to seeing how the Mclaren behaves in this regard tomorrow.

Mclaren still has a drag problem and the Mercedes PU dosen't help either(it's the 3rd slowest on the grid) so I expect that tomorrow we will fall in the 5-6 positions on the straits.

That charts I've seen, which are not conclusive, show the Mclaren pretty handy on the straights. I haven't seen top speeds yet though.

I do t think we will drop back to 7th and 8th, we are faster than many of the cars behind.

[mwillems]

I suspect conditions will be a factor, cooler conditions may play to our advantage.

[geogate]

hearing the crowd when Lando briefly P1 though - that was something. way to go Piastri too - can't believe some were ever doubting him

[saputra_25]

I suspect conditions will be a factor, cooler conditions may play to our advantage.

do we know what was the temperature during Q3 today?

[MrGapes]

Mclaren lead aero designer "More to come"

[Macafangrskg]

I suspect conditions will be a factor, cooler conditions may play to our advantage.

do we know what was the temperature during Q3 today?

It started 21 at q1 , 23 at q2 , 26 at q3.

Dont worry the long pace looks good only RB and Ferrari are ahead