How To Lose An F1 Championship: McLaren Edition

McLaren McLaren McLaren oh boy where do I even begin first of all papy rales what kind of corny ass name is that you really have masterpieces like Fernando is faster than you valter it's James and multi-21 as code names for team orders but McLaren came up with Oh my days papy ruses McLaren are really treating their drivers like fivey cuz genuinely the last time I got told about rules like that was when I was in reception I'm sorry but papaya rules genuinely had me creasing for a team that has the fastest car and some of the most talented engineering talent in Formula 1 I'm sorry to say this the current McLaren organization are fumbling harder than Ferrari did in 2022 apart from this guy though this guy is absolutely ice cold bro really told Lando F your Championship with that move at the start I'm crying and you know another p move around the outside we got to add some source to it and osar is going all the way around the outside that's what I'm talking about that's why he's we'll get on to Oscar in a little bit cuz I know a certain fan base wasn't too happy with it first though let's talk about this dude right here this man's number one rival is not Max withen it's his own team the aim of this video is to provide two different perspectives on this McLaren drama and the first is them refusing to shift their full attention to their lead driver Lando secured pole with a very very solid lap in Q3 with his teammate doing similarly well with a P2 starting first and second on a weekend where Red Bull are completely out of the picture was the dream scenario for McLaren all they had to do really was get Oscar to try and hold P2 while protecting his teammate's lead I mean that would be the logical thing to do right since Lando is the one actually competing for the driver's Championship you know it would make sense for you guys not to fight amongst yourselves and maximize points for the team I remember a very similar situation playing out in 2018 when Ferrari decided to give kimy Reen a toe in qualifying instead of FAL which gave the Finn Pole Position obviously that left Sebastian who was even more of a championship Contender at the time exposed to Hamilton and the two made contact Lewis capitalized on seb's Misfortune and won the Grand Prix this was a fumble on Ferrari's part since they should have prioritized Falin qualifying if they wanted to have any shot at beating Hamilton and in similar fashion McLaren fumbled the opportunity to make huge gains on ven's Championship lead there have been numerous occasions this season as well where they' left so many points on the table through sheer incompetence that and Driver errors from Norris but we'll get onto that in a little bit I really just want to highlight how illogical McLaren have been with their decision- making like I don't know how they managed to choke such an open goal this time around Max's car is literally a tractor right now and they still only gained eight points on him with Lando when it really should have been 19 points they've talked a lot about wanting to win both championships but all they really seem to care about is winning the constructors and even then by letting their drivers squabble they allowed lir to single-handedly cook them in a slower Ferrari and if you guys thought the glazing in my last video was bad just wait for this next one it's that kind of decision making that causes you to lose championships they clearly have the best car at the moment and they're still not winning races as often as they should be they also don't value the driver's Championship that much either in my opinion the fact that it's taken them this long to realize they might need to start giving land a priority like this should have been happening ages ago the smart thing to do would have been to tell the drivers before the race the plan is to maintain one two at the start and the easiest way to do that is if you guys don't fight each other and while I really dislike team orders in this case they make the most sense now if this were a title fight between piastri and Norris then obviously the gloves are off but in this case Lando is trying to catch Max so McLaren should be doing everything in their power to help him do that however they're clearly not now I've seen a lot of Lando fans in particular talk about how McLaren should be favoring him since he's been with the team for longer that is loyalty should mean something which I both agree but also disagree with agree because he's been there throughout this entire rebuilding process working with and trusting the team to get back to the front he's been waiting a long time for this moment in fact it's that very loyalty that has paid off tremendously now that McLaren have the fastest car back at the start of 2023 there were talks of him potentially moving to Red Bull since they were so dominant and he turned them down why people said he was afraid of Max which as funny as it would be for me to meme that wasn't the reason he he decided to stay in fact the reason is very simple McLaren or his family yeah I know even I felt cringe just saying that it's the kind of thing you only ever hear in Fast and Furious or High School Musical but anyway Lando's decision to stay and Trust the process has paid off very well and surely it wouldn't hurt for McLaren to reciprocate a bit of that loyalty back to Lando and help him win the driver's Championship right obviously Oscar had less to lose on lap one whereas Lando would have been taking a lot more risk if he tried racing his teammate harder but on the other hand and this is the portion of the video where I'm going to provide my second perspective and for the land fans watching might get offended by I'd argue that the best drivers are still able to battle hard despite there being a lot at stake else what's the point of even showing up to a race Lando can't be so passive cuz he wants to win the championship that he forgets one of the fundamentals of Formula 1 which is racing you can't expect Oscar to just sit there and be his little pet especially if McLaren didn't mention anything about team orders even the way some of the commentators were speaking it felt like they were saying it's pastry's duty to help Lando win the championship and at this stage it really isn't he doesn't owe Norris anything and in all honesty I don't like using this phrase too often because so many people just overuse it to play the victim but there is a lot of British bias involved when it comes to Lando the championship is there for the taking why doesn't he just go and take it then come on I thought winning in the fastest car is easy you just have to beat your teammate and maybe one other driver that's it right okay I'm being petty for bringing that quote up again I know but you get my point all I'm trying to say is that Lando should try and fight harder for his positions and this Championship that he wants to win I feel like he needs to stamp his authority more nobody's going to hand it to you on a silver platter you have to be a go-getter even if he feels like his team aren't supporting him he's a racing driver he has the awareness to know when piastri is attacking him and if I'm being brutally honest it really shouldn't have taken him by surprise Oscar got a great run out of the chicane and threw cover Grande he was always going to try his luck all Norris had to do was shut the door and fend him off but instead he was too nice and gave him enough space to pass in my opinion he has no one else to blame other than himself for continuously losing the lead on lap one and I've seen people also use Hungary as an example of where Lando played the team game but that was just Oscar reclaiming the position he rightfully earned after McLaren allowed Norris to undercut him some of the hypocrisy from his fans as well is quite funny they be talking about how him being selfish and wanting to win is a good thing which I agree with but then when it comes to piastri he shouldn't go for the win and be a team player where was this energy then huh Also let's not get into the countless times Oscar has been screwed over this season Silverstone being one of them Miami he didn't have the full set of upgrades like Lando had he could have been in this Championship battle as well had McLaren favored him instead of his teammate the post-race interviews were quite telling as well take a listen to this do you think it's right that McLaren now give you their full backing so you can go on and win this world championship yeah I don't know you know when you're fighting for a championship you want every little thing and I'm doing everything I can um the best way simply is just uh to win the race and I didn't do that today because of some silly things so uh yeah this is for the team not not for me Oscar your thoughts it's for the team nothing to say all right Norris just seems way too passive currently as the team leader the guy with more experience and ever so slightly the quicker of the two he's in position to call out Oscar if he really felt like what happened at the start was silly in his words make it clear then that next time you won't stand for it and race him harder but he opened the door for his teammate to make a move and with certain drivers they don't need a second invitation Oscar is that guy you give him even the sniff of a chance and he'll punish you for it that's why he just Shrugged his shoulders and didn't give a comment well maybe he was also mad about losing the win because his Pace was absolutely insane but the lack of response with regards to the first lap was perfect in my opinion you're telling a racing driver not to race like what are we even talking about and I'll also say this Lando needs to stop relying so much on the team to handle everything and take matters into his own hands two number one drivers will never work in F1 we already know this from countless examples in the past the question is how do you deal with that by fighting for yourself Lando is in a position where he can demand certain things so either he hasn't taken advantage of this or maybe he isn't allowed to then what's his next best option proved to everyone in the team that he deserves to be given priority by beating everyone on track including his teammate this situation is getting extremely complicated because essentially the guy who has a better chance at winning the championship doesn't have the X Factor when it matters most and his teammate who is extremely competitive wants to continue proving himself and literally doesn't care for his championship aspirations I know this isn't the best comparison because piastri and Norris aren't even close to the two drivers I'm about to mention but this situation for McLaren is kind of similar to Hamilton and alono in 2007 that felt extremely wrong to say I'm not going to lie this is like comparing Kobe Bryant with I don't know Jason Tatum one is a cheap knockoff of the other obviously I love oscar but these two in 2007 were so damn good they single-handedly made the McLaren actually look like the fastest car when in reality it was the Ferrari but this is what I'm saying the new McLaren team is very different to back then I doubt things will get as hostile since the environment is a lot more family friendly but in never tensions will start to rise I mean just look at these two in the interviews after the race they did not want to be there even when they were taking the team photos they both just looked sad and if McLaren mess about they could end up losing both the drivers and Constructors cuz Ferrari aren't too far off of them either how they manage the two drivers will be tricky because Oscar is just so fast luckily for them Red Bull are in absolute shambles right now so it gives them a bit of breathing space with regards to putting their foot down and saying right we're going to put everything behind ler for this championship but until they do that everything else is fair game Oscar is a racer and his will to win is immense don't lay the blame at him for being a racing driver he saw the opportunity presented to him and took it with both hands it was a tough pill to swallow for Norris and his army of fans but a full-time world champion once said we were racing I was faster I passed him I won at the time he got flamed cuz he was already the most hated driver on the grid for being so successful but this particular moment tipped everybody over the edge and caused fans to have a meltdown it didn't mean he was wrong though even young me watching at the time didn't like what fetal did and to be fair since both drivers were told to hold position mark would have gone into a more conservative mode with a car so that unexpected attack from his teammate was a little bit dirty cuz if he reversed the roles and it was Weber who ignored team orders Red Bull would have been way more upset but cuz it was their Golden Boy at the time they just let it slide the Oscar thing though is completely different there aren't any team orders at the start it's just a free-for all every man for himself and that's the way it should be who would want to sit in somebody else's dirty air for an entire race if they have the opportunity to take the lead on lap one and while we're on the topic of Oscar and Mark Weber here's a nice segue into why I think McLaren are scared to implement team orders unless you were living under a rock we all saw what happened with piastri and Alpine in 2022 the team announced him as their driver Oscar denied it in the funniest way known to man and then announced that he would be driving for McLaren instead absolutely Savage from him and his team and I don't think they're afraid to pull that off again Mark Weber was a second driver to fettle throughout his entire time at Red Bull and being Oscar's manager now he would hate to see him go through anything remotely similar so there might be some kind of clause in his contract that he cannot be given number two status else he could just pack his bags and go elsewhere now of course it wouldn't make any sense to leave at this present moment in time McLaren have the best car on the grid and that will likely be the case going into next year as well but if you start souring the dynamic between your drivers by introducing team orders it's going to bring about complications and let's say another team were to become better than McLaren and have a seat available Oscar could just say you know what I'm out of here and who would turn down someone as talented as him in my opinion it would be a loss for McLaren at that point cuz I'm going to be so honest Lando isn't cut out to fight for a championship against drivers like lir vapen Russell and even his own teammate unless he toughens up I just don't see him beating those guys if they've got simil matched cars all those guys I mentioned have some element of a Killer Instinct that comparatively Norris lacks for Russell while he can be a bit of a mad man sometimes at least he's got some kind of dog in him he'll get his elbows out and fight tooth and nail for every position piastri is the most cool calm and composed guy on the grid he's like an assassin makes his move when you least expect it the Clair recently has been the best driver on the grid in my opinion I know that might be a hot take but genuinely over these past four races this man has has shown literally no weakness but I'll talk more about him in my next video and then Max ven yeah not much needs to be said about him other than he went toe-to-toe with the greatest of all time has dominated multiple seasons and is one of the fiercest Racers I've ever seen amongst this crop of Talon in similar Machinery Lando gets cooked I still believe he can win the championship purely because the Red Bull has just become diabolically bad in recent races that and McLaren have quite a sizable Pace advantage over their compe but Ferrari are still yet to bring more upgrades to their car who knows maybe we can't count out lir from winning the championship as well if he's able to win the next eight races the only way I can possibly see Max holding on is if many drivers take points off of each other so at some point let's say Mercedes brings some upgrades and Hamilton gets a few wins here and there piastri will get a few more as well but even then it's still going to be difficult because I'm convinced that Norris himself will get a few more wins here or there before the season ends I mean we can't forget how good he was in zanor and Rule him out just because of what happened in Monza but now is the time to start making serious inroads if he really wants this Championship I hope you all enjoyed let me know what you guys think about the whole situation at McLaren down in the comment section below I've got a lot more videos coming out this week so keep an eye out for those if you enjoyed be sure to like the video share it with friends and subscribe to the channel if you're new to get my latest videos in the future and as always I'll see you in the next one