2023 - McLaren Formula 1 Team

[djos]

I have awful news for you djos

Oh, did Lando get his lap deleted?

it was Race qualifying

Ah, I always get the sprint weekend format mixed up.

[MrGapes]

how many soft sets did both Oscar and Lando use in quali?

They didn't use a soft in practice and had to do used soft runs in quali... so either they are saving one set of softs for the race or they have taken a extra medium or hard in the allocation.

[Ground Effect]

Surprising that Oscar was that much slower than Lando, was this Oscar’s first time at COTA? I can’t recall.

Think I heard one of the commentators say he was a rookie at COTA.

Ah that makes sense, one practice session is not much to learn a track’s nuances in real life.

Oscar tested with Alpine at COTA early last year. He made a mistake on his second run in Q3, looked like top 4, or at least top 5 was doable. These things happen, but I hope he can make good progress in the race like Singapore, plus some good fortune.

[search]

how many soft sets did both Oscar and Lando use in quali?

both have used 5 sets. One new set left for SQ3, same as for Verstappen, Hamilton and Ferrari.

Those teams went out on used Softs from practice in Q1, so McLaren didn't really gain much by saving tyres in FP1.

[mwillems]

Think I heard one of the commentators say he was a rookie at COTA.

Ah that makes sense, one practice session is not much to learn a track’s nuances in real life.

Oscar tested with Alpine at COTA early last year. He made a mistake on his second run in Q3, looked like top 4, or at least top 5 was doable. These things happen, but I hope he can make good progress in the race like Singapore, plus some good fortune.

Yeah he was up and down. Some good laps some not so good. Q3 didn't have a good one for Oscar unfortunately.

Let's hope Norris can keep his momentum and Oscar can pick it up today.

[djos]

Think I heard one of the commentators say he was a rookie at COTA.

Ah that makes sense, one practice session is not much to learn a track’s nuances in real life.

Oscar tested with Alpine at COTA early last year. He made a mistake on his second run in Q3, looked like top 4, or at least top 5 was doable. These things happen, but I hope he can make good progress in the race like Singapore, plus some good fortune.

Considering how different the handling of the two cars are, it likely wouldn’t have been helpful for anything other than learning the layout.

[mwillems]

Oscar plateaued in Q3 but struggles for the fast lap were common but the winners got it together when it counted. Norris couldn't beat his Q1 time until his 4th attempt to do so on his final lap.



Leclerc and Verstappen more consistent in finding time but Verstappen making 2 big mistakes on his last lap, one of which is track limits.

[CjC]

Does anyone have any top speed figures?

Edit: just seen them on the previous page

[mwillems]

Does anyone have any top speed figures?

Edit: just seen them on the previous page

Yeah but it's only part of the story. When those top speeds were set, the Mclaren was actually faster than Verstappen by 4-5kph for a fair majority of the back straight, but the RB DRS helps them improve their headline number, but we are faster, courtesy of a smaller Rear Wing than Red Bull.

On a side note, look how much less Verstappen Struggles on the entry to turn 12, nice smooth profile compared to Landos fighting on the edge, plus the V profile we know and love. In part courtesy of the smaller rear wing, giving Max more stability and a better exit.



Edit: Interesting to note that Verstappen was unable to surpass our top speed with DRS open, suggesting that the two core packages are similar in their drag coefficient when you exclude setup variables.

[101FlyingDutchman]

Does anyone have any top speed figures?

Edit: just seen them on the previous page

Yeah but it's only part of the story. When those top speeds were set, the Mclaren was actually faster than Verstappen by 4-5kph for a fair majority of the back straight, but the RB DRS helps them improve their headline number, but we are faster, courtesy of a smaller Rear Wing than Red Bull.

On a side note, look how much less Verstappen Struggles on the entry to turn 12, nice smooth profile compared to Landos fighting on the edge, plus the V profile we know and love. In part courtesy of the smaller rear wing, giving Max more stability and a better exit.

https://i.ibb.co/pv6srB1/Screenshot-202 ... 091603.png

Edit: Interesting to note that Verstappen was unable to surpass our top speed with DRS open, suggesting that the two core packages are similar in their drag coefficient when you exclude setup variables.

Yeah the Singapore update was a lot bigger in efficiency/effect compared to how it looked externally. It tidied a lot of areas up. Just hope our tyre life is decent with the slightly smaller rear wing. Can’t help but feel that tyre deg is the last remaining bastion of where the RB19 is head and shoulders clear of the pack

[CjC]

Agreed about Red Bulls tyre advantage. Could be negated here a bit as it’ll be a 2 stop?

[FittingMechanics]

Agreed about Red Bulls tyre advantage. Could be negated here a bit as it’ll be a 2 stop?

We can hope that Verstappen is unable to quickly clear cars ahead. Lando has a decent chance to lead after turn 1. It will be an exciting race.

[mwillems]

Does anyone have any top speed figures?

Edit: just seen them on the previous page

Yeah but it's only part of the story. When those top speeds were set, the Mclaren was actually faster than Verstappen by 4-5kph for a fair majority of the back straight, but the RB DRS helps them improve their headline number, but we are faster, courtesy of a smaller Rear Wing than Red Bull.

On a side note, look how much less Verstappen Struggles on the entry to turn 12, nice smooth profile compared to Landos fighting on the edge, plus the V profile we know and love. In part courtesy of the smaller rear wing, giving Max more stability and a better exit.

https://i.ibb.co/pv6srB1/Screenshot-202 ... 091603.png

Edit: Interesting to note that Verstappen was unable to surpass our top speed with DRS open, suggesting that the two core packages are similar in their drag coefficient when you exclude setup variables.

Yeah the Singapore update was a lot bigger in efficiency/effect compared to how it looked externally. It tidied a lot of areas up. Just hope our tyre life is decent with the slightly smaller rear wing. Can’t help but feel that tyre deg is the last remaining bastion of where the RB19 is head and shoulders clear of the pack

If I put my CFD goggles on, I'd say it was all about how we got air around the front tyres and then how we dealt with it behind the front tyre. This had a bigger gain at lower speeds towards a lower gain at higher speeds, with gains not just about keeping the air around the floor clean but reducing drag also, which is why I think it was an Austria level upgrade and has helped the car become more complete/rounded.

The mechanical side is still evident from the V profile in corners as the platform is not managed quite as well as we'd like right now. I don't know if this opinion is coming from a place of fan bias, but I think a better managed platform is going to unlock a lot of time in the car, particularly as we don't have to keep the operating window of the Aero quite as wide, we can add refinements that we can't do at this point and focus the Aero more than we can right now, and some of the RB tricks of the stalling floor that Farnborough mentioned, if true (No disrespect, Farnborough would be the first to say this is a Hypothesis), could also be utilised.

[mwillems]

Agreed about Red Bulls tyre advantage. Could be negated here a bit as it’ll be a 2 stop?

We can hope that Verstappen is unable to quickly clear cars ahead. Lando has a decent chance to lead after turn 1. It will be an exciting race.

He's probably half a second quicker on a one lap and faster in the race.

Not devastatingly quick but they've got a wing that will keep them close in the corners and the tow and DRS will see them having a strong chance of the win. Worst thing to happen is we get into a long fight with Leclerc at the start, IMO.

[Tomsky]