F1 F1 2025 Season

What driver at their new team will have the biggest impact in 2025?

  • Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari

    Votes: 7 41.2%

  • Liam Lawson at Red Bull

    Votes: 3 17.6%

  • Kimi Antonelli at Mercedes

    Votes: 1 5.9%

  • Carlos Sainz Jr. at Williams

    Votes: 5 29.4%

  • Someone else...

    Votes: 1 5.9%
  • Total voters
    17
  • Poll closed .

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I wrote pages last year about the pit strategies and radio messages.

I started from the position the calls all went one way, but IMO a LOT of it came down to language and communication. Norris was told the preferential strategy and then asked what he wanted (who are we racing). Piastri was only ever really asked if he could keep going (do you think you can stay with or keep in front of X).
  • If Norris is ahead - Lando was asked first on pitting, then Piastri was told the team strategy.
  • If Piastri is ahead - Oscar was asked first if he could stay out, then they asked Norris, then Piastri was told the strategy. It was only when Oscar complained he couldn't stay out he was pitted first.
Same scenario, similar question - but the inference and driver responses were completely different. Lando backed himself to overtake, so always wanted to be fastest car on track (even if behind); where Oscar was a lot more ambivalent, seeming to want his engineers to make the right call. If an earlier pit was thought faster, Oscar was regularly encouraged (by way of phrasing) to stay out longer.

Stuck in dirty air behind an opponent:
  • Norris - you're faster than them, so back off, save tires and we'll find you a gap to undercut.
  • Piastri - you're faster than them, so stay close and keep the pressure on (burns up both their tires) - we'll pit later when we need tires.
Same scenario, different instructions. Oscar burns his tires as he stays as close as he can - perhaps knowing he won't get the advantageous pit call? Or he just saw track position more advantageous than a pace advantage.

Racing each other on track - told to stop pushing and conserve tires/brakes/fuel:
  • Piastri - drops 0.5-0.6 in the next section, then starts building slowly until told specific corners.
  • Norris - green sectors, continues to close the gap whilst his pit yell at him to back off every corner.
    • Finally backs off <2 seconds behind, complains Oscar should be faster and is holding him up.

Norris' pitstops are far more strategic - Piastri tends to be performance limited. It could simply be a case of Norris can predict the car/tire management better - the team are more prepared to punt on him doing long final stints - whereas Oscar is about making sure they have a tire offset/buffer at the end. Oscar's still avoiding the cliff.

Norris also seems to be far better in traffic, and overtaking for position with smaller pace advantages - Oscar still gets caught behind slower cars for long stretches (but is getting better/more aggressive).
 
Jatz said:
Rather than crying about McLaren favouring Lando, perhaps Oscar should try and fix the horrific qualifying record he had last year against Lando. Starting on the back foot is a far bigger issue than any perceived favouritism from the team.
Click to expand...
Hard to out qualify your teammate when your teammate has car upgrades that Piastri hasn't recevied...
 

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Vader said:
Hard to out qualify your teammate when your teammate has car upgrades that Piastri hasn't recevied...
Click to expand...
Yeah ok, clearly pointless talking about this with you.

20-4 doesn't happen because of a couple of car upgrades throughout a season. His qualifying results are poor in comparison and until he corrects that, he may as well get used to being behind Lando.
 
skam85 said:
Agreed.

McLaren have always been one of the most fair teams when it comes to teammates, until it comes to a point where one is clearly ahead. From the Ron era into the current Brown/Stella era. The only year they really ballsed it up was 2007. And boy did they balls that up.

Considering Oscar just signed a multi year extension overnight, they clearly value both drivers equally.

They'll have that usual papaya rules stuff early doors but we won't see any eggs in one basket until at least the summer break IMO
Click to expand...
why does zak keep calling oscar lando then?:rolleyes:
 
Jatz said:
Rather than crying about McLaren favouring Lando, perhaps Oscar should try and fix the horrific qualifying record he had last year against Lando. Starting on the back foot is a far bigger issue than any perceived favouritism from the team.
Click to expand...
Yeah, wasn't it something like 20-4?

Edit: what skam85 and Jatz said.
 
skam85 said:
That doesn't justify the 20-4 qualifying discrepancy in 2024.
Click to expand...
If my Aunty had balls and all that....

This is just feel - so bias in play. Oscar lost pole position through track limits a few times - I felt he was matching Norris more often it was a fraction off. I also remember Oscar bottling last lap runs in Q3 where his warm-up (and the teams track management) wasn't as good as it could (should) be - either hitting traffic; going off-line to overtake or backing off WAY too much. Finally, (I feel this was the most common) it was S3 of Q3 where Lando got the advantage - Oscar had burnt the tires earlier in the lap - Oscar going P/P/Y, whilst Lando goes G/G/P for the pole.

Oscar also always seemed to finish his Q3 laps early - Lando would be last 2-3 cars across the line, sometimes Oscar was over a minute ahead, watching his slot drop from P1 to midfield over that last minute. Maybe this was driver preference, maybe this was the team favouring Lando?

I'm hoping for a truly fair fight in 2025. I'm expecting Lando to continue to get these small advantages - which will add up over the course of a season - unless Oscar is somehow able to prove he is unequivocally a better driver.
 
Piastri has probably got a fairer go of it than he would at any other team on the grid, especially at the teams with cars capable of winning races. Up til now it would’ve been perfectly reasonable for McLaren to treat him as a clear number 2 driver but he’s been given a fair go and opportunity to race Lando at the majority of races. Oscar’s job now is to perform at a level from the start of the season that keeps it that way.
 
Just watched the Ric/Perez/Lawson DTS episode. I get that he’s a confident guy and I hope it works out for him but I don’t think that it’s done anything to help Lawson. It’s not entirely his fault or fair but he’s got plenty of people hoping he fails now looking at the reaction to it.

It was already a hot-seat moving into a championship winning car but every mistake he makes is going to get highlighted now. I guess he took the drive knowing a bad season probably makes it his only season in that car so may as well back himself.
 

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OP81 essentially got his 1st F1 win via preferential treatment so not sure what the argument is here..

I think Oscar will soon enough become the McLaren no.1 driver, but highly doubt it’s this year. Hopefully he can even up those teammate quali results.

I have more faith in Oscar holding a lap 1 lead than what I do Lando.
 
Simon_Nesbit said:
If my Aunty had balls and all that....

This is just feel - so bias in play. Oscar lost pole position through track limits a few times - I felt he was matching Norris more often it was a fraction off. I also remember Oscar bottling last lap runs in Q3 where his warm-up (and the teams track management) wasn't as good as it could (should) be - either hitting traffic; going off-line to overtake or backing off WAY too much. Finally, (I feel this was the most common) it was S3 of Q3 where Lando got the advantage - Oscar had burnt the tires earlier in the lap - Oscar going P/P/Y, whilst Lando goes G/G/P for the pole.

Oscar also always seemed to finish his Q3 laps early - Lando would be last 2-3 cars across the line, sometimes Oscar was over a minute ahead, watching his slot drop from P1 to midfield over that last minute. Maybe this was driver preference, maybe this was the team favouring Lando?

I'm hoping for a truly fair fight in 2025. I'm expecting Lando to continue to get these small advantages - which will add up over the course of a season - unless Oscar is somehow able to prove he is unequivocally a better driver.
Click to expand...
C'mon mate I'm sure you don't genuinely believe this

I love Oscar, Danny Ricc, all the Aussies. But it's okay to say someone is legitimately better than them.

Oscar has a higher ceiling than Lando IMO but right now, Lando is the better overall driver.
 
Duck Farmer said:
Lando is quicker but I think Oscar is a more complete package. If he can gain a tenth or so it will put papaya rules under the pump.
Click to expand...
Oscar needs to improve his pace.
Lando needs to improve his composure under pressure.

I think the former is a lot easier to address than the latter.
 

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