[Team] McLaren - can they compete?

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

He finished 2nd at Monza.

Yes - but Ricciardo was the top driver from outside the big three teams in that race.

[chillibowl]

was ignoring this as its being reported on the more click baity f1/sports sites, but here it is on bloomberg all be it also with no real details.

apparently though the offer to buy Mcalren is now up to 650 million euros.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...automobilwoche

[Dixie Flatline]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

With the Australian Grand Prix next weekend being a full sellout (Saturday and Sunday you cant get tix.. apparently), here's hoping Mr Ricciardo isnt too distracted by media and local sponsor commitments (he is personally supported by Optus/Singtel and is on LinkedIn as their Chief of Optimism..) to do a good job behind the wheel...

Have never seen so much McLaren and Ricciardo gear in the grandstands until now and it's only Friday. Outnumbering Ferrari and Verstappen fans by plenty it seems.

[275 GTB-4]

Originally Posted by Dixie Flatline

Have never seen so much McLaren and Ricciardo gear in the grandstands until now and it's only Friday. Outnumbering Ferrari and Verstappen fans by plenty it seems.

There are a lot of people here of Dutch extraction!

Norris fastest, Daniel 6th in last practice (FP3)...

[Aysedasi]

Excellent effort by McLaren in qualifying, particularly by Norris, although Ricciardo wasn't so far behind.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by Aysedasi

Excellent effort by McLaren in qualifying, particularly by Norris, although Ricciardo wasn't so far behind.

4th and 7th, that's a good turnaround, particularly from Norris. I hope they can translate that into an equally good result.

[GTRMagic]

Lost Mr Verstappen, Mr Sainz fizzled and Mr Hamilton’s Benz was overheating.. and their best work was still 5-6?

Not looking great honestly..

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

Lost Mr Verstappen, Mr Sainz fizzled and Mr Hamilton’s Benz was overheating.. and their best work was still 5-6?

Not looking great honestly..

I'm not so sure about that. Norris and Ricciardo qualified 13th and 18th at Bahrain, finishing the race with Ricciardo in 14th and Norris 15th. In Saudi, Norris and Ricciardo qualified 11th and 12th. Norris finished 7th and Ricciardo DNFd with a gearbox issue. This weekend Norris qualified 4th, Ricciardo 7th and they finished the race with Norris 5th and Ricciardo 6th, definitely an improvement.

[Teretonga]

After the race Lando said they hadn't done much to the car at all and that it would be difficult to replicate that at other venues.
The car is track sensitive, was losing a lot of time under braking and the braking woes are patched, not developed. So there is lots of room for improvement. They dont have as much of the mammal problem as some teams but even Ferrari had some at Melbourne although Leclerc said it wasn't a major issue for him.

Albert Park has recently been fully resurfaced so its billiard smooth unlike Bahrain and the issue is with downforce created stalling then releasing then coming back again and again.

Teams are running compromised set ups to get around it but it is not new.
John Watson said when he drove the original MP4/1 at Hockenheim it was so bad he couldn't see properly at all.
So the problem is not new.
Its just that it is coming back in a way that was ignored to a large degree back in the late 70's/early 80's and it is compromising set ups that would run as close as they could get to the nth degree.
That brings the whole concept of these cars into question. Is it something that we cant get resolved and is it creating a safety or health issue for the sport?
If it can't be resolved design wise then it is a regulatory issue.

The McLaren ran well at Barcelona and will do so again but will be horrible at Baku and compromised at Imola by the braking issues and the chicanes.
McLaren do know what works on the car and is getting an idea of where they can be strong and where they will be weak.
Designing the weaknesses out of the car without losing the good things is the challenge if the car is going to regularly challenge in the high places. So far its the highest in scoring outside the top three.

I still think Albert Park is an anomaly as far as track results go and we wont get a real idea of the ranking order until as late as the end of May. Haas had a number of issues and went no where but they have a design that doesn't have a multitude of mammal ups and downs but is mechanically good and balanced. But that was nowhere at Albert Park which played to the teams that had good underbody downforce.
Don't forget that Mercedes is have the issues because it is so good at closing out the airflow and stalling.
McLaren and Mercedes weren't better at Albert Park. Both had made little in new development to add anything.
Red Bull was compromised and slower when measured against Ferrari. Sainz' race was one that falls outside the engineering envelope, not a design problem so it shouldn't be regarded as one.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Things are on the up for McLaren but Danny Ric can't seem to catch a break.

[Beau2]

Originally Posted by Beau2

No. No they can not.

Yes. Yes they can!

[Aysedasi]

Originally Posted by Beau2

Yes. Yes they can!

Great drive by Lando. Put that kid in a top car and he'd be giving Max and Charles a good run for their money. Poor Daniel though, he just can't catch a break.

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by Aysedasi

Great drive by Lando. Put that kid in a top car and he'd be giving Max and Charles a good run for their money. Poor Daniel though, he just can't catch a break.

Yes, Lando keeps performing! Ricciardo still not comfortable it seems.
Decent of him to speak to Sainz after the race. Seemed to accept Carlos had done enough to win the corner.

[E.B]

Originally Posted by Aysedasi

Poor Daniel though, he just can't catch a break.

Danny has accepted blame for his first corner clash with Carlos Sainz.... at least he put his hand up and took the blame.

But yes a great drive from Lando, now ahead of Lewis who drops to 3rd in the UK part of the WDC.

Not to be sniffed at though is the fact that including the Sprint race they went home 22 points better off than when they arrived. And 10 points closer to Mercedes, the next team ahead of them in the constructors.

[S griffin]

Lando is really pushing that car. Considering where they were in the first two races, it's great to see McLaren back on the podium. Not sure if they've sorted the car or their car is track specific though

Danny's incident with Sainz was an unfortunate mistake on his part, which not surprisingly he has held his hands up to

[steve_r]

More and more talk and rumours floating around about Ricciardo's future with the team. Ricciardo apparently contracted until 2023 and seemingly McLaren may be trying to terminate his contract a year early.

The grid is a little short of personalities and therefore I think that a lot of fans like Ricciardo, but his performances have been disappointing this year. If McLaren do let him go, then I do wonder where he could go if he were to stay in F1? A top line drive is unlikely, and I assume Alpine would not want him back.

I also wonder just why Ricciardo is struggling. Is it the specifics of the car and new regs' or is he actually on the decline as a driver? Last year was also dissapointing for him generally, but had some highs including that unexpected race win.

The drivers that McLaren are rumured to be interested in have no real experinece in F1 - Pato O'Ward & Colon Herta, but perhaps this is just lazy journalistic speculation linking them because of their McLaren indy team contracts. I'm sure Liberty would love there to be American drivers on the grid, or at least drivers familiar to the American audiences through Indycar.

Perhaps Ricciardo will nail a good race or two to lift the pressure.

[GTRMagic]

Hard to argue that the experiment worked..
Mr Ricciardo has had 18 months of getting tuned to the car, and where the car is woefully slow compared to his teammate, the team trots out a story around an issue with the chassis or similar

The McLaren dream may well be over…

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

Hard to argue that the experiment worked..
Mr Ricciardo has had 18 months of getting tuned to the car, and where the car is woefully slow compared to his teammate, the team trots out a story around an issue with the chassis or similar

The McLaren dream may well be over…

This is only Round 7 of a 22 race season, so there is still some time to turn things round.

[GT6]

There is always talk about changes but TBH bit early in the season, however it does seem that he is not getting the best out of the car at the moment

[bjohnsonsmith]

Norris is back on form, after his bout of tonsillitis and qualified 5th today.

[GT6]

He is certainly getting the best out of the car at the moment

[GTRMagic]

Originally Posted by GT6

There is always talk about changes but TBH bit early in the season, however it does seem that he is not getting the best out of the car at the moment

Mr Brown has spoken of McLaren’s contractual position with Mr Ricciardo.. he doesn’t normally flame stuff unless it’s to his or his team’s advantages…

There isn’t a single session where, on merit, Mr Ricciardo has look strong

[bathurst77]

Im an Aussie and a dan fan, but I think he has burned all his bridges. He really has not shone since he left RB. I believe next year that seat will have Colton in it. Who knows where Danny will be?

Aussie Supercars or s5000? Or just kicking back with his very fat multi million bank account.

How about a wild card entry at bathurst 12 hour or 1000 Danny and Weber sharing a car.... team red bull of course. promoters dream

[GT6]

Or perhaps into sportscar series

[Peter Mallett]

It's a bit sad to see, he's in the same boat as Vettel IMO.

Perhaps WEC awaits, I certainly don't see him moving to Indy cars.