After the Austrian Grand Prix, Zak Brown explained that McLaren’s 2023 Formula 1 championship would start from that result, from the fourth-place finish that held deep meaning for the team, almost like a reward for the day and night efforts of all the staff at the factory to anticipate the updates needed to improve the team’s fortunes.
Although one swallow does not make a summer, the change in pace compared to other races of the season was evident, as confirmed by the team’s top management, who had openly admitted at the beginning of the year that they had missed their targets during the winter break. This candid admission had its roots not only in the chosen concept but also in the rule changes for the 2023 season that heavily penalized the philosophy followed by the Woking-based team, as recounted after the Bahrain Grand Prix by former technical director James Key.
Since then, McLaren has continued its development work, introducing a new floor in Azerbaijan that laid the foundation for what was seen in Austria. Additional updates were later added, such as redesigned side pods or a modified front wing for the British leg, although only Lando Norris had access to it due to the lack of spare parts.
On a friendly circuit that, on paper, should have highlighted the qualities of the MCL60, the British team knew they could perform well, although the reality on the track surpassed even the rosiest expectations. Several elements made the difference, but the secret was having a package that overall found the best balance among the chasing teams in terms of both race pace and qualifying, especially in direct comparison with Ferrari and Mercedes.
Looking at the data from Saturday, it emerged, for example, that in high-speed sections like the opening sector or Copse, teams like Ferrari recorded higher minimum speeds, not exactly the SF-23’s strongest point. Setting aside the fact that only a fourth and fifth place were achieved, also due to some mistakes by the drivers, at least on a single lap, the Red car was able to find an effective balance that could potentially have placed it on the front row alongside Max Verstappen.
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An aspect that, even in qualifying, McLaren managed to hit was the high efficiency not only in fast corners like Stowe but also in those sections that had previously troubled the MCL60, such as slower zones. The Saturday references, in fact, highlighted how well the Woking car performed in chicanes 3-4 and 16-17, especially in terms of traction. Theoretically, Ferrari and Aston Martin (which was too light at Silverstone) were expected to make a more significant difference in these areas, but McLaren proved otherwise.
The central point of this discussion revolves around the relationship between qualifying and race performance, particularly how tire interpretation and weather conditions influenced the strengths of each car differently. Taking a step back, an interesting aspect was already observed on Friday when Mercedes was the only team to keep seven sets of soft tires, leaving them with only one set of medium and hard compounds. Beyond the potential usefulness in case of wet track conditions, the Mercedes team had already realized on Friday that the softer compound could be a viable option for the race. They kept the backup strategy of a single pit stop using the two harder compounds available.
Mercedes built their car setup and race tactics around this element. George Russell started the race on the soft tire, while with Lewis Hamilton, they decided to diversify the strategy while waiting for references from their teammate. On the other hand, the only top team that started Sunday’s race with two sets of medium tires was Scuderia Ferrari with Charles Leclerc. This was due to the concrete fear that tire degradation could push them towards a two-stop strategy.
Like Mercedes, Scuderia Ferrari also built their weekend based on the insights gained on Friday, but in a completely opposite manner. With data from Carlos Sainz’s long stint alone, the Maranello team opted for a more conservative approach, choosing setup options that would help protect the tires. In qualifying, this aspect was partly mitigated by the grip provided by new tires, but in the race, all the limitations emerged, not only technically but also in terms of overall strategy.
Paying attention to the telemetry data, the first aspect that stands out is how Ferrari did not maintain the same strengths as McLaren during Sunday’s race, despite showing them in qualifying. This change was primarily due to two reasons: the larger amount of fuel on board made it virtually impossible to take corners like Copse at full speed, nullifying part of the SF-23’s advantage. Additionally, Ferrari’s concern about tire management forced their drivers to compromise their line through the corners more than their rivals, reversing the situation from the previous day.
On the contrary, the McLaren team maintained a good level of competitiveness in the slow corners, which were considered more challenging for the MCL60, thus demonstrating good pace even over long distances. Another factor was their real-time race analysis, to which Ferrari struggled to respond. The track temperature on Sunday was more than 15°C lower than when the teams completed their long runs on Friday, reducing the stress on the tires. This favored teams like Mercedes who had opted for an aggressive strategy with the softer compound, which proved particularly effective for George Russell.
Beyond accurate predictions, the significance of race analysis became evident with George Russell’s teammate, who started on the medium compound. After a period of tire management in the fast sections, as soon as the Mercedes engineers realized that the soft compound could endure well, they immediately instructed Lewis Hamilton to reduce tire saving, quickly bringing him back into Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari’s exhaust. Ferrari’s reaction came in the form of an early pit stop for Charles Leclerc, being the first among the top drivers to do so, fearing that Mercedes could change their tactics on the fly with George Russell, capitalizing on the lower straight-line speeds that made overtaking more challenging on track.
This choice proved to be incorrect, not so much for the strategy itself but for what Ferrari realized during the second stint, namely that tire degradation was extremely low. Initially targeting a high lap time to try and take the hard tire until the end, the Maranello engineers gradually lowered the reference time, going more than half a second faster than the initial predictions.
The initial apprehension had a cascading effect throughout the weekend, unlike what was seen in Austria, where Ferrari checked all the boxes as McLaren did in the British Grand Prix weekend. The team in Maranello will work to analyze what did not work at Silverstone, not only in technical terms but also in terms of approach. However, not everything should be seen in a negative light: considering the current limits of the car and the reduced gaps in the fight for the podium, the central aspect was to show progress compared to the Barcelona race, which ended with a deficit of over twenty seconds behind Mercedes. Although McLaren surprisingly joined the group, the post-Silverstone picture feels more like a missed opportunity for Ferrari, unable to maximize their potential.
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