2024 Mclaren Formula 1 Team

[mwillems]

Is truly MCL38 slow for the starts?
An interesting opinion about this on Ralph's post (with also some opinion about strategy, winning mentality and pit crew):

McLaren played a big part in costing Lando the win in Spain.

1. First, you can clearly see that despite Lando having the best reaction time on the grid, he still takes longer than the others to reach 200kmph. Race starts seem to be the weakness of the MCL38.

2. Second, McLaren's pit wall clearly do not have that "winning mentality", they were uncertain who they are fighting and proposed to cover off Russell who was much slower than Lando.
Lando of course told them to take the fight to Max instead, he clearly has what it takes to fight for wins.

3. Third, McLaren's pit stops are usually one of the fastest on the grid and they hold the world record for fastest pit stop (1.8s) but they still gave Lando a slow stop of 3.6 seconds, a whole 1.8 seconds slower than Red Bull. Given the gap was 2.2 seconds at the end of the race, Lando could've been within DRS in the final lap and tried to overtake Verstappen. This slow pit stop alone seems to have cost him the win. It is very unlike McLaren to make a slow pit stop so could the pressure be getting to them?

4. Last but not least, it took McLaren's pit wall too many laps to decide to box for the final set of softs which would have given Lando more laps to catch up to Max. Add this up with the slow pit stop and Lando would've been all over the back of Verstappen towards the final few laps.

It's not something I am aware of. I think in Spain Lando got wheelspin in 2nd or 3rd gear and lost a fraction. This is in part down to traction but mainly it will be the engine differential and mappings. Not really a Mclaren fault. But to be honest I think Lando just overcooked it.

The analysis in general is patchy. Pit stops didn't cost us a win, they cost the chance at an overtake, which may or may not have led to a win.

[FittingMechanics]

I think McLaren (and Norris) used to have really good starts so I am not sure if it is something that changed due to this car, engine or just Lando was unlucky couple of times. It is probably easier to take more risk when you are P8 without a chance of victory than when you are P1 in a VER/RUS sandwich.

Rest of the analysis is probably a little harsh but it does show that the team needs to be perfect to beat Verstappen or they need a bigger car differential.

[Emag]

I think McLaren (and Norris) used to have really good starts so I am not sure if it is something that changed due to this car, engine or just Lando was unlucky couple of times. It is probably easier to take more risk when you are P8 without a chance of victory than when you are P1 in a VER/RUS sandwich.

Rest of the analysis is probably a little harsh but it does show that the team needs to be perfect to beat Verstappen or they need a bigger car differential.

With respect to Max, Lando's start was good enough. But the conditions were very unfavorable for the pole sitter. Super long straight and quite a strong headwind meant that George got a super powerful double slipstream from behind and overtook them both.

[mwillems]

I think Lando could have started better. If he had, he might have defended Russell and not Max and it wouldn't have been a double tow.

[Farnborough]

I think Lando could have started better. If he had, he might have defended Russell and not Max and it wouldn't have been a double tow.

The two front row positions (all four car) appeared to have less traction on left side of track than right hand side.

Logical in that the racing line being predominantly on the left of centre has a more "developed" polish to surface aggregate in it's ultimate surface.

Both MV & GR simply out traction the left two on initial movement of car mass to get them rolling, doesn't look like down to technique from LN & LH in this case.

MV got then a little boxed by LN crowding him, natural given importance of start, but GR spotting that gap ( he checked left and looked in mirror too) didn't cap his acceleration progress from initial advantage. Quite an astute move actually.

Think LN was quite hard on himself for this one, but that initial phase of traction seemed unavoidable from that left side start in comparison to right.

[mwillems]

I think Lando could have started better. If he had, he might have defended Russell and not Max and it wouldn't have been a double tow.

The two front row positions (all four car) appeared to have less traction on left side of track than right hand side.

Logical in that the racing line being predominantly on the left of centre has a more "developed" polish to surface aggregate in it's ultimate surface.

Both MV & GR simply out traction the left two on initial movement of car mass to get them rolling, doesn't look like down to technique from LN & LH in this case.

MV got then a little boxed by LN crowding him, natural given importance of start, but GR spotting that gap ( he checked left and looked in mirror too) didn't cap his acceleration progress from initial advantage. Quite an astute move actually.

Think LN was quite hard on himself for this one, but that initial phase of traction seemed unavoidable from that left side start in comparison to right.

Lando didn't lose time until after he'd hit about 110kph, I don't think this was track surface as the initial phase was fine. And it was probably 3rd gear not second that he had the wheelspin. You can see from the start that he maintains the "Box distance" and slightly extends it initially.

MV did got boxed in but this is the point I put forward. Was Lando's focus too Singular here? Seemed to me that the only thing he cared about was Max, which isn't very clever racing, that was more about making a point and staying in front of "the guy and the rival" at the expense of racing awareness.

I'm not going to say he had a bad start, he didn't. but you have to be almost perfect now to be able to get the advantage. This is why max will often get the advantage. No disrespect to Norris. He will learn and be the one to maximise his opportunities in the future but I think he could have managed that better. That doesn't mean I expect him to, but I think he could have been a little more street smart.

[mwillems]

Right on cue.

[CjC]

Well at least he’ll have 2 starts this weekend to get it right

[Mostlyeels]

https://www.racefans.net/2024/06/28/rac ... p-28-06-7/

Stella helped to achieved the team’s recent success through getting the best from their existing staff, rather than going on a recruiting spree from rival teams, said Norris.

“He’s a classy guy, Andrea. Very emotionally intelligent,” Norris told The Telegraph.

“That’s probably one of his biggest strengths. He knows how to make everyone feel good. A lot of the improvements we’ve made in recent years are not because we’ve hired 1,000 new people and gone, ‘right, let’s turn things upside down!’. A lot of the guys have been here for the last 10 years. They just weren’t being exploited in the best way.”

[organic]

[Tomsky]

[SilviuAgo]

Until Silverstone Aston will run out of money
But to bring 21 "performance" upgrades and to be more than +1.5 second in race trim from the leaders, is something.

I am curious about McL new front wing. Seems the new FW architecture played well for Mercedes.
And I saw Lando today, he's not looking good. More ill than in Barcelona

[CjC]

Do both cars have the new wing available to them?

[Tomsky]

[FittingMechanics]

Do both cars have the new wing available to them?

They were switching the wing from Lando to Oscar so maybe not.