F1 expert reveals REAL McLaren pace and if they can sustain chief charge on Red Bull

McLaren

F1 expert reveals REAL McLaren pace and if they can sustain chief charge on Red Bull

McLaren took a stunning P2 and P4 at the British Grand Prix but will their impressive pace continue elsewhere?

Shubham Sangodkar

Friday 14 July 2023 13:27

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The British GP saw two British drivers on the podium for the first time in 23 years in the form of Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris, the latter in the resurgent McLaren.

While Max Verstappen drove a faultless weekend, the real action on track was all behind him with the papaya-chrome team making a big step in performance with the recent haul of aero upgrades brought onto the car.

Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri qualified P2 and P3 and finished P2 and P4 respectively, completely on merit. In this article, let us deep dive into the real pace of the McLaren and the strengths and weaknesses of the updated MCL60, with the most burning question of this week, is their pace sustainable for the rest of the season?

Lando Norris finished in an excellent second place for McLaren at the British Grand Prix

Qualifying - comparing Red Bull, Ferrari, Mercedes and McLaren

Article continues under video

To much surprise, the McLaren was not the second fastest car in high-speed corners. It was actually Charles Leclerc's Ferrari, who was up on Lando Norris by 0.1 sec until T15. Leclerc went too hot into T15 and couldn’t carry the speed through it, which compromised his exit and then made a similar mistake in T16-17 which resulted in him requiring to make a correction at the exit of T17, as he lost 0.3sec in three turns putting him behind Norris and Piastri on the grid.

So considering Leclerc did not make those mistakes, chances are he would have been starting P2. But the good news is they looked faster in high speed as compared to both Mercedes and Aston Martin.

Another clear weakness of the car is on the straights, compared to Ferrari and Red Bull. With Ferrari having brought a new single-element beam wing with a neutral secondary element, they have taken a big step to match Red Bull’s top speed. When it comes to top speed the McLaren are even slower than both Mercedes and Aston Martin. So they might struggle in Spa and Monza, which are top speed-sensitive circuits.

However, when it came to the medium-speed corners Red Bull were a step ahead of everyone and pulled most of their performance advantage in the last two turns of the track. This is probably because they can run more downforce for iso drag as compared to other cars. McLaren however were the second fastest across the medium-speed corners.

Race pace comparison

Looking at the race data, Verstappen would consistently make up 0.2 - 0.3 sec on Norris at T3-4-5, T6-7, T16-17, which are the medium speed turns with the rest of the lap being quite even between them in the race. The tyre wear was also similar for both of them.

However, Norris was the second fastest in the medium speed and high-speed corners in the race and likewise gained 0.1-0.3 sec on average over the Ferrari, Mercedes and Aston Martin.

Norris, even after opting for a less draggy rear wing could not match the top speeds of the Ferrari and Red Bull, however, they were even with Mercedes which allowed them to hold off Hamilton at the end of the race.

The plot below shows the data for a representative lap during the race which provides evidence to the comments above.

So what’s next?

McLaren say that they have more upgrades for the Hungarian GP which would add about 0.1 - 0.25 sec on the car. Looking at the current weaknesses, I’d expect a new beam wing - rear wing combo to take care of their top speed weaknesses ahead of the Belgium and Italian GP. The Hungarian GP would also prove a good testing ground to understand how the McLaren behaves in slow-speed sections.

It’s not a given that the McLaren is the second fastest car on the grid right now even after their impressive performance at the British GP. There were many silent factors that played in their favour during the weekend which elevated their performance. Some of these factors were

Tyre compounds and warm up

Pirelli brought the hardest set of tyre compounds for the British GP. McLaren has had a history of struggling in the races, so it will be interesting to see how they perform with the C4 and C5 compounds that Pirelli will bring to Hungary.

Track position and strategy

A good qualifying, a great start and some good teamwork meant that McLarens were able to build a gap to the rest of the field while Leclerc defended from Russell on the softs. In reality, they all had very similar race pace in free air. Additionally, strategy played a significant role in Sunday’s outcome. Ferrari as they are famously known, did make a blunder of it after all.

Where can you expect McLaren to be faster?

The Hungarian GP will be a good testing ground for the slow-speed performance of the car and especially for understanding their race pace on softer compound tyres. However, without an update on the rear wing and the beam wing, we can expect McLaren not to be the second fastest around Monza and Spa.

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.