Red Mist: How does McLaren get away with being so useless?

While the Formula 1 world waits like kids on Christmas morning for the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (Motorsport & Mobility)’s ADUO presents, please allow Red Mist to offload a horse of another colour. An orange and black one, that is.

For starters, it was once a papaya before it became a cigarette box and then a banking slogan. But to be a proper Tifosi, you see, McLaren is always the enemy. So it’s important not to allow them any leeway. Ever. It’s just part of growing up in an Italian household, and it goes a hell of a long way back. With plenty of water under the bridge, too.

Anyway, to the point. Red Mist was not kind to Ferrari in the Binotto and Mekies era. That realm of shocking Ferrari strategy. Red Mist was not alone. Every man and his dog made a cheap meal out of the lads. Remember all the men dressed in red with clown faces in those memes? Well, we even made some of them, and man, it was well deserved.

What Red Mist fails to appreciate, however, is now that the shoe is on another foot, a papaya one, nobody seems to say very much about their casino. We don’t see clown faces in McLaren gear on the pit wall. There’s not much said about that team’s horrid strategic record in 2026. Maybe it’s to do with their being world champions?

In my mind, that status invites even greater criticism. Beyond the critique Ferrari copped back in the day. Think about it for a second. The champions’ biggest blunder came in Canada last week. Even a first-week Bambino karter could see it was dry enough. Then they ignored three chances to fix it and pitted under green anyway?

Then it really fell apart. Oscar’s dodgem cars, Norris stopping. For what? To get to Indy in time to off a bit more merch? Or was there really an issue?

But McLaren miscues more than just in Canada. There were other glaring omissions in the world champions’ campaign. Like that overcut flop that cost them the Miami win. Let alone all those other episodes and risk-it-all gambles have cost critical points under pressure and caused sheepish, papaya-faced interviews. Were that Ferrari, the clown memes would have flown wholesale.

Anyway, that papaya clown meme up top is well deserved. It’s also a reverse compliment to Maranello. Which has done very little strategically wrong this year. So go ahead, my fellow Tifosi; share that image while we wait for the real news on ADUO.

Ahead of a Grand Prix beset with power cuts and aero limitations. Yip, that’s modern F1 for you…