F1 aero expert reveals why McLaren's ROCKET SHIP could compete in Silverstone race

Lando Norris at Silverstone — Photo: © LAT Images

British Grand Prix

F1 aero expert reveals why McLaren's ROCKET SHIP could compete in Silverstone race

Former Red Bull aero expert Shubham Sangodkar unpacks McLaren's newfound pace

Shubham Sangodkar

Sunday 9 July 2023 13:42

Lando Norris had everyone’s hearts pounding on Saturday afternoon as he momentarily went P1 in the final round of qualifying, before Max Verstappen completed his final lap.

It was a huge surprise despite a strong Austrian GP performance from Norris a week prior, which consensus had ruled was probably a one-off for the papaya-chrome team.

However, come qualifying at Silverstone, both Norris and Oscar Piastri surprised everybody by qualifying P2 and P3, out-qualifying the Ferrari, Mercedes and Aston Martin on merit. In this article, let us figure out if they can hold onto their podium places for the race.

What Is McLaren’s Race Pace?

McLaren’s drivers have themselves admitted that they have struggled for race pace in the past weekends. Even in Austria, Norris had to do a lot of tyre management in order to ensure a top five finish. In FP2, McLaren split their strategy, with the Brit running the hard tyres and Piastri running the soft.

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While the grid is close, Norris' hard tyre run looks very competitive in comparison to Ferrari and the Aston Martin. However, Mercedes seems to be the best of the rest when it comes to race pace between these four teams.

With changing conditions and teams testing different tyre compounds, a lot will depend on what strategy teams will go for, whether it will be a soft-hard or soft-medium-medium strategy or a soft-soft-medium combination.

Ferrari have a new superpower

Ferrari have brought a new beam wing upgrade, which has allowed them to run similar downforce levels to Red Bull and yet still carry the same top speed as them. As you can see, Ferrari have a 6-7 km/h top speed advantage over the McLarens, while the Mclarens and the Mercedes are pretty even on top speed.

Can McLaren hold onto a podium?

Honestly? it's going to be hard. This is because they have the Ferraris behind, who have similar race pace but have a straight-line speed advantage, while the Mercedes seem overall faster in race pace than both McLaren and Ferrari.

However, McLaren do have track position and two cars in the fight so some clever strategy might be able to get them at least one place on the podium.

Shubham Sangodkar is a former F1 Aerodynamicist with a Master's in Racing Car Design specialising in F1 Aerodynamics and F1 Data Analysis. He also posts aerodynamics content on his YouTube channel, which can be found here.