There is a noticeable optimism at McLaren at the end of the first track day of the 2025 season. After testing, it was thought that the MCL39 could be the car to beat, and based on the first references, the “papaya” car confirmed it is among the fastest on the grid, as expected. The real question is: will it be the fastest both on a single lap and over a long distance?
From this perspective, McLaren’s drivers provided different views, with Oscar Piastri being very optimistic about the car’s potential despite Ferrari’s strong performance on the single-lap pace, while Lando Norris suggested that the MCL39 is not yet 100% on the single lap but is more convincing over long runs.
In fact, the best results came with more fuel on board during the long runs at the end of FP2, where McLaren showed a slightly better pace than Ferrari, with a good time progression relative to tire degradation. It’s important to note that almost no one reported significant tire wear, even on the mediums, confirming that the tires hold up well throughout the stint.
According to Lando Norris, however, there is still something to refine on the single-lap performance, where he doesn’t yet feel total confidence in the car. Looking at the telemetry data compared to Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari, who set the fastest time today, it becomes clear that the MCL39 performs better in high- and medium-speed corners, particularly at corners 9 and 10, where it exits faster.
Additionally, the car has a small advantage in top speed. On this front, it’s interesting to note how the Woking team started the day with a very aggressive, low-fuel setup but later switched to a more rear-loaded configuration, following Ferrari’s approach, which had kept the “v”-shaped rear wing seen in Bahrain testing.
Where there is room for improvement is in the slow sections, where Ferrari was particularly competitive today, especially in the third sector.
“Today was so-so. I think it was a good start, a good start to the weekend, we have a good base, but I’m certainly not happy, I’m not confident with the car in terms of finding the best balance,” Norris said, mainly referring to how, with less fuel, the car starts to become less consistent and predictable.
“There’s still something missing in terms of consistency, especially with less fuel, while with more fuel onboard, the feelings were good. But with less fuel, it felt similar to Bahrain—lacking a bit of consistency [in behavior], too many issues, so there’s a bit of difficulty.” – he added.
On the other side of the garage, however, the first day of track testing was viewed more positively: like Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri also mentioned that there are still details to fine-tune, but the car’s pace seems very good.
“I’d say the pace was quite encouraging, the pace was quite solid. There are still a few things to fix to make the car a bit more comfortable, but I think the base pace is excellent, so I’m pretty satisfied with the work done,” said the Australian, in his home Grand Prix. – he pointed out at the end of the second free practice session for the Australian Grand Prix – “I believe the next two days will be different, so we don’t know how significant today’s performance is, but the feeling is quite good. I think the car’s pace is really good. Ferrari seemed pretty fast today, and Mercedes in some areas too, so I think things are going well, but we don’t just want to aim for the podium, we want to aim for the top step.” – Oscar Piastri concluded.
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