‘A wake-up call’ or a new reality - Have McLaren moved ahead of Mercedes?

McLaren endured a woeful start to 2023. Having missed key development targets over the winter, their technical department was rejigged, and their MCL60 started the campaign as the slowest car on the grid. 

Steady progress was made over the next string of races, and following several upgrades, the team enjoyed their best performance of the year when Lando Norris qualified and finished fourth in Austria. 

McLaren’s remarkable resurgence continued a week later at Silverstone, where Norris was only denied a shock pole by Max Verstappen and his dominant Red Bull, with teammate Oscar Piastri qualifying a brilliant third. 

The team’s rapid one-lap pace translated over into race day at the British Grand Prix, where the Red Bull-likened McLaren was the second fastest car on the grid as Norris and Piastri held off the Mercedes duo of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell to take second and fourth respectively. 

It marked the second consecutive race that Mercedes were outclassed by their customer team, and it has set alarm bells ringing, with Hamilton admitting McLaren’s pace in qualifying at Silverstone was a “wake up call” for his team. 

Hamilton’s praise of McLaren’s improvements continued after Sunday’s race. Having been unable to overhaul Norris despite being on faster tyres in the closing stages, the seven-time world champion admitted Mercedes have “got some work to do to improve our high-speed performance.” 

Hamilton was resounding in his belief that McLaren had “100 percent” a faster car than Mercedes at both the Red Bull Ring and Silverstone. 

“This is the first time in a long time and they deserved to have the performance they have,” he added. “So we've got to do a better job. They've now done a better job than us.”

Russell was left dumbfounded by McLaren’s “super impressive” pace, which he said “came from nowhere”. 

Asked if McLaren’s performance gives him heart that things can turn around quickly, Russell replied: “It does, it definitely does, but you need to know where to look.  

“I believe we know where we’re looking and what we’re chasing, but I don’t know. I hope it’s a one-off, but they were quick in Austria as well, which is a totally different circuit.

“Regardless, it’s very impressive what they’ve done. Even so, I thought their strategy was the wrong strategy, going on the hards… The soft was such a great tyre, they would have been even further ahead had they put the softs on. Interesting, a bit of head-scratching right now.”

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff insisted that being beaten by a second customer team - after defeats to Aston Martin earlier in the year - does not bother him. 

“It’s making me very proud,” he countered, “because this is a very power-sensitive track and the Mercedes engines performed very well.” 

McLaren’s competitiveness came as both a surprise and a delight to team principal Andrea Stella, who acknowledged the high-speed Silverstone circuit, coupled with cooler conditions, may have “flattered” his side’s performance. 

“Clearly the indications from the race are quite encouraging,” he said. “We were surprised ourselves in the first stint that we were able to keep our competitors, Ferrari and Mercedes, behind. 

“We thought they would be a problem for us in terms of pace, so I think we have to acknowledge that the improvement seems to be genuine, even in terms of race pace. 

“However, as I keep reminding, we are in a circuit with high-speed corners, and actually here in Silverstone some of the high-speed corners appear in the race while they are flat in qualifying, so again it gives a bit of premium, this track, if you are competitive in high-speed, and in the race more so than in qualifying. 

“At the same time, it was cold conditions, so, you know, I keep being prudent that maybe we are flattering the situation a bit thanks to these conditions, but I think it’s fair to acknowledge that the car seems to be competitive in race conditions as well.” 

Norris highlighted that McLaren’s car is still “pretty terrible” in low-speed corners and has urged caution about reading too much into their performance at Silverstone.

“We do have a poor car, and when I say poor, I would say pretty terrible, in the low-speed corners. It’s extremely difficult to drive,” Norris warned. 

“I feel [people] getting excited and I accept that, but we're going to go to a couple of tracks coming up where I'm sure people are going to be saying: “What have you done now? How has it got so bad all of a sudden?”

The upcoming Hungarian Grand Prix takes place around the slow-speed and technical Hungaroring, which Stella believes will provide a more comprehensive answer about the state of McLaren’s true competitiveness.

"In a way we look forward to Hungary to check more comprehensively where we really are,” he said. 

“There is not as much high-speed, if anything it is a low and medium-speed dominated track and also you can have hot conditions, which again is another testing territory for us. We will see.”

While it may be too early to say if McLaren have genuinely leapfrogged Mercedes, it looks as though we have seen the first sign of McLaren’s road to recovery.