r/McLarenFormula1

This article is about what a typical engineering day at MTC for Oscar looks like. It discusses the simulators, race day debriefs and includes some quotes from McLaren performance engineers Henry Fidler and Amir Sampat as well as Oscar himself.

Some interesting bits I read:

>For Lando and Oscar, the office in question is the McLaren Technology Centre. They’re regular-enough visitors to not attract attention when they’re in the building – but not regular enough to have their own desk. Typically, they’ll do two days at the factory between races – or perhaps three days if we’re about to embark on a flyaway. And the days tend to be long.

>“The simulator itself is a massively advanced piece of technology, and a lot of hard work and effort has been put into it to make it as realistic as possible,” Oscar says. “It is very realistic in many ways. The modelling and the physics behind it are very, very detailed and incredibly realistic. The G-forces are the one thing that you will never be able to replicate very well, unfortunately, but we have some motion, so we try to replicate it as best as we can.”

>The driver simulator has a dedicated team of engineers, who work primarily with our cadre of test and simulator drivers. They will work with Oscar and Lando, but for the most part, their sim sessions are overseen by their own group of Race Engineers, who will also be learning in equal measure. In many respects, the process is not unlike a test day at the track: the driver will make a run, perhaps make a few changes during it, then jump out for a debrief and study the data before going again.

>“That's how I learn,” says Oscar. “Looking through speed graphs, the throttle inputs, braking inputs, that's how we prepare and try to hit the ground running [when arriving at the track]. The simulator is the only real testing tool that we have. We're not allowed to practise in real life anywhere near as much as we want, and so the simulator is the key for us.

>“We debrief throughout the day. There will be various different items we want to tick off, whether it be driving style for me, car setup, upgrades or developments, all kinds of things really. Then after the sessions, the engineers will go away, look at the data, and then normally we'll talk about it [at the track] on the Thursday of a race weekend.

>“Mentally, you're concentrating as if you're driving a real F1 car - obviously, the physical side of it, isn’t quite the same, but it'll be a good day.”

>“We’ll be talking through driving goals, and what we think we need to do to approach [the next race] in the right way,” says Performance Engineer Amir Sampat. “He's normally quite receptive to what we're telling him. We’re often telling him lots and lots of things, but he's quite chilled out given there's a lot to think about.”

This question is for those who actually understand the technicality of the upgrades and the cars strengths and weaknesses on different tracks, in varying weather and temperature. How is it looking? Is a comeback possible? Was the last race a one off or is it possible they can continue this streak through the season? Or is it too early to tell?

I’m going to the Singapore GP and I know the McLaren was weak there last year. Can I get my hopes up or should I be keeping my expectations low and be prepared for a Mercedes win there?

Is a Verstappen level comeback like last year in the books?

This is from McLaren's official report. It is quite an insightful article and I definitely recommend reading in full. In the meantime, I have included some snippets I thought were interesting below.

Oscar's thoughts on the season so far

>“Results-wise, Japan and Miami were both good weekends,” Oscar says. “I think also Austria was a good one. The result was reasonable, with the P4, but also in terms of the turnaround from Barcelona and just how I felt the weekend went. Barcelona was definitely one of the more difficult weekends of the year, and I had to learn a lot from that one and improve quite a lot, and I feel like Austria was really good: to bounce back and put some of that learning into place. I think the good results have been one thing, but I feel like I've also learned a lot about how I can improve myself as a driver, even if the results don't always show it.”

Oscar's thoughts on the 2026 Regulations

>“I think this rule set is just so different in so many ways,” Oscar explains. “During the previous regulation changes, the cars themselves changed quite a bit, in terms of how much downforce they have or how they generate the downforce. But this regulation change has been like a completely fundamental change to how you drive a race car, in some ways. It's been a huge reset for us, for me as well. I've had to tackle things in different ways and change the way I go about some things.”

Oscar's reflection of his adjustments and driving style for this regulation set

>“We're having to find so many new things and new ways of extracting performance out of the car and ourselves,” Oscar says. “It's quite easy to just settle into your normal rhythm and do the things you've always done, but that doesn’t always work in these cars – I think Barcelona was definitely an example of that. In Austria I felt like I really had to stretch myself a bit more and try some new things, and just go about driving in a slightly different way.

>“Every car is going to need slightly different things on how to go fast, and I feel like in the last few races before the break, I've definitely discovered more and more about how the car needs to be driven, how it works, how to go quickly in it, which is not always the most obvious or natural thing.”

Oscar's reflection on McLaren's development pipeline:

>“It does give me confidence,” Oscar says. “When you look at the previous experience of what we've been able to achieve as a team, and how we've been able to make progress through the year, it’s good. In 2023, we were in a much worse position than where we are now, and we were able to really jump up the order to fight for podiums.

>“The way that Lando and I worked together during that period to try and focus on making the car quick, so that we could then fight for the results that we wanted, hasn’t changed. It’s still strong, with productive conversations together with the team – we are all pushing toward the same goal.

>“I feel like for me I've already seen it play out more than once. I think that's a real strength of the team. Yes, things are different, the cars are different, maybe the way we will make that step will look different. But we've made that step before, and I'm confident we can do it again.”