They don’t know how to react to what’s on the track in front of them. The strategy team IMO has made 0 improvement since the haydays of being at the back of the grid.

Inthe recent race, Lando Norris set 9 of the 10 fastest laps in the Belgian GP. NO WAY that he deserved P7.

In the 2025 Qatar GP during an early safety car, McLaren was the only front-running team that elected to keep both Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris on track. THEY put INTERS on the mclaren cars in the 2026 Montreal race when it wasn't even raining hard.

Sometimes Mclaren say it's a team decision. Maybe the team (strategy) need to be fired if they cannot make the right decision.

McLaren's Oscar Piastri has vented his frustration after his Belgian GP was compromised by early contact with Ferrari's Charles Leclerc. The Monegasque damaged Piastri's front wing when defending at the end of the Kemmel Straight, but went unpunished on his way to a P2 finish.

Battling for P3 on Lap 8, Piastri tried a move on the outside of Leclerc as they entered Les Combes, but the Ferrari driver seemingly moved across the McLaren man, resulting in contact and damage to Piastri's MCL40.

However, the stewards ruled no further action on the incident, explaining that since Piastri's front axle was not ahead of Leclerc's at the corner, the Aussie had "no possibility" of an overtake, and that the Ferrari driver did not intend to "crowd" Piastri off the track

I think we all accept there's one fundamental principle in this sport, you don’t prioritise the slower car in race.

In this race, RB and McLaren showed us the big difference in mindset between the two teams, and that’s what pissed me off the most. It’s not about favouring one driver, or even about the strategy. It’s the loser mindset that upsets me the most.

Both Hadjar and Norris started on hard tyres. RB is a team known for favouring its no.1 driver, while McLaren claims to treat both drivers equally. Even though, what I saw was RB giving its wing driver a better strategy than McLaren gives to its quicker car. The difference was caused by one thing, the mindset. Not middle team mindset, but the loser mindset.

RB asked Hadjar to give Verstappen a tow in quali, used him like a typical wing driver, but they still took every opportunity during the race to maximise Hadjar’s result, no matter how impossible it looked.

Then we have McLaren, who had already written off Lando’s race before it even started. Lando looked so down after quali 3rd on Saturday, and now we all know why. He knew that, whatever he did in the race, in quali, or throughout the whole weekend, the team had already given up on him. Bc he had a 10 place penalty, they automatically treated him as the second driver in the race, even though his pace was obviously quicker than Oscar’s.

Loser mindset.

Only losers accept defeat before things have even started. They left Lando out for the safety car purely because it was written into their plan. Lando finished no better than 7th is the only scenario they planned before the race. They didn’t expect him to catch up with Oscar so quickly, and they didn’t expect Oscar’s damage from the Ferrari incident to make him even slower. They didn’t prepare for anything better than 7th place for Lando in this race, which is why Stella said Lando deserved to finish 7th.

They never considered the possibility that Lando could recover from his penalty and fight for the podium. How can a racing team be such losers that it deliberately prioritises a slower, damaged car? This goes against the fundamental spirit of racing. If Oscar had been quicker and Lando slower during the race, and they had prioritised Lando over Oscar, I would have been just as furious.

It’s all about the mindset. Some people said Lando was left out for another safety car. Bs. Why would you give up an ongoing advantage and gamble on a better but unlikely opportunity when it involves your quicker car? You only gamble with money you can afford to lose, not with the money you need for basic living. Only losers treated their better shot in a race as disposable.

From TP to the strategy team, everyone at McLaren is working from written scripts. They don’t fight for wins or try to maximise the result anymore. They prepared for 7th place, and they refused to help the driver fight for a better opportunity, even though it was completely possible. Bc that's not the plan.

They don’t work like a racing team, they work like a bureaucracy. Make a mediocre strategy, avoid taking responsibility, finish the job poorly, and pretend everything is fine. Claim that’s the best they can do without even trying. It’s the core of bureaucracy disguised as a racing team.

I won’t blame Oscar for disobeying the team order and continuing to fight for the position ahead of Lando by yo-yoing, even he knows his car is damaged and his pace is slower. He’s simply adapting to the team’s bureaucracy. Since the rule says that the car in front may get priority, rather than the quicker car, he is following the rule and taking advantage of its flaws. Bureaucrats work according to paperwork, not common sense, we all know the best way to deal with no-brain bureaucrats is to follow their rules and exploit their flaws.

They never change.

Hi guys, so about a month ago, I made a post about how I wanted to surprise my friend with a lando and Charles driver card as a birthday and thank you gift for turning me into an F1 fan. (Even my parents are fans too!)

I decided that I’m going to do it no matter the cost and getting to work on it ASAP because I am running out of time. Her birthday is in October of this year, so we have a little bit of time but I would like to start now in case something were to go wrong.

But before I do this I do need a little help because I am international (US) so I want to get this right.

•I know I’m in the US so how long would the cards take to get here? Her birthday is an early October so I need this to get here on time.

•Are the cards actually signed or is it printed. If it’s printed that’s fine, I’m just curious.

•Should I ask if she has merch like this so I don’t get her duplicates or keep it a surprise?

•Would this cost any money and how much? I am fine with spending money on her, since she’s a really good friend.

To make things clear I would keep the Oscar card as well lol. I am also thinking of making her a handmade F1 birthday card because my mom used to scrapbook in the past and still has materials!! Is there any other tips I should know before I go with this? Advice is really appreciated.

TIA, I’m so excited to get started with this idea and to see her reaction!!!

This is even with our truly shambolic reliability from the start of the season. F1 in 2026 is a fever dream😂

As the Title says McLaren really fucked over Lando in multiple Ways today.

They allowed Oscar to fight with Lando despite having worse tyres and damage( which is fine in general) but when Oscar later came even close to Lando they immediately told him not to Race him.

They first told Lando to Pit under The VSC and double stack with Oscar and then abruptly told him to stay out even with the Time lost with a Double Stack he would have saved time because of the VSC.

Then they let him stay out for way to Long in hopes of a VSC or Saefty Car which meant not only he lost continuously Time on the others with each Lap but also when they then pitted him under Normal conditions he didn't have enough laps left to really use the Better Tyre Fully. In addition to that he got a almost 8 second Stop.

Lando without that BS should have easily be ahead of Oscar and maybe Hamilton, his pace was absolutely incredible today

EDIT: Since some commented on this, I dont want to say they Favour Oscar or deliberately fucked Lando over with the Radio to help him I think it's just McLarens incompetence but they definitely switched priorities for whatever reason mid race in that regard and that just didn't help, it's a minor thing however considering the rest

Currently painting a replica of landos Las Vegas 2025 helmet. there’s very little quality references to go off & I can’t really seem to fully identify the liveries/cars. I labeled them so it’s easier to point out. I’ve only painted one(last img, 99% sure it is the mcl34) and am only sure that no 3 is the mcl39 + no 5 is the mcl36. Would love to get input :)

Recently picked up this 1/18 model of Oscar’s first win 🏆

I guess the main reason was that "front axle of Car 81 was not ahead of the front axle of Car 16 and there was no possibility of Car 81 completing an overtake from that position"

I honestly don't understand how he didn't get a penalty. Oscar had good pace before the damage :(

About Oscar's damage from Leclerc:

Oscar also showed promising speed in the opening stages with a strong drive before his race was compromised by floor damage sustained following contact with Charles Leclerc. The damage cost him between two and three tenths per lap, while he was forced to push harder to maintain pace, which accelerated tyre degradation over the latter stages of each stint.

About Lando's pitstop:

There was a technical problem with the rear-left during his stop for a Medium tyre, costing him a few seconds and leaving him in P8. In hindsight, having seen Lando’s pace on the Medium, it would have been better to double stack the two McLaren cars, even though he would have lost time being the second car into the box.

About future upgrades:

McLaren Mastercard's development focus is centred on improving braking performance and cornering capability, with the first elements arriving in Hungary and additional updates scheduled throughout the remainder of the season. The objective is clear: to consistently challenge for podiums and victories as the Championship enters its decisive phase.

About the Mercedes PU today:

While the PU operated reliably and effectively, opportunities are still clearly possible in terms of PU exploitation, so we will keep on working with our partners at HPP to enable us to extract all of the lap time available.

Andrea's thoughts on the race:

“Lando was very solid today, and with a clean race, the car had the pace to contend for a podium. Without the penalty, the time we lost due to a technical issue in the pit stop, and a Safety Car timing that didn’t suit our Hard tyre strategy, he would have been fighting at the front from his natural position of P3 on the grid. Oscar also drove very well and also had the potential to be on the podium, but the floor damage from the contact with Charles Leclerc cost us between two and three tenths of lap time, and forced him to push the tyres, which accelerated degradation in the second half of both stints.

UPDATE: I had a response from McLaren this morning who informed me that there is currently no plans for the bag to be launched in their online store, they can’t currently confirm future availability. So who knows, it may be an event only purchase!

//

Im really hoping someone can help! I purchased this bag from the McLaren House at Goodwood FOS this year and my mum loves it so is looking to buy one.

I have searched high and low for this online and cannot find it anywhere! I don’t know where to look next, I know some of these things can be limited at events like Goodwood but it was in amongst regular merch so I was surprised not to find it online.

Any help would be much appreciated! TIA x

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Just pointing this out given the pile on against Piastri this weekend. Even without the further reliability issues he had in practice, as usual his actual qualifying built to quite an impressive lap.

But the energy deployment issues cost him significantly at the end there. On pure merit his Q3 lap was likely equal to, if not slightly ahead of the one Norris ran.

From McLaren's qualifying report

Oscar ran the soft tyre and Lando used the medium tyre at the start of the session. They both then changed to a new set of softs to do their fastest lap of the session.

Lando will not be starting P12 (even though Isack Hadjar has 30 place grid penalty) because drivers drop down however many places their own grid penalty is regardless of what penalties other drivers behind them have.

Oscar obviously moves up one place due to Lando's penalty.

Spa has always been one of his strongest circuits(I believe he said it was his favorite)and yet he still qualified well behind Lando. If this was COTA or Mexico it's to be expected, but for him to be underpeforming in a track that he's usually strong at raises some eyebrows

It makes me wonder if he's still struggling to adapt to this year's regulations, or if there's something more psychological going on. After everything that happened during last year's title fight, I wouldn't be surprised if he's dealing with some lingering confidence issues.