#mclaren disasterclass

[britney-rosberg06]

don’t let the george disqualification distract you from the fact that Lando Norris spent practically the entire race failing to get ahead of Max despite pretty much being in DRS the whole time

[rb19]

max: u gon make it hard for me? im gon make it insufferable for u 😼

[sainzsidepiece]

what the actual fuck did i just witness

[aaliyahhves]

Don't let this Ferrari disasterclass distract you from the fact that Mclaren sacrificed oscar's race to help norris , only for him to be passed by Mercedes and a redbull with much much slower pace .

[wafflesrisa]

McLaren’s pit wall disasterclass

What really gets me about this McLaren pit wall disasterclass is that it was 99% salvageable even AFTER the mistake was made

Andrea Stella could have gone on Lando’s radio on lap 48 and said these exact words:

“Lando, this is Andrea. Let Oscar through please. One lap hold position. Then you are free to race. Race to the end.”

Now if I was Lando. Knowing there’s 22 laps to the end of the race and he has comparable tyres to Oscar - he’d grumble but he’d comply. Because he’d know that he has 22 laps to chase and overtake Oscar on his own merit

But no McLaren spent the next 20 laps “👉👈 uwu pls”. Until both Lando and Oscar felt sour.

You’re a formula one team pull your trousers up and give the team order. Then let your drivers race

[isadora16aslani]

So red bull plans on winning are:

✔️Trust in Charles Leclerc masterclass

✔️Trust in Oscar Piastri masterclass

✔️Trust in Max Verstappen masterclass

✔️Trust in Lando Norris/McLaren disasterclass

[f1-unpopularopinions]

I already want this season to be done with. Yeah yeah Norris will lose the championship by less than 7 points and the fan base will be angry at Piastri for Hungary to which Piastri will react to about as nonchalantly as to the whole Alpine contract fiasco. Done and dusted.

I'm far more excited for next year because it is going to be absolute chaos. There's most likely gonna be at least 4 rookies (Bearman, Antonelli, Doohan and Lawson) with possibilities for even more depending on Audi and how badly the Redbull family is gonna implode. The regulations are changing in 2026 so no team is gonna give two flying fucks about next year's cars because they are so focused on 2026. Almost every team is in shambles already and it's gonna be even worse next year

The Redbull family right now has too many drivers but at this speed they aren't gonna have enough by the time the season ends. Riccardo and Perez just aren't performing, Verstappen is threatening retirement in every other interview and at this speed FIA is gonna issue Tsunoda a permanent race ban for swearing on the radio (/j). Meanwhile all their important personnel are jumping the ship while they still can.

Leclerc is gonna show Hamilton the ways of catholic guilt and Ferrari disasterclass and we are gonna have our next multi worldchampion failing to bring glory back to Maranello.

The Mclarens are gonna tear each other to pieces if they truly start back on equal footing and the car manages to perform.

Russell is stuck babysitting a teenager driving a fucking Mercedes while Wolff tries to court Verstappen right in front of his eyes.

Stroll is gonna drive around in a car with Newey influences and zero spacial awareness. Alonso's El Plan for his 3rd championship still doesn't work.

Gasly and Doohan are gonna make up half of Alpine's staff by themselves while the other half is striking again. The team's gonna have more owners than engineers.

Ocon is either punting Bearman off the track at every opportunity or teaching him to be the next 6-foot-something track terror.

Audi. I don't even know what's gonna happen with Audi. Either Hulkenberg is also stuck on babysitting duty in a car that barely moves or Bottas is telling him how to reconnect with nature during the 5 minute pit stops when the wheel nuts stop working again. Either way I feel like alcohol is gonna be involved.

Genuinely think that Williams guys are gonna be the happiest next year because the expectations are gonna be so low that getting to the points is pleasant surprise and neither of them need worry about their appendixes. Until of course one of them throws a house party that's too loud and pisses off the other because apparently Albon and Sainz live right next to each other in the same building.

Chaos I tell you. And I can't wait!

Send us your unpopular F1 opinions!

[blahblahbih]

Sleepy Suzuka recap 😗✌️

(Again because tumblr didn’t post my last one for whatever reason)

To whoever gave me a lethal dose of hopium and delulu, I demand financial compensation.

McLaren… why, just why. It’s not a disasterclass by any means it’s just underwhelming, no comments, 1/10

Charles Leclerc the tire whisperer that your are, tire deg who??? 100% deserves dotd, Carlos 3 starts 3 podiums, Ferrari is no longer ferraring, slay.

I was asleep at the beginning and also fell asleep like 5 times throughout the race but omg lance during the red flag????? Sirrrrr, never let scissors near him ever again he’s back in his racing point era, simply gorgeous!

WE GOT YOINTSSS

Thoughts and prayers for Williams mechanics and Danny ric fans

P screaming “maxiee” made the Dutch national anthem more bearable

Final thoughts: nyooooooommmmm nyoooom nyooooommmm is the perfect white noise to fall asleep to

[silentreigns]

The other day I rewatched highlights of Silverstone 2024 and there were multiple instances where Oscar and Lando were on pace to win the race. But those strategic errors kept adding up. This was the best McLaren disasterclass because on paper they should have won. I can't even say it was divine intervention or the universe working in mysterious ways because Lewis called everything correctly which allowed him to take the win. It wasn't luck, it was just years of experience dominating and understanding wet conditions that which led to him winning.

[blorbocedes]

i’m so sick of mclaren wtf was that

strategy disasterclass + slow pitstop

[formulinos]

why do we even come to this earth? just to endure? to survive? to continuously live in agony and pain whilst seeing the same cycle of mistakes happen and the worst people we know thrive? will it ever end? when death comes, will it be a guarantee of deliverance or will i return in another body, with no memories of a past life, but will be forced to see ferrari disasterclasses and mclaren poles again?

[charles-leclerc-official]

* kissing u on the forehead *

Incredible amazing genius rational beautiful gorgeous amazing

Just read the analysis, fantastic job as usual,,,

What kind of track is monaco? I know that overtaking is pretty impossible there so unless there's a strategy or pitstop disasterclass or smth (2022 my beloathed) track positions don't change much from qualifying, but looking at current strengths and weaknesses who do you think will suit the track?

Also is ferrari bringing something to monaco in terms of updates?? I heard smth about a rear wing but so soon after such a big package??

Anyways thank you for your contributions to the world

🩷🫡☺️☺️

Thank you so much <3

Monaco really is it's own beast. It is one of the tracks that is the most skill based. Very rarely is a car perfectly suited to it because it's just unlike a lot of others in terms of layout. However it does have way more reliance on corner precision and low speed corners, and seeing as that's been an area where Ferrari is ahead I think we'll be closer to the others during qualifying. I don't think it's as suited to Mclaren being able to dominate using the top speed they have added.

The race will be mostly decided, as you suggested, during qualifying, as well as pit strategy. Anything can happen but that is the way this track works.

The only driver I can really say will likely do well at the front is Max. Everyone else is really up in the air. It's a skill based track, so drivers like Max, Lewis, Fernando, etc will be more solid here compared to their teammates.

Ferrari are bringing a track specific rear wing as well as an update to the DRS system. And yes this seems soon but as soon as Imola was over Fred talked about how it is clear bringing upgrades sooner will be key this season. I also do think they are trying to give Charles the best chance to perform well here by doing this. It's his turn for priority during qualifying, and I think they 100% planned it out that way.

But yes I think that Ferrari are going to be accelerating things and getting more aggressive after seeing the Mclaren upgrades.

[lewisinho]

felipe massa and the championship that got away: an analysis

prompted mostly by massa pissing me off so bad with his campaign of misinformation (like bro sue the weather while you’re at it); this involved rewatching absolute disasterclasses and a few snoozefests during my free wednesday (the weather was terrible as well so took the time to refresh my memory on some of the less memorable 2008 races and compile this mess) and my eyes were bleeding so please show some love

ok, so on a more serious note, he wasn’t absolutely dreadful (apart from in the wet); my biggest issue is that we probably don’t know just how good that 2008 ferrari really was; in the hands of someone with much better quali/race pace it could probably have dominated much more strongly; i think his performance was quite average considering the potential the car had; he had some brilliant weekends as well, but i think they are quite significantly overshadowed by the dreadful ones; then again, 2008 wasn’t lewis’ best season either, and this analysis isn’t really to compare the two, it’s mostly to showcase that massa’s assertion of it being a ‘perfect’ championship isn’t quite true…is all this necessary? ofc not, but i’m going to have some fun with it anyhow; 

i also made this because the concept of ‘deserving’ something is one i deeply deeply despise in sport; the only thing you can bring to the table with such discourse is your own subjective opinion; you win or you don’t, end of; you can, of course, be robbed of something when a rule is indeed broken, but the concept of ‘deserving a championship due to how you performed over the course of a season’ is frankly stupid; and do i think massa was robbed? no. he can’t prove that crashgate was the very thing that cost him the championship because it conveniently ignores everything else that happens afterwards. there’s a clear break in the chain of causation. he neither ‘deserves’ it in my opinion, nor was he robbed of it and i also don’t like the historical revisionism he’s campaigning for either so here’s a full rundown of felipe massa’s season (i tried to be as impartial as i could in this):

top 2 in the driver’s standings (included only for the sake of completeness, please don’t cite toto’s 'wikipedia statistics' quote at me):

some background information:

the 2008 championship comes right after the spygate shitshow of the previous season; fernando alonso leaves mclaren for renault after one year; heikki kovalainen replaces him to drive alongside lewis hamilton at mclaren; felipe massa and kimi raikkonen (the reigning world champion) are teammates at ferrari (kimi’s 2008 season is also interesting to revisit considering the internal ferrari politics at play but i’ll save it for a different time); it's an eighteen race season, and for this season traction control has been banned! (it's important to mention considering the ban had been brought up several times over the season as a reason to explain some of felipe's performances considering he had never driven a formula one car without traction control before);

moreover, the fia’s decision-making this season was questionable to say the least; this is obviously not felipe's fault ofc, but there were a few decisions which he had certainly benefited from at lewis’ expense (spa comes to mind…);

2008 scoring system quick refresher: p1: 10 points, p2: 8 pts, p3: 6 pts; scoring only up to eighth place;

for the race results i will only include the top 3 as well as lewis if he finishes off the podium; for the championship standings i will include the top 3 in the championship as they were after every race (+ HAM/MAS/RAI if they were outside) and on how many points they were after every race;

australian gp (0 points, dnf)

bit of an embarrassing start tbh…massa qualifies p4 but spins in the first corner of the first lap all on his own and hits the barrier; he manages to get back into the pits though and get a front wing change; however, on lap 26 he collides with DC when trying to overtake him; DC retires, but massa continues only to retire from an engine failure a few laps later; pretty shit start to the season

race result: lewis hamilton p1, nick heidfeld p2, nico rosberg p3 (the infamous brocedes podium btw)

malaysian gp (0 points, dnf)

much better qualifying, ferrari clearly has pace as massa qualifies on pole, with raikkonen in p2; however on lap 31 felipe spins off and gets trapped in the gravel; this race was a masterclass from kimi btw, he won by nearly twenty seconds from kubica in p2; also before massa crashed, kimi also managed to get ahead of felipe in the first round of pit stops after pitting a lap after felipe by producing a brilliant in-lap

race result: kimi raikkonen p1, robert kubica p2, heikki kovalainen p3 (lewis p5- qualifying penalty for impeding drivers in quali and had started p8 + slow pitstop by mclaren in the race)

championship standings: HAM (14 points), RAI (11), HEI (11) + MAS (0)

bahrain gp (10 points, p1)

it’s kubica on pole (who i also need to mention because he arguably was the best driver of the 2008 season) and massa starts p2; felipe overtakes kubica in the first corner and then maintains the lead for the rest of the race; very good performance for him and good bounce-back from the first two races

race result: felipe massa p1, kimi raikkonen p2, robert kubica p3 (lewis p13- bit of a disaterclass from him this time around, as he went into anti-stall at the start due to going into a wrong engine mode and dropped positions; he then drives right into the back of fernando’s renault and had to get a nose change, dropping him to p18)

championship: RAI (19), HEI (16), HAM (14) + MAS (10)

spanish gp (8 points, p2)

ferrari are dominating the past few races and the same happens in spain; kimi pole, felipe p3; massa overtakes alonso at the start and it's a ferrari 1-2 procession to the end basically; the race was basically sorted with the overtakes made at the start; also a literal snoozefest;

race result: kimi raikkonen p1, felipe massa p2, lewis hamilton p3

championship: RAI (19), HAM (20), KUB (19) + MAS p4 (18)

turkish gp (10 points, p1)

actually a pretty good race from massa; starts on pole and wins the race; lewis comes in second, executing a three-stopper (arguably this strategy cost mclaren the chance of fighting for the win but they were worried about tyres…still i think, a bit on the conservative side from mclaren in terms of strategy and considering lewis’ amazing pace relative to massa bit of a missed opportunity)

race result: felipe massa p1, lewis hamilton p2, kimi raikkonen p3

championship: RAI (35), MAS (28), HAM (28)

monaco gp (6 points, p3)

wet monaco and absolute chaos! (great race to rewatch btw); massa qualified on pole, but then lost the lead because of a mistake in the wet; lewis wins, and also brilliant race by kubica;

race result: lewis hamilton p1, robert kubica p2, felipe massa p3

championship: HAM (38), RAI (35), MAS (34)

canadian gp (4 points, p5)

massa qualifies p6, ferrari fuel rig problem in the pit lane meant he dropped down to p17; he fights back to p5; and because hamilton crashed into raikkonen in the pit lane, he managed to outscore the both of them that weekend; also robert wins! relative to the others, a pretty good weekend for massa;

race result: robert kubica p1, nick heidfeld p2, david coulthard p3 (every time i remember DC raced in 2008 it’s like a shock to my system)

championship: KUB (42), MAS (38), HAM (38) + RAI, p4 (35)

french gp (10 points, p1)

again, ferrari are pretty much dominating in quali; kimi takes pole, felipe p2; it was kimi’s race to win and he was comfortably leading however he then had to slow down due to his car suffering from an exhaust pipe breaking and hence, loss of engine power; felipe therefore, inherits the lead and wins the race;

race result: felipe massa p1, kimi raikkonen p2, jarno trulli p3 (lewis- p10, he had to take a grid drop for the incident in the pitlane in canada when he ran into the back of kimi; in the race he has to serve a drive-through penalty for cutting a corner and gaining an advantage)

championship: MAS (48), KUB (46), RAI (43) + HAM, p4 (38)

british gp (0 points, p13)

eyeee think this race is best summarised with pictures? allow me:

an all-timer of a race, lewis hamilton masterclass;

race result: lewis hamilton p1, nick heidfeld p2, rubens barichello p3

championship: HAM (48), MAS (48), RAI (48)

german gp (6 points, p3)

massa qualified p2 alongside lewis; this is one of lewis’ best drives of the season i think; he was leading the race comfortably in the beginning stages, pulling away from felipe like crazy (he gained 1.8 sec in the first lap, had a 3.7 sec lead by lap 4, 11 sec by lap 18, clearly on a mission); mclaren don’t pit him under safety car when everyone else around him does, so he has eight laps to build a large gap before having to eventually pit himself; he does on lap 50 and overtakes massa and piquet jr for the win (some really nice overtakes btw); massa really just didn’t have the pace to compete;

race result: lewis hamilton p1, nelson piquet jr p2, felipe massa p3

championship: HAM (58), MAS (54), RAI (51)

hungarian gp (0 points, p17/dnf)

this one was bad luck because massa suffered an engine failure when leading the race; it would have probably been his best win of his career had he not dnf'ed- good overtake on lewis at the start

race result: heikki kovalainen p1, timo glock p2, kimi raikkonen p3 (lewis- p5, suffered a tyre puncture on lap 40; tbf the early seasons also show lewis is still learning about tyre management and that he’s still prone to overcooking his tyres making them vulnerable to punctures)

championship: HAM (62), RAI (57), MAS (54)

european gp (10 points, p1)

qualifies on pole and wins the race; he nearly manages to crash into sutil when released into the pit lane after his pit stop; the team is charged with 10,000 euros after the race but felipe keeps his win (it would be dealt with so differently these days lmao but can’t really blame him)

race result: felipe massa p1, lewis hamilton p2, robert kubica p3

championship: HAM (70), MAS (64), RAI (57)

belgian gp (10 points, p1)

this race still makes my blood boil; funnily enough felipe wins after not leading a single lap in this race! lewis gets handed a 25-second penalty by the stewards and gets demoted to p3; quick recap: lewis tried to pass kimi at the bus stop chicane, but he cut the corner and got into the lead; he allowed kimi to re-pass him because he gained an advantage by going off track; but smartly, he passes kimi again at la source; post-race he’s handed a penalty; mclaren then appeal and say that charlie whiting himself said that lewis had given the place back to kimi completely legally; thing is, charlie isn’t the stewards, who say that lewis didn’t give kimi enough of an advantage; it causes a bit of a storm in the media, niki lauda goes off and calls it the ‘worst judgment in the history of f1’; thing is, it's a really grey area, to some extent i can understand the stewards’ reasoning, but the severity of the punishment is absolutely ridiculous and also points to how inconsistent the fia is...handing him 25 seconds just doesn’t fit the crime at all; (also the last four laps are just pure drama in general! worth a watch);

(if i had a nickel for every time felipe massa got handed a lucky win in 2008, i’d have two nickels. which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird it happened twice)

race result: felipe massa p1, nick heidfeld p2, lewis hamilton p3

championship: HAM (76), MAS (74), KUB (58) + RAI, p4 (57)

italian gp (3 points, p6)

bit of a disasterclass, qualifies p6, finishes p6; but funnily enough, he still finished ahead of both kimi and lewis as the both of them were sent out on the wrong tyres in qualifying and only managed to qualify p14 and p15; btw beautiful overtakes by lewis (he finished p7- just one place behind felipe); also seb wins!

race result: sebastian vettel p1, keikki kovalainen p2, robert kubica p3

championship: HAM (78), MAS (77), KUB (64) + RAI, p4 (57)

singapore gp (0 points, p13)

crashgate! he gets pole (quite an impressive pole lap i must admit) and leads the race until piquet jr crashes, and felipe pits, ferrari release him too early and he drives off with the fuel hose still attached to his car…to that i say, maybe sue your pit crew as well 

race result: fernando alonso p1, nico rosberg p2, lewis hamilton p3

championship: HAM (84), MAS (77), KUB (64) + RAI, p4 (57)

japanese gp (2 points, p7)

now this one is a disasterclass on all fronts, but if you want drama i recommend watching it; felipe qualified p5; he managed to crash into hamilton and got himself a drive-through penalty; he also tangled with bourdais when attempting to overtake him on lap 50; bourdais was blamed for it and got a 25-second penalty after the race; thing is, i don’t see how it’s only bourdais’ fault tbh? massa squeezed bourdais as he attempted to pass him going into the first corner and bourdais couldn’t just disappear…anyway the decision to penalise bourdais was criticised a lot, also considering that penalising him went against charlie whiting’s pre-race direction that the car exiting the pit-lane has the right of way (which bourdais was); 

race result: fernando alonso p1, robert kubica p2, kimi raikkonen p3 (lewis hamilton- p12, bit of a disasterclass from him as well)

championship: HAM (84), MAS (79), KUB (72) + RAI, p4 (63)

chinese gp (8 points, p2)

qualifies p3, behind lewis and kimi; lewis comfortably leads the race and wins it fifteen seconds ahead of p2; massa finished second after raikkonen is instructed to let him through (ferrari team orders, bit of a deja vu)

race result: lewis hamilton p1, felipe massa p2, kimi raikkonen p3

championship: HAM (94), MAS (87), KUB (75) + RAI, p4 (69)

brazilian gp (10 points, p1)

ahead of the last race of the season, massa could still win the title if he wins the race and lewis finishes p6 or lower; massa did all he could: he got pole and won the race; mclaren opted for an incredibly conservative strategy in the race (they only needed to secure p5, and considering how they lost the title only the year before, it’s explicable): for e.g. waiting for a relatively long time to get lewis off the inters when it began to dry during the first part of the race; 

race result: felipe massa p1, fernando alonso p2, kimi raikkonen p3 (lewis- p5 and world champion!)

championship: HAM (98), MAS (97), RAI (75); shoutout to robert kubica who had an absolutely amazing season and who also finished on 75 points, but ended up p4 on countback.

hope this was somewhat informative :)

[lovelypancake33]

this Mclaren pseudo disasterclass will NOT make me fall into a false sense of security

[sebnameyourcar]

oscar points liam lawson points lewis podium alonso disasterclass mclaren podium which means kajs is happy late race drama oh this race was sooooooooo good for me

[f0point5]

you mean verstappen norris comparison? or just norris‘ performance in general?

I’m going to tactically say mclaren’s performance after that Silverstone disasterclass

But also the Ferraris…

(Also Aston Martin but we ALL know that’s the car because��come on.)