McLaren surges ahead at Silverstone claiming P2 and P4!

After a dismal start to the season where Lando Norris finished last in Bahrain, after being lapped two times, and his his rookie teammate, Oscar Piastri, retired with an electrical issue after only thirteen laps, the McLaren team was more or less written off as a possible contender in the championship. After the second race, and more disappointment, McLaren CEO Zach Brown made the difficult decision to fire his Chief Technical Officer, James Key, who had been with the team since 2019. The season was shaping up to be a total disaster. Before it even began, McLaren had lost their team principle, Andreas Seidl, to Sauber Motorsports, where he was offered the CEO position. So where did the turnaround come from?

After the loss of Seidl, Zach Brown promoted his race director, Andrea Stella, to team principle. Stella had joined McLaren in 2015 after a long career at Ferrari, dating back to 2000, where he worked with Schumacher, Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso, so he’s got a strong pedigree, not to mention a PhD in mechanical engineering. Brown also promoted his chief aerodynamicist, Peter Prodromou, to technical director after firing James Key. The team improved over the next few races, but it was hit and miss. Then came The Money Shot in Monaco where Sergio Perez’ Red Bull was lifted off the track in a way that exposed the car’s floor for the world to see.

No doubt, every team on the grid took a long, hard look at the aerodynamic design of that floor (which had never been seen before), but McLaren seems to have capitalized on it. In the words of Andrea Stella…

“…Taking inspiration or even looking at the photos doesn’t mean that you copy the geometry. You install it in your CFD runs, in the computer simulation, or in a wind tunnel, and the car lights up in terms of downforce. Normally what happens is it goes down, because your car is already optimized around what you have done to that point. The key element is understanding that some concepts add more potential that will allow you to develop faster and for longer. Here is where you need to have the right people in place and I think I would like to mention one name here, Peter Prodromou…”

The post Money Shot upgrades began in Austria, where it seems that McLaren was able to incorporate some of the concepts from Red Bull’s floor, as well as a redesign of the shape of their sidepods and engine cover. In that race, Lando Norris was able to qualify in fourth and finish in fourth behind the two Red Bulls and Charles Leclerc in his Ferrari. Following that, at Silverstone, the McLarens showed up with a new front wing and nose along with upgrades to the rear brake ducts and rear suspension, all in the name of improved aerodynamics.

At Silverstone, Norris managed to qualify in second, just a little over two tenths off of Verstappen in first, and Piastri qualified third. The boys in the papaya colored cars were back. During the race, Norris managed to maintain his position and even led for a few of the opening laps, while Piastri finished just off the podium in fourth due to a bit of bad luck caused by a safety car. Both cars were there on pure merit, which was a bit unexpected.

In fact, in the pre-race briefing, the team focused on a defensive strategy to try and hold position, not realizing that they wouldn’t need it. The fact that the Red Bull Ring in Austria and Silverstone in Great Britain are two very different tracks bodes well for McLaren going forward. They seem to have taken a significant leap forward in comparison to their rivals. And, the fact that Norris finished the race only about 3.8 seconds behind Verstappen means they may be closing the gap to Red Bull as well.

Still, with the exception of Verstappen, the season has been up and down for the teams chasing him. Early on it looked like Aston Martin would be best of the rest. Then Mercedes came into the picture. After that, Ferrari looked like they had put it all together, only to lose the best of the rest title to McLaren. So, will more teams start to design Red Bull look-alikes? As painful as it might be to his ego after winning eight consecutive world championships with Mercedes, team boss Toto Wolff has hinted at it. It looks like we’ll find out in about two weeks time when the circus travels to Hungary with the latest upgrades. Until then, keep it full throttle.