Mercedes lessons from McLaren go deeper than visual similarities to Red Bull

A series of upgrades over the summer months have transformed McLaren’s 2023 challenger from being one of the slowest cars on the grid to the second-quickest at the Japanese Grand Prix. 

McLaren’s stunning rise has seen them at times out-perform Mercedes, Ferrari and Aston Martin and emerge as Red Bull’s closest competition, with Lando Norris finishing second at Silverstone, Budapest, Singapore and Suzuka. 

McLaren’s MCL60 has drawn comparisons to the design of Red Bull’s RB19 following a raft of upgrades, with rivals believing their upturn in form has come as no coincidence. 

But Mercedes are more intrigued by how McLaren’s car is performing on track, rather than simply what it looks like. 

“McLaren were certainly ahead of us in the last race, with us ahead the race before. On average over the last four or five, we’ve been there or there abouts with them,” Mercedes technical director James Allison told Sky. 

“But absolutely chapeaux to them, having come from more or less the worse car, or vying for it, to being second-quickest in the last race weekend. That makes us see what is doable. 

“But actually, that isn’t most of our focus. It’s more that when you see any of the cars on the grid and you see the type of corners they are strong in, the type of corners they are weak in, you can sort of reverse-engineer a bit from that, what are the sort of characteristics that will prosper over a season as a whole. 

“You can see the McLaren moving towards the direction of the Red Bull. Forget the look of the car, but in terms of how it performs on the track. 

“This really impressive 225 to 250 kph performance, that gives a lot of signals about what they are targeting in order to be strong around all the championship tracks. 

“So that’s a sort of useful guide to let you know whether you are barking up the right tree or the wrong tree.” 

Asked how quickly he expects the field to close up, Allison replied: “If you take start of this new generation of cars, 22, second year of the cost cap, but start of the new generation of cars and you look at the field spread in the opening races, it was about double what the field spread is now. 

“It’s closing up. It gets harder and harder to get out of Q1. Even Red Bull sometimes have to run more than one set of tyres to get out of Q1 - sometimes. 

“But most of us are having to be on our A-Game to get out of Q1 because the margins aren’t big. The grid is closing and that is going to keep going for next year. 

“The rules don’t change for next year and I would imagine that things will be pretty punchy at the front of the grid with a number of teams, and hopefully we’ll be one of them.”