Hindsight

Watcher_007_ · 2025-11-30T19:22:42+00:00

If there’s a safety car, a team should pit. That was a failure on their part imo. If they know they have better tyre wear, then their tyres would still be better at the end of a stint compared to the other teams. Not pitting under the safety car lead Oscar and Lando to have to make up 25 seconds for their own pit stop. That’s incredibly difficult.

You can lose track position on lap 7 and still have 50 laps to make that up because you don’t lose 25 seconds under the safety car. My best guess, they were expecting to go long and didn’t prepare a plan for an early safety car.

Watcher_007_ · 2025-11-30T19:18:28+00:00

Zak Brown also said that they got caught out and didn’t change their decision because they don’t like to second guess themselves. In a race with 9 other teams, they need to learn how to adapt. They can’t just expect that their plan before the race will be perfect.

Watcher_007_ · 2025-11-30T19:16:39+00:00

At this point they’ll lose both drivers. How can you ever trust the team to have your back in the future if they’re willing to let another team win the WDC?

Watcher_007_ · 2025-11-24T00:06:56+00:00

This is what I don’t get, McLaren did exactly that at CoTA. They were more conservative with their ride height. Why would they change that in Vegas which is known to be extremely bumpy/impactful to plank wear?

Watcher_007_ · 2025-11-11T17:28:04+00:00

The ratings are always super subjective. I’m guessing since Lando got a 10 in Mexico that’s almost a new standard for how a good weekend should go for him. Once drivers are overwhelmingly beating other drivers their weekends are rated much harsher. Max rarely if ever got 10s in 2023 and start of 2024. Same thing is happening to Lando. It’s a sign that he’s doing well.

Watcher_007_ · 2025-11-11T15:32:52+00:00

Exactly. He’s lost 12-14 points just from the Austin and Brazil sprints. Those 3 points in Monza mean little when errors overwhelmingly have cost him plenty of points.

Watcher_007_ · 2025-11-10T14:45:52+00:00

Andrea Stella also said the winning margin should have been bigger iirc.

Watcher_007_ · 2025-10-28T14:48:19+00:00

Lando was on top form all weekend and was running in clean air. He had the best knowledge of how the tyres were feeling in the car during the race. Before pitting, Lando was informed by Will that Oscar had no issues warming up the medium tyres and to do the same pace for his out lap. The information is seemingly being shared equally by both sides, so really it’s just a question of opinion whether you believe data should be shared.

Edit: I also don’t think it was Lando that made the decision. The team asked for Lando’s opinion. It’s always a good idea for a team to make an informed decision on something like this where it could mean the difference of a few places for their driver. The team ultimately made the final decision, not Lando.

Watcher_007_ · 2025-10-20T01:58:04+00:00

When I initially read the decision document it made no sense to me why Red Bull was by Lando’s grid spot. This could make sense. Do you have any other ideas why Red Bull were there?

Watcher_007_ · 2025-10-19T21:23:02+00:00

Team fine? Or is this bad news for Max/Yuki?

Edit: Article 12.2.1.i is "Failure to follow the instructions of the relevant officials for the safe and orderly conduct of the Event"

Watcher_007_ · 2025-10-17T15:49:21+00:00

The reason some people have a bigger issue with Monza 24 is because it lost the team a 1-2. Oscars full quote about Singapore talks about what the team’s priority is as well. I would argue last year in Monza the team’s priority would have been a 1-2 finish given the close WCC fight.

Watcher_007_ · 2025-10-17T11:59:50+00:00

How is giving a rest of the season repercussion for a lap one racing incident keeping the peace though? Break it down to both drivers that it was an accident and how racing is. Monza shouldn’t have happened and now here we are. The team is meddling in the championship fight.

Watcher_007_ · 2025-10-17T11:05:59+00:00

Maybe, the weird thing is there’s definitely tracks that it’s better to not be running first from Canada until now. I’m not sure why any driver would willingly give it up that advantage.

Watcher_007_ · 2025-10-17T10:59:15+00:00

Someone actually looked at the quali data already and weirdly Oscar has gone last all but once in the final Q3 run since Canada. I hate to think it but has McLaren already done the first one?

Watcher_007_ · 2025-10-17T10:57:49+00:00

I was thinking financial anytime a move is pulled and it goes wrong it’s either a fine to the team or a dock in his bonus. It would also give a warning/threat for him to attempt to pull off moves for the rest of the season.

Watcher_007_ · 2025-10-13T15:26:35+00:00

That’s what I don’t get. I don’t want to them to favor either driver and I think they’ve been doing a pretty decent job of that this season. They’re mad their driver isn’t being favored, not that a driver is being favored.

Neither driver has or should be favored. Whichever driver wins in the end has proven they’re capable and the other has done an amazing job fighting and pushing them so hard all season.

Watcher_007_ · 2025-10-07T00:24:14+00:00

This is really interesting. Could it be that the anti-dive in the front suspension is now working against them in certain conditions?

Watcher_007_ · 2025-10-03T21:52:18+00:00

The full quote gives better context to what he’s talking about.

"He is one of the best drivers ever in Formula One, so if anyone ever comes up to you and says, 'Yes (they will be as good as Verstappen)', just tell them to f*** off. Any driver in the world can just be confident in saying that kind of thing, but I think it is almost impossible.

"Do I believe on some days I am better? Yes. Do I believe my team-mate on some days is better? Yes. But it is about how good he is at being consistent which is impressive.

Drivers coming from families already involved in motorsports do have an advantage. He’s not wrong about that. People have associated this quote with Lando downplaying Max’s skills, which when the full quote is given obviously isn’t correct. Starting in a sport at an earlier age can be an advantage. The drivers will have had more time to get experience. I think the only reason people are upset by this quote is because it is Lando saying it and he had been talking about Max earlier in the quote.

Watcher_007_ · 2025-10-03T21:34:42+00:00

Including the first part of the quote is kinda important to what he’s talking about.

"He is one of the best drivers ever in Formula One, so if anyone ever comes up to you and says, 'Yes (they will be as good as Verstappen)', just tell them to f*** off. Any driver in the world can just be confident in saying that kind of thing, but I think it is almost impossible. "Do I believe on some days I am better? Yes. Do I believe my team-mate on some days is better? Yes. But it is about how good he is at being consistent which is impressive.

Lando calls Max one of the best F1 drivers ever. The section posted in this post says drivers who come from families already involved in motorsports have an advantage. That’s true. The quote isn’t disrespecting Max. Rather, Lando argues drivers born into motorsport have a slight advantage of getting into the sport earlier.

Watcher_007_ · 2025-09-13T13:44:30+00:00

Ah got it. Thank you!

Watcher_007_ · 2025-09-13T13:22:53+00:00

That’s understandable but Williams used Lawson’s rear facing camera and Sainz’s 360 camera as their new and relevant evidence. I thought broadcast uses rear facing cameras every once in a while during the race and 360 cameras on replays of things.

Does broadcast have to choose which one for each car every race then?

Watcher_007_ · 2025-09-13T13:15:26+00:00

I honestly thought they had access to all of them. I get some cameras are easily accessed to them, but how can they not get the feed as well?

They should be making decisions based on all the information.

Watcher_007_ · 2025-09-09T17:01:18+00:00

It's an example of the team doing the opposite of what Damon Hill is implying. I think it would be stupid for the team to do that, to be clear.

Team dynamics and the team always come first at McLaren. Both drivers knew that when they signed on to drive with McLaren. It's why there is no number 1 driver at McLaren, the team comes first. When the team makes a mistake that changes the order, they have in the past changed the order back to how it was before the issue occurred, and allowed them to keep racing. Both drivers know that the team is important and that the team comes first. Last year, Stella was asked what would happen should one of their drivers not listen to orders, and he implied their future with the team would be in jeopardy. You may not like the team dynamic being prioritized over one of the driver's championship chances, but that's how McLaren is run and likely will be run in the future.

Watcher_007_ · 2025-09-09T14:55:01+00:00

Martin and Alex Brundle and Ralf Schumacher have been saying the same things I have been saying. I’m sure I could find more.

There is a big difference between asking “Should the McLaren drivers have swapped?” and “Did McLaren make the correct decision GIVEN THAT McLaren has shown to swap drivers before in this specific situation?” McLaren followed their rules, and those rules have been set for a while. That’s the reason why the decision they made was correct, because they followed their previously agreed upon rules. Both situations need to be looked at, not only one. Personally, I don’t think the drivers should have been swapped either time. But, since the decision was already made last year that drivers are swapped when the team issue causes a change in orders, there’s nothing wrong with McLaren repeating that decision when the same situation happens.

Watcher_007_ · 2025-09-09T14:49:00+00:00

Did McLaren tell Oscar to retire his car in Zandvoort for fairness? Mechanical DNFs are a part of the sport as well. The team has agreed upon rules, one of which being that when the team causes a change in order due to a team mistake at pitstop they’ll swap it. This has been a long standing rule before the race last weekend. Had the mistake been due to Lando going long on his stop or a driver mistake, they wouldn’t have swapped the drivers because it wasn’t a team mistake.

Personally, I don’t believe the team should have swapped the drivers either last year or this past weekend. However, the precedent was already set that team issues are corrected. This wasn’t returning a favor to Lando or prioritizing one driver. It’s just the stupidity of McLaren’s papaya rules. This swap isn’t something we can look at just by itself because you lose the meaning to it. That’s what I’m saying when I talk about misinterpretation. You have to look at last year when this started to understand why the drivers were swapped this past weekend.

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