Photo credits: AMG Mercedes F1
Quite a rough start of the season for McLaren who struggled to find performance up until the massive upgrade package introduced for the Austrian Grand Prix.
And by the looks of it they knew what direction to change things down in Woking, as Lando Norris has stepped onto the podium four times since then.
A new set of updates was waiting for the MCL60 in Singapore, where Norris took P2 ahead of Lewis Hamilton, finishing only 0.812s behind Carlos Sainz.
But it was last weekend in Suzuka that McLaren gave it its absolute best to bring home a double podium, the very first one for the Brit’s rookie teammate Oscar Piastri.
Things, on the other end, aren’t looking quite as bright in Brackley, where Mercedes is struggling to keep up and is seeing its advantage in the constructors’ standings fading away. Currently the Silver Arrows are second, far behind the winning Red Bulls and only 20 points ahead of the Ferraris.
Analysing how things played out in Japan trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin was asked about the gap with the McLarens, who started the race in second and third and seemed unreachable for the W14.
“You don’t get to a point in a race where you really have a switch of thinking,” he told media after the race.
“But we didn’t have a great start. Lewis was pushed wide, he dropped a position to Alonso.
“McLaren was a quicker car. When your opposition’s ahead of you with a buffer car in between you, you can’t really interact with them.”
Something Shovlin believes is more related to the general upgrade they brought to the car in Austria rather than the last package McLaren brought to Singapore.
“Why is McLaren quick? Well, I think the update they did in Singapore didn’t look massive there. That’s all low-speed corners, here it’s all high-speed.
“And you know, that’s what we saw them get very good at when they did the previous update in Austria. So right now they’ve just got a better car.”
