Four points from last three races “obviously painful” for McLaren

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In the round-up: McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl admits the team’s recent slump in form has been a bitter blow after their otherwise strong campaign.

In brief

Points losses out of our hands – Seidl

After winning the Italian Grand Prix and coming close to repeating their success in Russia, McLaren have hit a slump in form. They team has taken just four points over the last three rounds, the same as Alfa Romeo, partly due to misfortunes such as Lando Norris’ tyre failure in Qatar.

“For the entire team scoring four points in three races is obviously painful,” Seidl admitted. “But if you look at what happened and how we lost a lot of points, things that have been also out of our [hands] or just bad luck and it’s part of the sport we’re in. Sometimes, I guess it’s on your side and sometimes not.”

The team has fallen 39.5 points behind Ferrari in their fight for third place in the championship. But Seidl said McLaren could take come encouragement from its performance, if not its result, at the Losail International Circuit.

Analysis: “I don’t know how much slower I can go”: Inside Ricciardo’s unnecessary economy run
“The good thing is that we have seen again we had a competitive car, two drivers that were competitive on track and the team did a good job also in terms of pit stops, we had very good pit stops. So we’ll just come to Saudi and strike back.”

Opmeer leads F1 Esports series ahead of finale rounds

Victory for Jarno Opmeer (Mercedes) in Thursday’s round of the F1 Esports series on the Circuit of the Americas means he will go into the deciding round with a five-point lead over rival Lucas Blakeley (Aston Martin). Frederik Rasmussen (Red Bull), is a further three points back in third place.

The final three races using the Imola, Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez and Interlagos circuits will be held on December 15th and 16th.

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Comment of the day

Pedro Andrade felt a quote in yesterday’s in-depth look at the changes to Yas Marina was telling:

“In the past, whilst there was some criticism about the racing, there was still fantastic concerts, a good atmosphere and a sold-out Paddock Club. And then suddenly with Covid last year, none of those are the niceties were happening. So the focus was on the track and the race and I think there was a bit of disappointment that there wasn’t a lot of overtaking.”

This quote encapsulates very well the ills of modern F1. If you don’t have good racing, nothing else should matter. It shouldn’t take a pandemic to figure that out. Enormous disconnection with the fans right here.
Pedro Andrade

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Goldenboy, Lucas, L_A_Munro and Simon Stiel!

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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19 comments on “Four points from last three races “obviously painful” for McLaren”

  1. I get the promoters. The track is bad but f1 as a product is lacking, fixing the track is not going to fix f1. I don’t take the disconnect to heart since it comes from someone trying to make an event. Without anything to compensate for f1 you are left with the unfortunate reality that f1 is an appetizer, a calling card, an excuse for having all sorts of events on race tracks.

  2. Cut & Paste that COTD and it easily aplies to other venues like Mexico

  3. I dare to challenge the CotD.
    Most fans who visit a track go for the whole circus and excitement.
    Let’s be honest, you cannot follow a race when you’re at the circuit, unless you have a big screen in front of you. And then many fans pick the start finish straight where cars go too fast to appreciate and overtakes are typically aided by DRS.
    (I often only visit on Friday and Saturday).

    And many fans here should also come off their high horses: one of the highest rated races was Monza last year, only because a red flag reset and there was a lucky upset win.

    1. A big screen, and lap times on your phone. At least now you don’t have to wear earplugs anymore and can exchange a few words with your relatives, which is nice.

      I for one doesn’t care the slightest about non-racing side events. At most will I buy a new cap or dream in front of an overpriced diecast car model, that’s pretty it. There is no time to wander around much anyways as with a general admission ticket you always have to keep your place.

  4. I am worried about Brawn. He does not make sense at all anymore and lost focus. He is paying attention to the wrong things in an everlasting PR plan.

    1. I miss him talking about alternatives to 5/10 second or stop and go penalties which are inherintly unfair. He had an idea for a slow lane or something like it so cars could be forced to lose track position as a penalty at designated areas. It was a great idea but disappeared into nothing.

      I think he, like many others, are waiting to see what the new regulations bring in terms of allowing cars to race closer. No point knee-jerking and fixing problems which are actually symptoms of this dirty-air era. There are enough changes in the pipeline that need to be assessed.

      In the mean time it makes sense to throw his hat into commercial/pr matters. I doubt he has lost focus.

    2. Money as Always…

  5. Jeddah not only fast circuit but it’s an unknown fast circuit with walls.

    Maybe Merc (Lewis’s car) had the upper hand but this circuit need not only a fast car but a more mature driver. It would be like first couple years in Monaco for Max. He would pushed his talent and be the fastest but far more prone to make race ending mistakes.

    1. @ruliemaulana True that the chance of a crazy race is high, like the first Baku race was. Hopefully no heart breaking engine / tyre failure, or championship-ending quali crash or something, just good racing!
      I wouldn’t write off Verstappen already on the basis that he’s been crash-prone in Monaco, hopefully both he and Hamilton keep it out of the walls and we get to see a great battle.

    2. Couple of sections look kind of dangerous to me with pile up potential if a car is close behind another one that goes into the wall. Feels like high chances of a red flag if anyone crashes.

  6. I am really excited to see this carbon free fuel F1 is going to discover. If it happens it will actually be incredible.

    1. It just a greenwashing. Did you know biodiesel from plant produce up to three times more carbon than fossil oil refinery because the need of extended processing? Producing ethanol from fuel cell from hydrogen from solar cell is not without emitting carbon either.

      1. If only they produced ‘carbon’, that would be swell. But unfortunately during combustion it’s CO2 which is emitted (but I’m sure that’s what you mean).

        I did not check your biodiesel claim. But every hydrocarbon fuel emits CO2 during combustion. The difference is if the C part was previously safely hidden underground, or if it’s recently sucked out of the air. None is a problem as long as the process doesn’t create a nett addition in the short term.

        1. It’s about how much carbon it needs to make the fuel ready to use, not for using it at combustion engine.

          1. The only thing that matters is how much CO2 is released (nett of absorbed within a relatively short timeframe).

            PS to keep it simple I leave the other greenhouse gasses (methane, etc.) out.

        2. @jff

          If only they produced ‘carbon’, that would be swell

          Er, no. carbon particulates are the reason diesel engines are now being demonised. They at least do have a proven negative effect on air breathing creatures, unlike CO2, which is basically plant food with tiny, unmeasurable greenhouse effect.

          1. @frasier maybe you should tell ExxonMobil about that then, given that back in 1982, they were already producing their own internal papers discussing the relationship between carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere and their own predictions of the resultant change in average global temperatures in the future.

            As it happens, not only did they happen to be remarkably close in terms of the predicted concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by today (having predicted they’d be between 400-420ppm, with the recorded value being 419ppm earlier this year), they also happened to be remarkably close with their predicted increase in global temperatures as a direct result of those emissions (predicting that the increase would be approximately 1.0ºC by the start of the 2020s, with the recorded figure being 0.94ºC).

  7. If F1 really wanted F1 fans to be proud of what F1 is doing for the environment then why do they plaster Aramco signage all over the track and advertising? Why do they have major sponsors like Crypto.com, who are such a source of pollution even China, a country with a abysmal record on climate protection, is beginning to ban crypto mining operations? Why are they expanding the championship with more races that involve more long distance logistics that contribute even more to the carbon footprint than the actual cars themselves? F1 has some nice goals but right now they are talking louder with their actions and those actions say they care more about how much they can line their pockets than the environment. And as a F1 fan, that doesn’t make me proud. That makes me embarrassed.

  8. Alsom on this day: 2011 Brazilian GP’s 10th anniversary.

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