Why McLaren's F1 car is so tricky to drive 

Can you do a breakdown of how every car on the grid is to drive? I'd love to hear the differences between the characteristics of each car

I hope Ricardo gets it figured out. Really like to see this team do well.

Ricciardo and Verstappen have very very similar styles of driving. It may surprise a few people that Ricciardo has never been a late braker when it comes to say a qualifying lap/his natural style. Both Max and Dan are both extremely efficient on brakes, and as Stella says like to ‘roll speed’ into the corner without attacking the braking zone too much. This allows Ricciardo and Verstappen to be two of the best in the business at keeping the rear in check, and can handle a car that is on the nose. It is a large reason why Dan annihilated Vettel in 2014, and why both he and Max have been the only two who could tame the Red Bulls of recent years. The Renault inherently had the same characteristics as the Red Bull, they struggled with oversteer mid corner and it was something Sainz could not handle as well as Hulkenberg who also likes to drive in the same way Ricciardo does. Ricciardo was quoted as saying he just needed to tweak a few things at Renault minorly and boom he was on top of it in a couple races. The likes of Sainz, Norris and Vettel all seem to have similar driving styles. Late, hard on the brakes and get all the weight onto the front end before unloading it in a short space of time. Like a trampoline - the harder you jump down the higher you go up. They are masters of rotation, and this is how get rotation of a car lacking an adequate front end but as soon as the rear starts to move around on entry they suffer. The likes of Verstappen, Ricciardo and Raikkonen are the opposite - but these kind of drivers are much less common to find according to John Barnard when taking about Schumacher. Ricciardo’s main issues this season have been with that (lack of) front end. Karun did an analysis on the sky pad and could visibly see how much understeer Ricciardo was having mid-corner and all he was doing to compensate was adding full steering lock which just bleeds laptime. From the outside, it’s just a very clear mismatch of driving style and car characteristics. In hindsight though we shouldn’t be surprised - if Sainz struggled in the Renault but excelled in the Mclaren we should expect a driver moving the opposite way to also have equal but opposite struggles🤷‍♂️ (Copied from a comment I made on Reddit)

Here after his win and the 1-2 🧡 congrats Danny Ric

Can I just say that I find it absolutely fascinating how so similar looking and tightly regulated cars can still be so different from team to team that it can take a driver off their game?

Finally some actual analysis of the driving challenges faced by Riccardo. So many channels have just been throwing out fact-free bullshit (cough Peter Windsor) rather than actually investigating what's going on. Good job on this one.

2022 will be completely different for all drivers as they get used to a totally new aero philosophy, we will see who out of the drivers adapt the best next yr when everyone is on a new playing field!

I imagine "unlearning" years of a particular driving style must be very difficult. I had been curious why Ric was struggling so much, this is a great explanation!

Even if Danny Ric doesnt get fully to grips with the car this year I wouldn’t be too worried because specs will be much different next year so let’s see how it goes.

To use the guitar playing analogy, they should loop a corner on the simulator for hours at a time, the same way musicians loop small pieces, in order to drill down into the minutiae of the technique. As the great Paul Gilbert once said when referring to learning a large piece of music, you’d never dream of eating a pizza whole, you break it down into manageable chunks.

I think it definitely is an adaptability problem. Remember Carlos said to Daniel that the car was weird? Clearly he adapted a bit quicker. I also remember a McLaren video in November 2019 when Lando and Carlos answered fan questions.. Each was asked what quality the other had that they would like. Carlos said Lando's ability in high speed cornering and Lando said Carlos's ability to brake and steer (into corners) at the same time. Carlos laughed and said "all drivers do that" and Lando responded "yes, but you do it better." Clearly Carlos had adapted and Lando learned to copy him.

3 weeks later and we have a McLaren 1, 2. It was beautiful to see. :-)

Makes you wonder: how many other cars weren't slow, they just had drivers that couldn't master them.

This was really well-done.

Fast forward to Italy.. this aged well

So long story short: he’s having understeer because he brakes earlier.

Just reminded of when Juan Pablo Montoya said that the McLaren had so much understeer, still bloody fast, but so much understeer.

Great video! Finally someone sheds light on what makes McLaren a challenge to drive. This answers questions I've had since Monaco

Sadly, without more time in the car at testing i can't see it getting better for him this year. The musician analogy is spot on. Hoping for a big step up next year.

Think Ricciardo sorted it out now ahah

These videos are so polished nowadays. Honestly, great stuff!

what an amazing insight to the car. i would love to see more about the tradeoff of the other cars

So you hire a right footed driver for millions and then tell him to use his left foot

thanx for the real analysis of challenges Ricciardo facing, people forgot how good a driver Ricciardo is

Ricciardo has been an interesting case study this first half of the season. He clearly should be up better on the wheel than he is now, and he knows that. It’s also evident that drivers need to modify their style a bit to better suit the car, not vice versa (see Gasly). If Daniel’s confidence wavers, then he will lose his edge. A significant improvement is expected in the second half and many eyes will be on him. Everyone praises his driving ability, this could be his biggest test.

Ric is class, there's no arguing but he needs to get the hang of it quick, lando is pretty much single handedly keeping the team competitive in the constructors championship

such a wonderful video with so much in depth info which cannot be otherwise obtained from youtube!

This is the vídeo I’ve been waiting for quite some time now. Thanks!

This sounds like an Alonso driving style preference. No doubt they ended up with this style of handling through his feedback.

Now i Really understand what Daniel is coming to terms with the McLaren, as a former A grade fast bowler it would be the same as changing my bowling action for whatever reason, it's a lot to do with Muscle Memory and changing the thought process in the brain, it takes time and lot of practice. That's fine for a cricketer, but having to retrain the brain while also racing a F1 car at the same time, that's a huge load on the brain ! He has had a win and a 4th place last two races, just hoping he continues to keep going on that trajectory. Thanks for your informed explanation.

I think this is interesting, as it gives you an idea of how much influence Alonso had at McLaren

its like when you cant turn off vsync and mouse acceleration

This whole saga has highlighted just how good Norris and Sainz are

daniel struggled in the first half of the season with renault and then was pretty good in the second so hopefully that happens again

This has been highly informative and you've gained a new subscriber. The depth of explanation rivals that of the Mercedes F1 RU-vid page, except that you guys can discuss any team and any driver unlike them. Stellar work!

His pitstop team error at Monaco 2016 was the first F1 video I ever saw. Then I was caught in a loop of F1 videos and saw few funny videos of his and became a fan of his character. Eventually I ended at his redemption race at Monaco 2018 and became a fan of his racing. His races made me a fan of F1. Sad to see him struggle and hopeful that he overcomes it.

Layman's terms: If you have a pushy (understeer) car, you back up the corner incrementally until the car stops pushing.

Great video, very well explained. I really hope Daniel can get better results (a podium would be nice) in the rest of the season. I still believe he’s a world champion.

Wow, awesome video. It explains everything in a simple but effective way. Loved it

This is great work champ..... bloody well done on this video

I find hard to believe that they would change a car that is doing so well for Norris, Riciardo will have to adapt

And here we are, 3 weeks later, first team in 2021 to get a 1,2 result. 😀 Great drivers, great job 😀

I became a fan of F1 when the Netflix series premiered and since that moment I have DEVOURED every ounce of F1 material I can get my hands on. This video and explanation was one of the best I have ever seen. It connected so many concepts that I am learning about. Thank you!!! Also... I think you all have stumbled on to a gold mine with an analysis of how the car fits or interacts with a particular driver.... you could even do a "re shuffle" and pair different drivers to different cars and make it a tournament. Just some ideas from a fanatic. 😅 all the best and keep up the great content!

5:24 finally an explanation that makes sense of why rolling speed into the corner isn't working for Ricardo. thank you!!

They had a huge impact with the rear end aero being demolished between seasons. So the car is even more extreme then last year. Next year won't have the strange no aero pressure on the rear end floor like this year so I think both Vettle and Ricardo will improve drastically.

mclaren are doing pretty alright this year pushing third place with ferrari. imagine what would happen if ricciardo got to grips what results they could achieve. i hope he gets there cuz he deserves it

That was excellent! I learnt so much from your explanations. Cheers.

Great video thxs as always

Ricciardo gonna look very different on the second part od the year 🙏 trust the process 🔥

It'll definitely click eventually. Once he figured out the Renault he was a joy to watch. I think this season has shown that lando was infinitely better than what people gave him credit for before the season started.

This really gives me a new appreciation for the things that F1 teams have to do. Just the amount of room they have to design the aerodynamics of the car can result in two cars behaving completely different but still being competitive. Obviously other series do as well but I don't think it's quite this extreme.

I love these in depth technical analysis video's.

He should have just stayed another more year at RedBull. Yeah yeah, I know, pressure from max, etc. but god damn, it just felt like he just gave up too quickly.

Looking back at Ric when he joined Renault, he had "problems" adjusting to the new car and didn't start to have good results until the second half of the season. In 2020 he more than doubled his 2019 point tally, but even then his best results were in the second half of the season (if we can even say that last season had two halves and not one big rush all of the time). So I'm not too worried.

Great video, really well explained!

Great bit of analysis. Would love to see more of this for other cars.

Really hoping Danny Ric and Checo can figure it out soon. Was hoping for a great season from them both

Dan saw this video and said "HOLD MY BEER"

Not much F1 content on RU-vid as good as this. Great insight

From what I understand "braking earlier" more specifically Daniel rides the brakes lightly and earlier. There are a few videos where it shoes the data on his brake pedal pressure.

If the goal is to win, they better create a car that suits Ricciardo'a driving style.

He’s done it!! Hopefully more success for Ricciardo after Monza!

Just a great example of how finely tuned both car and drivers are in F1. Just incredible machines. Wish Danny Ric all the best, got to be tough trying to relearn muscle memory and something that's intuitive from thousands and thousands of laps. 👍🏁👍🏁

Sounds a lot like driving an older Porsche sports racer (935, 956, 962, etc) with a 'spool' rear axle which, unlike a 'differential', does not allow the rear wheels to spin at different speeds. They are simple and very durable, but the car understeers unless the driver breaks the tail loose and drifts it to some extent. Porsche chose durability to cope with massive turbo torque, and expected the drivers to adapt.

I think McLaren would benefit from a team therapist. If I were Danny Ric I would be hesitant to "unlearn" a driving style that has been so successful when 2022 is such an unknown. Not to mention the age difference with Lando may be having a tiny impact on team dynamics. I think there is more going on here than just a unique car design.

The moment when Danny fully trusts the car and takes a leap of faith with what the car is capable of is going to be special, special day. He just needs to keep chipping away and he will eventually hit diamond.

That description just before 6 minutes explains why I had to use that braking style in all low speed corners coming off high speed straights in the F1 game driving the McLaren. Apparently this has been how the car has worked since at least 2017. Wait as late as possible, smash the brake then gradually release brake pressure as the car slows and loses aero grip. When I don't ease off the brake, the fronts lock as downforce fades.

Wow! Thank you for summing that up.

feels like two years ago we were saying a similar thing at Renault

I thought he was the “last of the late brakers"

Fantastic analysis, I’m 100% confident Danny can sort it 👍

Love love love so much detail about there actual driving style

I fear this may be where Daniel’s career takes the final nail

so basically you’ve gotta brake late and chuck the mclaren into the corners aggressively to get the most out of it

The best video yet thank you love it

I have said from the word go, it is the unique nature of the car. They began this kind of experimenting way back, when they tried their interpretation of the size 0 rear.... they did a lot of the front end work, to try to make that back end work. It did not really... but they continued down that front end design path, because they got a lot out of it, and the doldrums they were in at their lowest at the end of silver car period, meant all gains mattered. They took this then, along five or six years of development, and it ended up being that element of the car was the one which directed the rest, rather than something tried to address issues with another aspect of design from a previous car. Because they saw potential, and small gains, growing to bigger, there was nothing stopping them taking to the point it is now, where it is an extreme example of trade offs, and weakness being designed in as an accepted by-product of ensuring a strength in one key area which can translate to others in the car. Norris has only ever driven a McLaren, he even only been associated with them as a Junior, iirc. He's had a long time in the car, to get used to the car, and this design philosophy too. Now this is an extreme example of that design style, it is perhaps even easier for him to understand the do's and dont's, add Mercedes power, and personally, I suspect, in the same way the car is making Ricciardo look bad, it is making Norris look even slightly better than his actual improvements. it is the flip side for Ricciardo. He's got a mountain to climb, because this aspect of the car is such a core one, foundational, they cannot, as the video says, simply dial it out. He cannot be met half way. It is ALL him. For some drivers, this would not be a huge issue... some might have natural style like Norris', which is one attuned, or at least, of a philosophical kind, to some extent, with cars design. Ricciardo is at the full opposite end of the spectrum. His style, which let him put in a contender for drive of the season just last year, even if it was overlooked by many, has gone from boon, at RBR, and even Renault, who seemed to design a car similar enough, in some ways, to the RBR cars, that it played to his style, come 2020... to a BANE, because he's stuck with literally the worst car on the grid to drive the way he's learnt for so long. it is not that he has learnt bad habits and covered by the car, either, you do not basically single handedly turn around a teams fortunes, like Renault themselves admit he did with them, if you are a bad driver with good machinery... you perhaps get some lucky wins, and the odd podium, over your whole career, and can be banked on for points regularly, but you do not win seven times, including at Monaco with 15% power loss, nor drag Renault back to their first podiums in almost a decade. His style is a good one, which works.... unless you have that one in a million misfortune to get a car which requires the complete opposite, and is actually weakened by that style, and what makes it so is so entrenched in the core design, they cannot help you, meet you half way. Sadly, that is exactly where he wound being, in that scenario. Yet look at his recovery since Monaco, the nadir of his entire F1 career. It has been steady improvement, more and more. In the last race, even without the first crash, he was already well up, fighting for fifth, from the start. He finally put in times over the weekend on par with Norris, and faster at one point, something he had stopped doing, for some reason, as he got faster on race days. It was a sign he was perhaps coming to grips so much he could get back to putting in good FP and Q times, AND still keep race pace too. His getting taken out, and then having to fight all race only to run out of tyres and drop out of the points after an epic defense of his position, probably has more of a risk of costing him more than any other driver in a sense, even Verstappen. This is because he did not get that one last race in to the break, where he could string it all together, hints of pace, and some good showing on the prerace sheets, and then a good points finish in the race. He is going to come in to the second half of the season now, on the back foot, psychologically at least, having all his momentumn since Monaco knocked out of him. He is an amazing driver though, absolutely one of the best, despite what this season would suggest, so I think he'll still surprise everyone, even just with the effort and research and time with the engineers he'll have put in over the break, which might surprise many of us, come the first few races in to the second half of the season.

Im pretty sure he’ll adapt towards the end of the season. For us those changes in driving mechanics might look simple, but not easy when relying mostly in your instincts at these speeds. Ric just needs more seat time, hopefully that will bring him back towards the front where we miss seeing him.

Must be so difficult to change his style to this. Intuitively you'd think braking earlier would be the response to understeer. Braking later to counter understeer just flies so much in the face of what seems like the naturally correct thing to do.

What a fantastic video. Top job.

This highlights how good of a driver Carlos Sainz is. He has been the driver that adapted better to a new car this year and he was able to squeeze a lot of all the cars that he has driven in his career in the F1.

Maybe I'm over simplifying it but if I were mclaren I wouldn't change an aero philosophy to suit one driver. Its much less of a risk to stick with what they know, and what is proven to work than risk changing it to suit riccardo

I think Ricciardo is a good enough driver to get it figured out eventually. I honestly think he is more surprised than everyone else about his performance. I have faith tho!

really nice video!!

Drone shot at .38 was sick. Epic

the thought of not seeing a shoey this year terrifies me...

Good video mate

That was a great break down thanks.

I think Lando is just faster / adaptable. He's playing sim stuff constantly , he can adapt better

He just needs to start sim racing with Lando and Max lol

Great video, thanks for that.

Oh we 1000% need more videos like this about other times

I guess he figured it out mate

here after Mclaren 1-2 in Monza

I really enjoyed this look at the McLaren car and Riccardo’s driving style. Thanks.

Great clip 👌

Sounds like he needs to get on the simulator

Technicalities aside, Riccardo MUST adapt. This is what's expected from a great driver

Fantastic piece, Edd. More of this sort of thing, please. Red Bull next?

I forgot how stunning the Gulf livery was, hopefully not the last time we see it

“Hamilton can be competitive in any car.” Ricciardo: 🤨