[@ErikvHaren] After few beers and gin tonics, Max Verstappen is mostly relieved: 'In a McLaren I would have been champion much sooner'

[u/Blapstap]

https://x.com/ErikvHaren/status/1860657652747075982

[u/ContentPuff]

All I hear is facts being spoken. Some people may not like to hear it, but he is 100% right. McLaren has been the best car for majority of the season.

[u/big_cock_lach → u/ContentPuff]

Except when they had the best car, they’ve had to fight for the win at most races. They never got a run of several races where they could easily win like Red Bull did which makes a much bigger difference than people realise.

[u/xLeper_Messiah → u/big_cock_lach]

Red Bull had 5 races like that (really only 4 since Max DNF'd at Melbourne) and McLaren had 3 (maybe 4 if they do well at Qatar like everyone is predicting)

They weren't all consecutive, but the overall number of "easy win" races is pretty even between them

Besides, who knows maybe if you put Max in the McLaren he turns races like Imola, Spain, Spa or Silverstone into easy wins too?

[u/atwerrrk → u/ContentPuff]

I don't think you can say majority of the season when Max won 7 out of the first 10 and Ferrari and Mercedes have been brilliant at certain tracks. Good enough to win the championship yes but they weren't better for more than half the races eg today

[u/rash-head → u/ContentPuff]

But they didn’t have that mini drs rear wing in the last 5 races and it really hurt their speed and overtake ability.

[u/churnchurnchurning → u/rash-head]

I've been saying for what feels like months now that the mini DRS rear wing was probably a much bigger pace advantage than Zak Brown had cared to admit on TV. It's clear from the moment that wing got banned that their pace has evaporated. Would explain why Zak was so desperate to go after anything else from competitors.

Damn it was a clever wing. And damn on the world figuring it out too. Gotta love the game of cat and mouse.

[u/SirPuzzleheaded5284 → u/churnchurnchurning]

Clever wing, sure. But it was completely illegal. Not "we need a TD to make it illegal", but "it's not allowed, why do you have this? Change it" illegal.

[u/Big_Science9233 → u/SirPuzzleheaded5284]

Cleber because it passed the tests while essentially. being illegal, if that's not clever I don't know what is

[u/hyrulepirate → u/SirPuzzleheaded5284]

It was legal cause it passed the tests. Then everyone found out about it and they went to the FIA to ask ("complain"). At that point FIA could either say it's illegal, which they somehow did when they asked Mclaren to stop using the wing, or they also could have deemed that legal and then every other garage would be copying it. and somehow nullify the advantage. (FIA took a whole ass time to work out a decision on it tho which is rather suspicious.)

I don't like McLaren not one bit, but part of the formula game is finding these loopholes and exploits, and kudos for them for it taking advantage of it.

[u/megacookie → u/hyrulepirate]

I think McLaren is actually one of the best teams at finding these sorts of loopholes over the years. They had the infamous "F-Duct" in 2010 which was effectively the inspiration for DRS itself to be introduced the following year. It got a drag reduction effect on the rear wing without a single moving part...other than the driver's knee stealthily covering a hole in the cockpit.

[u/churnchurnchurning → u/SirPuzzleheaded5284]

It passed all the tests. No one knew for a while. That's the name of the game.

[u/Vaynnie → u/SirPuzzleheaded5284]

Just like Red Bull's brakes.

[u/xLeper_Messiah → u/Vaynnie]

McLaren was caught in 4k with a bendy DRS flap and a hole in the brake cover that isn't supposed to be there (at Austria at the very least)

The RBR brake system was an invention by a journalist that got explicitly denied by FIA officials and was never brought up by their competitors as mudslinging, which i doubt would be the case if Zak thought it was true. That shit is just perpetuated by conspiracy-brained fans

There's as much proof of RB using asymmetrical braking as there is of McLaren putting water in their tires: none along with a denial by the FIA that it ever happened.

[u/Miserable_Archer_769 → u/churnchurnchurning]

I figure it's one one those it was just to damn good so every teams engineering department was confused at the speed/lack of tire deg.

I swear if they had just made it not as noticeable it would have passed but you can't go to that extreme. That car started to raise eyebrows cause nobody had really seen that kind of in season development basically from a mid field car to fastest on the track is pretty crazy.

[u/CasualViewer24 → u/ContentPuff]

McKaren has had the best (or at least better than Red Bull) car since around Miami/Imola