I didn’t find his own thread, might as start one. McLaren largely have the best car as of now. Norris seems to be pissing away points like a firehouse. Sure McLaren strategy puts out shockers, but he fails to capitalize on anything. I now rate Russel higher than him. He has to shape up quickly or Piastri will usurp that number 1 position in the team.
Piastri is the #1 driver at this point. very clear the team is favoring Oscar despite Lando being the veteran and ahead in the points. whether Lando’s poor form of late is cause or effect is up for debate
He cant start effectively and from lap 1 is on the defensive. Not a winning technique for a WDC effort. The team said they would consider making Mclando #1. No need for that idea yet after Spa. Let them race for now.
Most amazing thing from Piastri is his cool blooded attitude all the time. Very composed character and a huge advantage in the future.
Lando is his own worst enemy. He has top 4 levels of pace on most days, but he makes too many mistakes. While his mistakes aren't putting the car in the barriers like Leclerc, he makes bad strat calls, he makes little pitstop errors, his race craft is iffy, and he his horrendous at starts - especially from pole. I also think he's mentally weak compared to the greats of the sport. In his sim racing, he rage quits all the time. We saw the same thing in Austria. He makes no attempt to fight his way out of adversary, he'd rather quit and fight another day. Remember when Verstappen got steamrolled in Hungary 2021, his car was destroyed. I suspect Lando would choose to park the car, while Max drove that junker to 9th. A key moment in his championship.
Come on, come on, check the points chart: Norris has been outpacing and outscoring Piastri most of the time. He had bad starts in the last two races, and that´s all people remembers now. Jeez, watching sports is how I understood why democracy always fails.
Yes, Piastri was nothing spectacular in his first season but he's learning, things can change. Yet, so far the stats remain and still people already wants to crucify Norris. And then they say that Italians overreact...
I dont see any harshness towards Mclando. He is quite capable of treating himself badly after so many races. The team is silly to think they need to designate a #1 when Max is not at all on a trajectory yet or even close to losing the title. He just needs a win or 2 and consistent placement to take the WDC. The WCC might be a winner for Mclaren and that needs a team with the winning ability and to minimize mistakes. Mclaren still appear to be redeveloping that skill.
Not bad, but these are better: https://www.formula1.com/en/results/2024/drivers https://www.formula1.com/en/results/2023/drivers
Lando has a 32 point lead now over Oscar He had a 63 point lead after Spain this is a bad trajectory for Lando. and for the record I like Lando. I think he's a great driver and a fun personality, he's good for the sport. but the tide seems to be turning against him at McLaren
He's still in a learning curve, hopefully he'll take these lessons to heart and improve - like Piastri is doing. McLaren has given him a great car, now it's up to him to capitalize with it.
Damn, how gradual is that curve? He's a great mid-field driver, but, and I may eat my words here, he's a bit overrated.
So in the last 7 races, these guys scored this many points: 1) Verstappen 116pts 2) Hamilton 115pts 3) Piastri 114pts 4) Norris 98pts 5) Russell 72pts
Meaning he has some maturing to do. I'll also say his runway for that is shorter than longer. He definitely needs to drive with a clearer head and capitalize better on high starting positions. I think the driving skill is there, now he needs more emotional control to be consistent.
When starting from Pole, Lando has never finished lap 1 in first. He has always had poor starts, it's only now more people are noticing it.
So, which one is it, according to you? Poor reaction time? wrong clutch setting? fear of a false start? too much emotion? or wrong method ?
Lando had on average the fastest reaction times in 2023, so I doubt it's that (this is measured 0-100kph off the start, not true reaction time like you see in drag racing) if it were a mechanical issue (clutch setting, etc) I'd think the team would have corrected by now so probably between the ears. Tweet— Twitter API (@user) date
Schumacher was also pretty crap at starts. He would drop back several places. I'm convinced it was intentional to spice up the race !