Is McLaren the Fastest F1 Car Now?
Race data from the Spanish GP at Madring paints a very interesting picture.
We already know McLaren are running shorter gear ratios, which show up as higher RPM at a given speed — particularly compared with their engine supplier and rival, Mercedes.
On the start/finish straight, McLaren are using 8th gear, while their main rivals are using 7th.
McLaren are therefore running the engine much harder — reaching around 12,500 RPM, compared with roughly 11,300 RPM for Mercedes.
So what does that actually tell us?
Apparently, McLaren’s aero efficiency is supreme.
Team Papaya are extracting more downforce for every point of drag they generate.
That means the two identical power units are working against very different aerodynamic loads.
And that is the key:
Same engine. Different gear ratios. Different RPM.
Different load. Different speed. 🏎️💨
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Why Are Pirelli Tyres So Hard to Read?
Many moons ago, we were part of an official GP2 test at Barcelona, alongside a very experienced race engineer who had worked with Ayrton Senna and many of the great champions who followed.
Talking about racing tyres, he told us something very strange:
“If anyone down this pitlane tells you they really understand how this black stuff of magic works, they’re a bloody liar!”
It is difficult to imagine an F1 engineer not really understanding something fundamental about racing. But the reality is that even Pirelli and the best F1 teams can have completely different ideas about how to get the best from the tyres.
Madring was a perfect example.
The softs and mediums were extremely fragile. The surface could easily overheat, and once that happened, the grip simply disappeared.
This wasn't mechanical degradation. It was thermal limitation, mainly caused by the huge load generated through the long, heavily banked La Monumental.
The hard tyre was completely different.
It could potentially have gone the entire race without suffering a significant loss of grip at the end of the stint — as Charles Leclerc demonstrated.
So, once again, the question remains:
Who can read the tyres best?
Apparently, there are many different answers — and every team has its own ideas.
Some will get it spot on.
Some will get it completely wrong.
We wait and see. 😉
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The Fastest Pit Crews
F1 pit stops are always fascinating. So many things happen in just a couple of seconds — and there are so many things that can go wrong…
So, which teams have produced the fastest pit stops of the season so far?
Pos. | Team | Driver | Time (sec) |
|---|---|---|---|
1 | Racing Bulls | Lindblad | 1.99 |
2 | Ferrari | Hamilton | 2.00 |
3 | Racing Bulls | Lindblad | 2.03 |
4 | Ferrari | Hamilton | 2.05 |
5 | Racing Bulls | Lindblad | 2.08 |
6 | Mercedes | Antonelli | 2.08 |
7 | McLaren | Piastri | 2.13 |
8 | Red Bull | Verstappen | 2.13 |
9 | Ferrari | Leclerc | 2.13 |
10 | Racing Bulls | Lawson | 2.14 |
The numbers tell an interesting story. Racing Bulls are not only the fastest, but also the most consistent, with four appearances in the top 10.
Ferrari follows with three, while Red Bull has two.
Interestingly, neither Mercedes nor McLaren has managed a top-10 pit stop so far this season.
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🏎️ The Fastest Lap Team
All images and videos used in The Fastest Lap Newsletter are our own or have been provided by our partners, including https://www.spasgp.com/
The Fastest Lap Newsletter is an independent project and is not affiliated with Formula 1 or any F1 team.
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