my breakdown of mclaren’s on track driver management this season bc i’m convinced certain folks are watching a different season to me - under the cut bc it is longggg (i have tried to be reasonable here, and fair to both oscar and mclaren. can’t make any promises about how well i’ve done it but there has been an attempt)
R1 - australia
mclaren use team orders for the first time. they do this for a few laps while the two drivers are lapping backmarkers. the track is wet, and attempting to overtake in the wet while lapping cars has historically been a bad idea (ask nico hulkenberg why silverstone 25 was his first podium :/). once they’ve cleared the backmarkers the two drivers are free to race, but piastri makes a mistake runs through the gravel and loses about three seconds to lando, so loses his chance to attack.
at this stage of the season mclaren have no idea what sort of advantage they’ll have, and a double dnf is a pretty bad way to start the year. not nice, but not unreasonable, and piastri’s trip through the gravel cost him more than the team orders did
R2 - china
not particularly relevant in the moment but it’ll become relevant at various points in the season - lando is at risk of being undercut by george. mclaren don’t even consider changing their pit strategy, and oscar pits first while lando gets undercut by george and has to repass. mclaren knew this would happen! they still chose this path of action. this is fine, this is how mclaren operate on pit strategy, but worth noting before i go into the next race of the season.
R3 - japan
piastri is at risk of being undercut. the team chooses to pit him first (🙂) and then have to pit lando a lap later to make sure they don’t accidentally undercut their own driver, ensuring lando can’t try to beat max with an alternative strategy. piastri asks for team orders to swap the positions of the drivers because he feels he’s faster, the team says no because there is no justification for swapping them. it is suzuka. the pace advantage needed to pass is massive, and neither mclaren has that. mclaren won’t interfere when it comes to them actually battling each other, so piastri can pass on his own or finish third. the outcome is unsurprising.
R4 + R5 - bahrain + jeddah
pretty quiet - sticking with the absolute facts here, so leaving lando’s strategy at jeddah alone
R6 - miami
piastri cuts a chicane in the sprint to stay ahead and keep pit priority for the switch to slicks. lando gets lucky with the safety car and beats him regardless. on sunday, max terrorism costs lando multiple positions at turn 2 and ultimately costs him the win to oscar. not much to say - mclaren have to do very little, both drivers pit under vsc so no strategy alternatives are available
R7 - imola
piastri gets primary strategy, so when his tyres are fucked and he feels he can’t go any longer he pits. lando gets mildly fucked over by the vsc - it comes out a lap after he pits - but ultimately him managing to go long in the first stint works well. piastri pits first again, because his tyres are fucked from the traffic, lando pits under sc with max. lando does not ask for or receive team orders when the safety car despite being on fresher tyres than oscar with a much better chance of catching max, because mclaren won’t get involved with them racing. lando passes fairly quickly, pulls out a gap to oscar but does not catch max.
R8 - monaco
oscar builds a gap behind charles, as teammates do in monaco. there’s no risk of him being overtaken, and no chance of him overtaking charles on track if he stays with him. mclaren do actually attempt to get oscar ahead of charles on strategy, they get oscar to close the gap and go for the undercut, but it’s a mclaren pit stop, so it does not work! they don’t do it again for the second round of stops because oscar is not close enough. max backs lando up into charles, lando asks oscar to put pressure on charles, mclaren ask oscar to do that bc it gives him a decent chance of p2 should something go wrong for charles, but oscar is nowhere to be seen, despite the cars in front of him all backing each other up.
R9 - spain
fairly quiet
R10 - canada
lando is in no man’s land after quali. oscar goes for the primary strategy, matching the cars ahead, while lando goes alternative - h>m>h rather than m>h>h. he makes it work well, in the final stint he catches oscar who can not catch or pass kimi. like at imola, he does not ask for team orders, despite being faster on track and more likely to get past kimi, and mclaren don’t offer them. lando hits the back of oscar, oscar’s race is not impacted, lando does not finish and immediately takes responsibility for the incident
R11 - austria
it’s austria. oscar gets towed around in lando’s drs for 20 laps because that’s how the red bull ring works. lando makes a mistake at one point, but oscar’s attempt at passing does not stick. as they get closer to the pit window, oscar goes for a desperate move (a divebomb from a way back), locks up, does not make the move stick and almost takes them both out. his engineer warns him against trying that specific move again, because again it did not work and risked them both. he gets the option of an alternative strategy - an extended first stint to give him a tyre delta in the second - and takes it, but can’t make it work
R12 - silverstone
oscar gets himself a penalty for a stupid stupid manoeuvre, and is arguably lucky to only get 10s given he did it twice (i know i said i was being fair but allow me one moment of bitchiness). mclaren inform him of this penalty, and at no point suggest it was incorrect on the radio. lando is faster after the final safety car and closes the gap to oscar. oscar serves his penalty at the optimal time to change to slicks, lando has to do an extra lap on inters bc oscar had priority. oscar asks for team orders. mclaren do not entertain this, because w h a t
R13 - belgium
lando loses the lead at the start of the race, because defending pole at spa with no battery? not happening. it’s spa. defending pole with the correct battery settings is hard enough, as we saw with oscar and max literally one day earlier. this lead gives oscar priority for pitting to change to slicks and lando agrees to the offered alternative strategy of not double stacking and going onto hards a lap later. lando loses time on his extra lap on inters, and then receives an awful pit stop to top it off. there’s less tyre deg than expected with almost everyone managing the one stop, so lando’s hard tyres are not as effective as his team thought they might be.
R14 - hungary
oscar blocks lando at the start. no one at mclaren starts planning some humiliation ritual or whatever folks seem to think is going on bc no one gives a shit. their drivers race each other. oscar gets priority on strategy, so goes for the normal two stop and attempts to undercut leclerc for the race lead. lando is in no man’s land and can’t try undercut russell due to mercedes reacting to piastri’s pit stop, so goes for a hail mary in the form of the one stop. he makes it work! but piastri gets close at the end, goes for a move, locks up and almost takes them both out. he is not punished for that move. it is accepted as part of the drivers racing each other.
R15 - zandvoort
pit stops under safety car, no alternative strategy options for lando, and it’s zandvoort, so passing on track isn’t going to work. oil leak happens, i sit on the floor staring at a wall for an extended period of time, that’s that, not much to say about it really
R16 - monza
piastri is asked to give a tow in q2. he doesn’t. lando goes through anyway, then outqualifies him.
lando is ahead the whole race. piastri only starts to close in when lando loses time lapping colapinto. lando offers to give up his pit priority on the condition he won’t be undercut. here is the first very important note - at no point this season have mclaren allowed their drivers to attempt to undercut each other. this is not oscar going for an alternative strategy like lando did in hungary, it is the reversal of pit priority to protect the second car. mclaren fuck up the pit stop, and swap positions to reverse their mistake. this is done specifically because the team fucked up. it is an attempt to minimise the impact of a team mistake after the reversal of pit stop priority. piastri is free to race, is now immediately behind lando and has a slipstream. lando pulls a 2 second gap with ease. the second important note - lando didn’t ask for these team orders. with his pace he likely would have passed on track without them.
R13 - baku
not much to say oscar immediately completely fucks it, lando fucks up the restart, mclaren fuck up their one pit stop and lando’s race is ruined. everyone’s having a shit time.
R14 - singapore
oscar leaves a big gap on the inside at turn 2/3. lando takes it. he makes minor contact with max and oscar, but neither suffer any damage. oscar asks for team orders repeatedly (i know for some reason there’s folks insisting he wasn’t - can we be serious please). there is no precedent for swapping. it is a messy overtake but a legal one, it’s noted but considered a racing incident, that’s it. oscar does not lose any places except the one to lando, and lando made the move stick so is not warned - why would he need to be when he was already past oscar? they’re not going to get on the radio telling him not to be that aggressive when his opponent is now max, because that would be very strange behaviour
later in the race they ask lando if he’s willing to give up priority at the pit stops to protect oscar. he says no. again, this is not lando being consulted on oscar’s strategy, this is not oscar not being allowed to try an alternative strategy, he could have tried to extend his stint even longer! mclaren simply don’t allow the second driver on track to try to undercut the first, so they asked lando if he was willing to stay out a lap longer than oscar and he said no. this determined when lando would pit, not when oscar would
in summary: oscar has not been disadvantaged by mclaren’s on-track driver management this season. him asking for team orders does not mean team orders are justified, nor does it mean mclaren not giving in is them playing favourites. i accept that there are different opinions on racing and i very much understand the instinctive reaction to stuff not going well/not going your drivers way, but can people please actually watch races and engage their brains for the rest of the season bc i can not do this every week
