Is McLaren wasting F1's best car?

[@micahkiyimba8641]

This is why guys like Hamilton, Alonso and Verstappen get paid 40M/ year. Without a GOAT tier driver even the best car isn't enough..especially when said GOAT tier driver is your competition.

[@colin_actually]

They just need to find that winning mentality again. Brains stuck in midfield mode.

[@JeyCeeAG]

Agree. They have a wining car but are still stuck with that midfield mentality. If they keep this up, after the season is over and they go back to review they will realize they had the potential to be WCC

[@Rhoki11]

The problem is (L)ando 😂

[@GARBO96]

@@Rhoki11no

[@soundscape26]

@@Rhoki11 If the problem were just Lando, Oscar would surely excel, and not be 9-3 in race finishes.

[@hueyfreeman7810]

@@Rhoki11 NO! The problem is the team. they are even f***king up Oscar's race.

[@Kholmi.28]

Remember when Norris downplayed Hamilton record in 2020 saying that it's the car? Well McLaren's technically had the fastest car over the past 5 or so races and he's only executed one win. Verstappen and Hamilton may have been given dominant cars, but they've also made the difference. Norris will soon learn if he hasn't already.

[@Eriksen-wp3tv]

McLaren has the best car, Red Bull has the best team

[@ishqiahmed4315]

Ig Norris ironically proved you can’t just have a great car, you need a great everything

[@Grammarlings-cf8yw]

I think his face showed that he learnt exactly this at Silverstone in particular

[@GauravDevrani-cc7vr]

Norris said after Lewis had the car for 7 years so wasn’t bad as having a quick car for 4 races versus 7-8 years is a big difference

[@Grammarlings-cf8yw]

@@GauravDevrani-cc7vr except Hamilton and Verstappen throughout their career could win in inferior cars too

[@gamehuis]

If Red Bull or Mercedes had that car they would have won 6 out of the last 7 races. McLaren is doing a Ferrari 2022.

[@foldionepapyrus3441]

I'd say you are exaggerating a fair bit, at least if you are just putting the tactical team and drivers from one of the other teams at McLaren through the year and not also putting the current upgrade packages performance level vs their rivals all the way back too - their car wasn't and probably isn't even now that good, so winning that many would require also being lucky. They should have won some of them for sure, and had the potential to win more but nothing more than potential - no matter who was in the car or on the pit wall its far too competitive at the front to just win that many, even if you did the weekend flawlessly...

[@titancheat]

Max is just doing an alonso 2012 though

[@gopr3117]

@@titancheat haha no he’s not. Red Bull is still the fastest car over the course of the season

[@Roxas-ph3te]

​@titancheat Definitely not. Alonso had a car that was sometimes half a second slower in qualifying. He literally would line up 6th-8th on the grid at times, Max has had the best car this year, and it shows in the constructors. Only reason the constructors is close is because Perez has been arguably the worst driver on the grid.

[@Eriksen-wp3tv]

​@@titancheatBruh no way you actually believe that. 2012 Alonso had the third-best car since the beggining, Max only had it last race

[@saladhead2345]

I feel like the Norris only one win memes are going to start appearing soon

[@therealquaid1694]

Norris is weak.

[@selder_7]

Lando Nowins (It’s the No Homers club principle, you’re allowed one)

[@Manavvv7]

​@@therealquaid1694 weak is a strong word i would say he is immature

[@XolSanctum]

Pretty sure its now lando throwwins norris 😂

[@soundscape26]

Keeping the current form it's only a matter of time till he wins again

[@sar4806]

Neither of them are wasting that McLaren more than Perez is wasting that Red Bull.

[@Kornn66]

Well that's obvious but norris and piastri are still wasting the car's potential.

[@nercussa2299]

@@Kornn66 id blame team strategysts, you cant be asking the driver what to do, other bigger teams may ask for opinions, for they decide what to do like it the driver or not, and not doing doble stop in silverstone was a big ass mistake the team did and piastri paid for it

[@dddd-uk4vn]

@@nercussa2299 what? drivers are always heavily involved with strategy, they always take part of the blame and their input is more important than anybody elses

[@PKWeaver74]

Top comment

[@MrSkeleton131]

@@dddd-uk4vnonly to a degree tho

[@alexkayl8201]

I think something that gets overlooked is Red Bull had to learn how to be perfect to beet Mercedes. That doesn't happen overnight. I do think McLaren has the fastest car right now, but not by enough to win without being nearly perfect outside the car.

[@El_Nano2005]

They also had experience winning with the likes of Sebastian Vettel in a dominant manner and that was much more recent and applicable experience than Hamilton’s 08 title which was won by a hair

[@goxyeagle8446]

Good comment 👍🏻

[@billygoat520]

McLaren are learning lessons that can only be learned racing at the front, so I expect their race craft to improve. At Silverstone the team left the final tire change up to Hamilton because Norris said "Do what Hamilton does."

[@Cafe--Racer]

How can McLaren strategist get it wrong so often, it is as bad as former Ferrari strategy team.

[@sleepypixie8828]

Former?? Ferrari are still doing the same thing. Honestly i don't see mclaren improving in that aspect any soon

[@98MTBiker]

@@sleepypixie8828​​⁠​⁠I feel like the top 4 teams strategy teams could be categorized like this. Red Bull - Proactive and reactive, mixing data and driver input, best in business Mercedes - cautious, conservative and data-driven, sometimes slow to react, but doesn't mess up often McLaren - indecisive, too focused on their rivals, not trusting their data and instincts. Sometimes good, but unreliable. Ferrari - communication is not only indecisive but unclear. Occasionally strategy is ok, but there is a high tendency for major mistakes or absurd risk taking.

[@antoniohagopian213]

The inter call was charles thinking he is smarter then everyone.

[@InFAMOUSPS4_19]

Ah yes, the mclaren of 2012 is back

[@selder_7]

That Merc have won two races to their one is a disappointing result from McLaren. Norris and Piastri could have but haven’t won so many races now. McLaren need to learn how to win again like Ferrari do. Redbull and Merc just raised the bar over their winning stints in a way that Ferrari and McLaren have yet to match

[@Manavvv7]

this shows that formula 1 isnt all about the cars and redbull was actually doing a tough job of not forking up (im a mclaren fan)

[@jackhamilton5250]

*when the cars are within a certain window of each other. Hard to mess up when you're 30 seconds up the road like last year.

[@Manavvv7]

@@jackhamilton5250 😭😭😭

[@koenbeckers955]

Thinking back about Austria, I think Stella and Brown should’ve put the focus on their own performance. A lot of barking, playing with the big dogs, but one look in the mirror would’ve revealed they’re still a puppy. Less talking more thinking is key I guess.

[@aslamnurfikri7640]

They tried to stir up drama, trying to make Max and Red Bull the dirty driver who never learned from his 2021 title fight. Jokes on them, every drivers including Norris ended up defending Max from the media

[@christians4395]

I’m still unsure of how in a world of no magic bullets or transformative upgrades that is modern f1, McLaren have managed to turn around a dog of a car into front running one early/mid season twice. Seems against the odds to me.

[@Creatureskater123897]

I mean they’d obviously understood what needed to be done by Austria 2023 and have continued on that trajectory, but which I agree is some feat

[@MohamedLamkhizni]

🍇🍈🍉🍊

[@nert-13]

Had piastri not gone 1mm outside track limits in Austria Q3, he would have started 3rd and thus inherited the win after the top 2 crashed. Fine margins

[@daphnelovesL]

What Marc Priestley said: McLaren has to learn to win again. And this the season they are learning. Hopefully they be ready in 2025. (sorry typos)

[@Mrcento]

Their biggest single issue is more that car is only ever truly fastest in short bursts. 1 stint on 1 compound, they'll often be 3rd of 4th quickest on others. Which leaves too much work/luck with safety cars etc needed to undo the weak stints when they get onto the strong one and too much need to make that count then and there. The pace, whilst right there, is often slightly artificial given they are in full on attack mode chasing down the leader (usually Max) whilst they are often managing their pace. Silverstone is the only recent 1 you can really say they wasted a golden chance by making several messes with the strategy and tyre calls, and even then, was the McLaren REALLY any quicker than the Mercedes outside of that stint around the worst of the rain?

[@filmeat1784]

Ferrari 2022 vibes

[@blazingyodler]

ferrari had a lot of engine failures as well, which cost them more than the strategic blunders, but yes.

[@strexle7446]

I think Ferrari and Leclerc were still significantly better than this

[@MohamedLamkhizni]

​@@strexle7446Noooooo

[@dannyrood1262]

Check the onboards from Norris at Canada when the Safety Car was called. It's under 200m to pit entry when the SC boards light up. Should have had the "pit if SC deployed" message, but it was tighter than it is being made out to be

[@RitvikSingh-jx9qc]

Not the first time they had best car but lost both championships (2007,2010,2012)

[@alexturnqest6202]

It’s amazing how you can literally have one the strongest if not THE strongest car on the grid and there are so many important factors that help guarantee the victory. All the pieces must be aligned at one time and at the right moment consistently. McLaren can do it but they cannot afford to make little mistakes against the best I.e. Red Bull and max.

[@72defender]

McLaren are Ferrari-ing! 🤦‍♂️

[@therealquaid1694]

The drivers are the biggest problem

[@MohamedLamkhizni]

​@@therealquaid1694and their both strategy team aswell

[@Bananananananannananananna]

EXACTLY THIS! All this talk of a title fight but if mclaren are gonna keep up a winrate of 1 win in 7 races (in contention for the win) then they have no chance. Especially with max doing a stellar job carrying redbull by himself and mercs stealing points off mclaren. Not just that, but the way their team is run shows how they aren’t currently capable of fighting at the front whilst redbull and mercedes have been doing that for years. Their strategy calls need to be improved to a level that the other top teams are threatened, because right now they have the best car but a midfield mindset. Lando could have three more wins off the top of my head had they pitted him either a lap earlier or fit the right tyres.

[@Shifty_Malone]

It wasn't so much as "light contact throwing the RedBull tyre off the rim", it was the spike on the back of the McLaren's from wing end plate that Norris clearly tagged Verstappen's tyre with as the RedBull slid past after the initial light contact.

[@JoeVer-d6v]

Andrea Stella: you can take a man out of Ferrari, but can't take Ferrari out of a man

[@musiccd1896]

Everything bad because he was a ferrari man. If something good because something else?

[@MostUnbiasedFan]

@@musiccd1896 yes because ferrari are only bad

[@dddd-uk4vn]

@@musiccd1896 apparently. the guy has completely turned mclaren around, but because of "Strategy" (something drivers are very involved in still and take blame for) he's still bad because "ferrari man"

[@marcpaola1371]

Ferrari were good when he was there, and it took an Italian to turn a british race team into winners. maybe just maybe is the British engineers and strategist in the team that are not that great!

[@SpeedyHoon]

The race at Hungaroring displayed another bad call by McLaren switching Lando and Oscar! The driver's championship is still possible for Lando, yet McLaren is throwing it away. Was it a good display of sportsmanship? Maybe. But if Lando loses the Drivers Championship by 6 points or less, then McLaren is at fault and the team will commercially miss out. They need to be totally focused on hunting down the points deficit instead of playing favorites.

[@Andev0345]

They allowed Norris to undercut Piastri… twice. I think we know who the favourite is here.

[@advanceblade6507]

reminds me of the 2012 season when mclaren were the clear fastest and fell behind by their own accord

[@HunterKayGames]

Verdict: remove the 9 other teams and you will get McLaren 1-2s (consider adding Sargeant to spice things up and ensure a safety car per race)

[@lcwpg]

Most laughable is that zak brown say mclaren wont be like rb winning at all cost way lmao

[@yammt3148]

Yes. And they need to take a good look at how they prioritize their drivers. Don't care about all the Lando groupies, Piastri has so far showed more growth and aggression on the track. That needs to be exploited.

[@tazionuvolari8142]

Leclerc - Ferrari 2022 and Norris - McLaren 2024 really showed me, that it takes more than a good driver and a good car to battle for a championship. It takes at least a great driver with champion mentality and good car. Like Verstappen - RBR 2021

[@C.C._TJ_Jason]

They just need their strategists to be up to the level of their drivers and their car. They’ll get there.

[@dantheracer99]

Winning races in Formula 1 is so much harder than it looks. When you've got the complete package and the car is a cut above the rest then I suppose in some ways the wins are easier but this run that McLaren are on of throwing away wins reminds of Williams in 2014-15. Probably had the chance to win 8-10 races in that period with both Bottas and Massa and they couldn't convert any of them. I remember Rob Smedley saying at the time that they had to learn how to win again (sadly they never did). I think it's the same for McLaren. Let's be real they fluked that Miami victory (although Piastri was potentially on course to win anyway) and they're just learning how to win in Formula 1 again.

[@mrepage5896]

Goldilocks: I'll take the middle one. Not too hot, not too cold. Mclaren: nah, give me that tepid porridge bro.

[@PotterSauce]

Piastri has all of the makings of a future champion. He just needs to have a team behind him that properly backs him.

[@swidr5626]

Best car =/= dominant car. Mclaren was also the "best" throughout 2012 and still "bottled" it. Same with Ferrari in 1999, arguably Williams in 2003 and 1991, Ferrari in 2017, 2018 and 1982, not to say about all those years when Lotus did that etc etc. This is just how racing works. If everyone is competitive you can't talk about underachieving too much. Of course their main issue is their backmarker/midfield mindset from the "dark" days but it's just how racing and sports work. This is the season where 4 teams can be the best and have the best car at some stage realistically and we should cherish that

[@MohamedLamkhizni]

LOL LOL LOL LOL

[@swg_fpv]

Norris has probably received more flack than deserved for the lack of wins - Canada and Silverstone were pretty much nothing to do with him, the penalty in Austria was sent Verstappen's way, and 4 times out of 5 that contact wouldn't have caused a double puncture. Imola he drove well and had no chance until the end. Spain was a poor start, but the rest of the race was nearly perfect. Looking at the timing graphic, Mclaren's car is consistent, but it's almost certainly not the quickest outright. The amount of people arguing that Piastri is a better driver than Norris is ridiculous too. Justifying it based on personality completely ignores the clear qualifying and race pace deficit that Piastri (currently) has.

[@lejamesbron4055]

No he deserves it, max, vettell, Hamilton would be winning in his situation

[@chinmaybarole5078]

even if Norris and Max would not have clashed in Austria, Norris definitely was going get a penalty which would cost him the win on his own

[@omsingh3982]

@@chinmaybarole5078 max would have gotten a penalty too. the moving under braking was quite visible.

[@WhitePointerGaming]

It's easy to forget that this is only Piastri's 2nd year in F1. This is Norris' fifth year. Give Piastri another year or so of experience and he'll be beating Norris consistently imo.

[@husseinomar1981]

Them not pitting for the mediums was the most obvious howler I’ve seen in ages, my two year old knew to do that instead of the soft tyres which is mclarens weakest tyre

[@gothicusmaximus5697]

yeah ik right, they were cocky when they told him, its ok we have the better Mediums AND THEN USED SCRUB SOFTS.

[@antoniohagopian213]

Lewis taking softs got into their heads. They thought they could keep position by using softs but failed to understand they cannot handle 20 laps on softs like Lewis cam.

[@frankm7707]

Get Alonso back in there They need Zack out of there as well. All talk and no results.

[@TheSt1092]

McLaren are becoming the F1s equivalent of the England football team . A lack of proactiveness on the pit wall and driver errors are squandering win opportunities.

[@gothicusmaximus5697]

what does this even mean.

[@pooyakhalili406]

They could've won all of those tracks you mentioned but not easily also one of the characteristics of their car is that it gets faster at the end of stints, but it isn't that fast in the beginning

[@MohamedLamkhizni]

🏎

[@tHebUm18]

1:52 "Battle for the lead" is one way to describe not a single on-track overtake in the top how many places?

[@frederickbenny]

"qualification perfection required" Hope the teams are taking notes.

[@jrrosberg9324]

Simple answer =YES

[@BallisticTech]

Am I mistaken in recalling the radio conversation between Piastri and the team where he pretty much agreed not to pit immediately...?

[@DM-MayBee]

Excellent summary Ed. I really hope and pray that AS & ZB watch and listen to this accurate and concise feedback

[@ethanahsooleen6361]

Strategic mistakes cost them. However I also think the mclaren struggles to overtake cars without a tyre advantage

[@AnggaTangerang]

McLaren : *Being clown even had the fastest cars* Ferrari : First time? we already did it since 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2022.

[@MohamedLamkhizni]

And Mclaren also in 2007 and 2010 and 2012

[@zjsz4954]

Winning is a learning curve, you have to fail to succeed.

[@MK_54598]

F1’s best car was, is and always will be theF2004 (imo). That beast was quick af, yes the 2020 merc was probably better but the f2004 did what it did on grooved tyres without drs aid and it was a V10 so it’s way cooler

[@MohamedLamkhizni]

Lol

[@stuartorr8192]

The entire team is showing their lack of experience. Also they need a hard core driver.. Alonso-Hulkenberg-KMag-

[@CCW513]

What were Leclerc’s 3 fastest sector times at Monaco? Would Piatri still have a .7 gap?

[@motornaut]

They're still yet to win a race on genuine pace in over a decade. Monza 2021 was won through being well placed to pick up Hamilton and Verstappen's scuffle, and Miami was won through a well timed safety car. They're missing that mindset that Merc and Red Bull have cultivated over the last 10 years from winning everything.

[@arcsss-c2i]

Why do the teams which go against Redbull waste their cars, Ferrari McLaren and Mercedes.

[@rampage8617]

As seen with the clown show happening at ferrari you need more than a fast car to win...

[@chaoticsequencer]

Piastri ALSO could've won the Austrian GP. If he didn't lose his Q3 time, he would've qualified 3rd and may have been in the box seat to take the lead once Norris and Verstappen took each other out. OR if he didn't lose so much time in the early phases he may have been close enough to get past Russell to win.

[@SirGingerOfKnight]

At least this involves race finishes, and not the Kimi/Juan era of: Gearbox, Engine Failure, Suspension Failure, Gearbox, Hydraulics, Gearbox, Engine Failure oh and Gearbox

[@beaunorman3706]

Imagine if they had Dan and Oscar together… This team could be unbeatable. Dan never had a competitive McLaren and still managed a race win. I completely agree with this video. Now that they have a good car, they need to work on their strategies. Norris needs to improve his racing and defending skills. Oscar has shown he is capable, even with limited access to upgrades. Norris should move to the second driver position as he isn't performing at a championship level, which might push him to improve. Also, Oscar should get first pick of upgrades.

[@bobburrowes4137]

THE RACE rocks.Thanks for a great episode.

[@frederickgent1918]

The good ole " but what if"😂😂

[@Jimmy_Moon]

A championship winning team isn't built by winning.

[@Wouldpkr]

Anyone that says anyone in F1 is "wasting the car's potential" that isnt a driver or engineer in F1 has absolutely no credibility to say such things.

[@dmgd509]

The elephant in the room is this... Norris isn't that dude 😂😂

[@tomgill8289]

Ed, Mark, Gary, I have some fears about these new 2026 regs that I’d like to put to you. May just be me that sees it this way….. So, theoretically if you can drop top-body drag on the straights you can afford to pile top-body downforce on for the corners without the usual penalty on overall lap time. Best of both worlds if you will, but all based on top-body downforce. Monaco wings for the corners, Monza spec for the straights. My fear is that this would mean cars that can follow less well than they do now as the downforce split relies more on top-body downforce for ultimate lap time than they do currently. Plus, the leading car will drop the drag before the chasing car and will be accelerating away sooner. If the chasing car has already lost ground in the corner due to turbulent air it would seem that a serious power boost would be needed to catch up, a lot more than is currently planned. Red shells may be the only workable solution to this!

[@remy090]

Honestly, when you think about it, with all these hypotheticals, technically Norris should have got a grid penalty for the British Grand Prix as he retired in the previous race and didn't take his 5 second penalty...... That literally has been the rule that the FIA has followed for years, don't take time penalty given at one race, it becomes a grid penalty at the next, yet Norris got away with that....

[@joshgraham1863]

all better now

[@michaeltelfer3483]

Of course they are wasting it, in exactly the same way Ferrari did in 2022, even refused a double stack at Silverstone like Ferrari. If Merc or Ferrari were squandering these chances they'd be crucified for it

[@michiadams]

They seem to get nervous whenever they get close to a win, it feels like they need to get used to fighting at the front again.

[@justicebroker2271]

McLaren haven’t had a consistent front challenger since 2012. That combined with new management and team members they probably need time to understand how to get the 50/50 calls right.

[@sanjayoak4416]

Great content & presentation from "THE RACE". One of the Best.

[@brad30three]

To be fair, when you’ve spent THAT long just trying not to come last, you forget how to strategy properly… it’s not your main focus when it makes no difference. Now, however, they’ve suddenly found themselves in a place where a bad tire strategy can make the difference, and they just need to catch up.

[@gaurangtari6752]

How do they do that race animation?

[@curnath]

New headline: It's summer, is F1-Media running out of news already?!

[@LPChipi]

Haven't seen the video yet, but the answer is yes. On the other hand, these are the growing pains of coming back to the front (specially against a force of nature like RB with Max) and they just need time to adjust. On the other-other hand, they're McLaren. An institution of the sport, so that time should be minimal.

[@blairphelps7215]

I think McLaren has forgotten how to win. At Silverstone, they were too focus on wanting to respond to what there teams were doing (or thinking they might do) instead of setting the tone and being decisive.

[@ArulAjith]

The fact is that immature attitudes and ambitions for winning the races do not help them. Patience is the key, and better strategy, and drivers are the key elements for winning the races I belive they are lacking at least one of these. Too many strategy and driver errors will not help them secure the win. Again, having a fast car does not mean you can win easily. Merc and RB proved again what is more important to win the races.

[@Amemji]

As a Mclaren fan our promise and speed looks awesome but i will admit whilst where not there yet the is a slight fear we could get to the lows of Ferrari 1 or 2yrs ago wth there strategy misshaps if were not carefully. I dont think we will get tht bad but tht is a slight worry. I hope we iron our mistakes on both the team and the drivers part.

[@mgnoodle2589]

Would have, could have, should have etc. however unless your in the situation with all that pressure you don’t know what you would do

[@Kryptix0III]

I like how Lando snubbed Lewis on his 7th championship winning saying it's granted given his car, while Max gave nothing but praise. Now we have Lando consistently having the fastest car and now realizing it's not so easy

[@urbanstrencan]

McLaren definitely needs to polish it's strategy to become proper championship contenders. Great video the Race team 😊❤❤

[@V_Matviichuk]

Norris (and Brown) should stop being so cocky with their should've/would've/could've-s and keep their heads down while focusing on winning the races. They won a single race but act as if they've won the WDC.

[@felixkristofferjanitz6023]

If piastri was 1 mm inside track in austria quali, he would’ve been in third when max and lando crashed, and he would’ve won. If mclaren double stacked him and lando in silverstone, he would’ve won. (Lost 19-20 sec from not pitting that round, finished 12 sec off the lead)

[@El_Nano2005]

They haven’t quite grasped that they’re title contenders I feel, are Norris and Oscar making mistakes and squabbling? Yes. Are they fairly inexperienced? Also yes so blaming just them isn’t grasping the full scope of the problem, clearly everyone has the motivation at the team after Miami but motivation is one thing, all these folks are used to working with a midfield environment and mentality, now that they have made something special the team has to learn to keep up with the progress the technical team is making, essentially, the key issue is the operational side of the team still functioning and acting like they’re in the midfield, the vibe of McLaren is stagnant while where they actually are on the grid in terms of performance had shifted all the way to the top, I wholeheartedly believe that they have the fastest car and that Zak Brown is capable of making big changes come next year if the team isn’t able to work as a top team in the second half of this season TLDR: McLaren has the fastest car and two gifted albeit inexperience drivers who are being held back by themselves and a team that lacks a winning mentality, they need to wake up

[@hamleyn]

Completely missed that if the FIA had been reasonable about track limits at Austria in quali, he would've been in position in the race to win it.

[@brucekennedy5274]

Redbull has TWO goats… 1. Stap and 2. the team, who are at 99% perfection on calls and pit-stops.

[@pugbrz9472]

This will definitely go down as a 'shoulda coulda woulda' season. They need to sort their strategic game out and get back to a winning mentality.

[@veryfastride]

Where is Ron Dennis' phone number?

[@640A]

McLaren 2024 reminds me a lot of Ferrari 2022, they too had a competitive car but many strategic blunders cost them the victory! A great car is only as good as a driver drives it and pit-wall executes it! We've seen that with Lewis and Max but on the other side with Bottas & Perez.

[@Jay-nk6dm]

Crazy bc if they got these all right (best case compared to current worst case), there would be a legit drivers championship battle rn

[@CT37BN]

Experience in strategy is key and this is were RBR and Mercedes-AMG excel.

[@kazhar666]

Weird enough they failed to copy what ever strategy that rivals do.. even those watching at home can

[@raymonschepers994]

McLaren’s Zak Brown finds it more important to go mud throwing in the media and play very very childish games with especially Red Bull. Even though they have opted for a McLaren RBPT engine combo for 2026 they still try to make a name for Bag Brown by looking back at previous instances where they feel they have been done wrong by almost everyone but themselves. If they were able to flex a little they’d be in a better place! That’s not going to change for the foreseeable future. So do they deserve more wins? Absolutely when looked at the performance of both drivers they should at least have 2 wins for Norris and 1 for Piastri. Both drivers are top of the line!

[@davidrivera585]

I give Mclaren a pass. Since this is a bit of uncharted territory for them. In recent years they were barely a mid-filed team. And they have young drivers that have never been a win/podium threat. So lots to learn on everyone's part

[@Dabayare]

Does McLaren have an academy. I hear about it even with Haas but don't remember anything after LH.

[@shivramsreedhar318]

Tbh this all is both driver and team issue. Norris being ahead in terms of experience compared to piastri is really poor for his decision calls in race ( silverstone specially) , also he has this certain mistakes ( austria ) which he needs to iron out. Where as mclaren needs to pull up its socks theyve got 2nd half of season left to win the constructors or drivers championship.

[@Grammarlings-cf8yw]

It’s an exaggeration to say it’s the best car - RB is still basically equal at almost all tracks and it started out much better. McLaren haven’t capitaised on Max’s rare mistakes or bad weekends but to say it’s out an out a better car than the RB is an exaggeration

[@erikvermolen8371]

Funny, how Mclaren Norris Brown all said they had the fastest car, but you seem to know better from your couch...I tend to believe the team itself, if you don't mind.

[@Grammarlings-cf8yw]

@@erikvermolen8371 they had the fastest car at one or two tracks, the overall race pace puts them in the same category as RB- It's not like 2023 when RB was better than the whole field by a big margin. McLaren's pace is slightly exaggerated and RB's pace is slightly underestimated in PR (public relations).

[@erikvermolen8371]

@@Grammarlings-cf8yw Don't change the premise. Nobody said they had a car as fast as the Redbul last year. You said that it is an exaggeration to say it’s the best car. Well no it's not an exaggeration, it's a factual truth th\t it is the fastest car on the grid for the last 7-8races. Did you watch today? Now tell me is it an exaggeration to say it’s the best car?

[@niko.k]

Lando isn’t world champion material yet, He's more interested in being a good friend with only one thought.

[@saadparekh]

McLaren strategist need to up the game. They are always asking Norris what he wants rather than giving him clear cut instructions. Norris doesn't have experience to make those calls just yet.

[@Genshi54697]

F1's best car???? W11 enters the chat 🗣️

[@kerotamahirome7869]

Short answer: yes for this season Long answer: no if they are quite dominant over the next years they could win 2 titles etc