2024 Mclaren Formula 1 Team

[PapayaFan481]

It's the first time since I've been following F1 that I've heard a race engineer is to blame for the strategy adopted by the team. The engineer of course has an input, but he's fed data, which he passes to the driver. He's monitoring the car performance on every single lap, telling the driver where he's losing time, where he can find time, to cool the car, warning of track limits, telling him what those he's racing against are doing on track and the strategy they're adopting. But we need to fire him because he doesn't shout, scold or threaten the driver? He passes the info that the team decides they will adopt.

My take is that people are criticising him for the way he asked the question to Lando... "Softs to cover Lewis or Mediums to cover Max?" rather than simply "We think Mediums will be faster, shall we fit those?"

[FittingMechanics]

What coin? The coin you present as an example, where Will Joseph is suddenly not following the advice of strategists and agreeing a way forward with Stella and the rest of the team?

That coin doesn't exist, it's made up.

The big man is next to him, who didn't want to overrule the strategy team. Explain why Will Joseph trumps Stella and others, please?

Important to note, the only team radio made public is that between team and driver, not internal team comms.

Edit: If you want a name for who can alter the culture to get people making better decisions in crunch times in race, the name is Stella, not Joseph. The past few races at the very top have been his first mis-step in the progress of Mclaren, one which I'm sure he'll get on top of and one that is totally forgivable, particularly given everything he has done for the team.

You can't know what the strategy team was saying and what the dynamics were. The way Tom talked to Piastri seems to indicate strategy team thought the mediums are the best tyre and yet Lando heard "softs to cover Hamilton, mediums to cover Verstappen".

I don't think anyone should blame Will Joseph solely for this, I think it is clear that Lando likes and wants that type of talk where he has a large say in the decision making. I think this is wrong as he does not have all the data and giving him hard decisions to make in critical moments of the race is putting too much on his shoulders. Maybe someone like Alonso, Hamilton or (now) Verstappen can make the best call from inside the car but I don't think Lando is at that point in his career. To me, looking at Lando and his races in previous years it is obvious that he wants to be consulted like he was. This probably needs to change and decision making needs to be quicker and more decisive. They are still conservative (no double stack) which may be good for points average but will lead to them not getting wins when they are on offer.

To end it all, I think everyone in team is aware of what happened and from what I could gather from Stella, they will make some changes in how they do things so these things are done better in the future. I think Will Joseph is a great engineer and he has a good relationship with Norris so that shouldn't change, but they probably need to feed only critical info to Norris, not lay down all the options for Norris to pick.

[mwillems]

Well no, we can't know what is happening behind the scenes, that is my point. You don't know who decided what to say and whether it should be a choice. This is why I don't think anyone should be pointing fingers at any individual. Nor do I see an issue with the way it is presented. All drivers are given choices in strategy and Lando is very close to the engineers. He know what they mean and what they are getting at far better than we ever do. The fact that it was a choice between covering Max or going for the win makes clear that the team knew it was a risk and the softs may not cover Verstappen.
However, the team were expecting to come out just behind Lewis with a big old tow and immediate DRS, which would have changed this entire conversation, irrespective of whether he'd got past him. If the pit had gone well,Lando with fresher tyres on had a good chance of getting past Hamilton Quickly, getting fresh air and giving Ham dirty air, and put Ham as a buffer between Max and Lando.

Still it'd been the wrong tyre, but it would have been much less clear and the conversation about presentation non existent because the question being asked was never a problem, the problem was the data and the decision that led to a perfectly normal racing choice. And of course the pit stop the stopped us from getting DRS and a tow to at least hang behind Ham and only fight Max at the very end.

So for me the teams question, "Do you want to take a risk for the win? Do you need softs for a quick attack or meds for the long haul?" was perfectly fine. Of course you've got to ask the driver, it's nuts to think you're not going to ask the driver.

In terms of Oscar, it's appropriate that they might not have risked softs because he was cruising to 4th and had no need for that risk so the new medium was the only option, there was nothing for him to risk

[_cerber1]

It's time to turn the page. What are our expectations from the Hungarian Grand Prix? A track with a lot of slow corners and not a lot of long straights looks good on paper for us, does it?

[NiyolHuayra]

It's time to turn the page. What are our expectations from the Hungarian Grand Prix? A track with a lot of slow corners and not a lot of long straights looks good on paper for us, does it?

Any news on the updates side? But Hungary has always suited McLaren cars, so I expect them to preform well.

[CjC]

I know it’s gonna stir the pot again (sorry)

This is a decent and equally infuriating article (infuriating because it’s a reminder of all of the failed attempts to win) however Edd makes a point that on 2 occasions McLaren did make good strategy calls and effectively stuck to their guns albeit McLaren still didn’t win.

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/is-m ... 24-f1-car/

This article is infuriating though. It’s discussing Oscar’s Q3 lap being deleted in Imola. Stupid kerb/ gravel layout- the cars are 2m wide so why isn’t the white line painted 1.8m from the edge of the gravel so the car has to stay on the track to stay out of the gravel- simple really?
Stupid FIA for not reviewing the footage of Sainz being over the white line just like Oscar and stupid McLaren for not filling the form in correctly.

https://www.racefans.net/2024/07/16/sai ... d-mclaren/

[mwillems]

I have no doubt we'll be competitive at every track. The question is more about who will be competitive with us, I think.

We are the more rounded car, a bit of a Jack of all trades and a master of none right now, but not far off being a master in several of the key areas so that's not a bad thing.

I expect Merc to be very good here and for RB to be in the fight, but the track may come a little bit away from RB and towards Mclaren.
Ferrari also may well come back into it now, I expect their car to work well with the 180s and the kerbs.

All in all, Hungary will probably be a very tight battle.

[Lucky]

[PapayaFan481]

You know you're doing something right when Red Bull start moaning

[Macklaren]

McLaren motorhome severely damaged in thunderstorms. I guess our luck pendulum is deep in bad territory ready to swing back hard into good for the 2nd half of the season

[mwillems]

Lando stating the car was the reason for the deg at the final stint in Silverstone, stating that we were never going to win if we came out ahead of Ham on softs.


https://www.planetf1.com/news/lando-nor ... n-red-bull

[LionsHeart]

I have been away for 8 days and only 3 new pages during this period. It's good that it didn't take that much time and I wouldn't have missed anything if I hadn't read them.

As for the upcoming weekend, the heat is forecasted to be 32-34 degrees Celsius. The winner will be the one who is strong in slow and medium-speed corners in such high heat, I imagine that the asphalt temperature will exceed 52 degrees. Considering that the tires will be C3-C5, that's at least two pit stops, the optimal option would be Medium and Hard tires. Soft will fail very quickly. Perhaps we'll see the same as a year ago. True, Max was beyond competition then, but now he won't have such an advantage. Let's see how Mercedes copes with the heat. They're comfortable in cool conditions. And in the heat? We'll see.

Overall, McLaren should be strong. I wonder if Ferrari can even get back into the fight. The last track that needed maximum downforce was Monaco.

I haven't really read the news, but I haven't seen any news about updates today. Let's see if there will be an updated list of bottoms or sidepods.

[Ben1980]

Lando stating the car was the reason for the deg at the final stint in Silverstone, stating that we were never going to win if we came out ahead of Ham on softs.


https://www.planetf1.com/news/lando-nor ... n-red-bull

What would he know? I've read enough people saying it was thrown away, a guaranteed win.

[mwillems]

Lando stating the car was the reason for the deg at the final stint in Silverstone, stating that we were never going to win if we came out ahead of Ham on softs.


https://www.planetf1.com/news/lando-nor ... n-red-bull

What would he know? I've read enough people saying it was thrown away, a guaranteed win.

I'm just keeping this about the cars Deg, let's move on from that.

Seems like there is still work to be done. Hungary will also take its toll on the tyres.

[organic]

Lando stating the car was the reason for the deg at the final stint in Silverstone, stating that we were never going to win if we came out ahead of Ham on softs.


https://www.planetf1.com/news/lando-nor ... n-red-bull

What would he know? I've read enough people saying it was thrown away, a guaranteed win.

I'm just keeping this about the cars Deg, let's move on from that.

Seems like there is still work to be done. Hungary will also take its toll on the tyres.

Oscar's deg looked fine on the mediums

Lando just pushed way too hard at beginning of final stint @ Silverstone