Mercedes taking a close look at Formula One rivals McLaren upgrade
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Mercedes technical director James Allison is keen to analyse how McLaren managed to improve their lap time drastically.
PHOTO: AFP
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LONDON – Mercedes will be taking a good look at McLaren’s latest upgrade for clues about how their Formula One rivals have made such a leap in lap time, technical director James Allison said on Wednesday.
McLaren finished second and fourth in Sunday’s British Grand Prix with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri respectively, while seven time-world champion Lewis Hamilton was third and George Russell fifth for Mercedes.
Norris’ podium was his Mercedes-powered team’s first of the season after a poor start.
The race at Silverstone was won by Red Bull’s Max Verstappen,
But the battle behind is intense with fortunes fluctuating according to upgrades.
“We keep an eye on all the teams as they upgrade,” Allison said in a British Grand Prix debrief, explaining that photographs were taken to monitor changes.
He said Mercedes would be paying more attention than normal to McLaren’s package.
“We note when something new or unusual comes along.
“The interesting and unusual thing about the McLaren upgrade is that its lap-time effect is quite strong.
“It’s unusual to have a step of that size of relative competitiveness in the middle of a season and ‘chapeau’ to them.
“They’ve done a good piece of work there, but that also makes it interesting for us because we have the before-and-after shots and we know the lap-time effect was big.
“We know that whatever changed has made a meaningful difference to their lap time. It’s quite useful for us to know what that was and see whether it can play into our own thoughts of developing our own car.”
Allison said there was more development to come at Mercedes, even though teams will increasingly be turning their attention to 2024, and improvements to carry into next year.
“The feeling is that you are investing in both seasons with those upgrades. For us, yes, you will see the upgrades coming for a little while longer. I suspect for the others too,” the 55-year-old Briton added.
“What you will get in this next sequence of races is a little bit of yo-yoing for position in a very closely packed bunch as upgrades make the difference for one team for a while, until someone else will come out of sequence with another upgrade a race or two later to even things back out.
“Where it will all settle down for the final quarter to one third of a season, we will see.”
REUTERS
