F1 | McLaren and Mercedes already better than Red Bull: balance broken?

McLaren is increasingly scary. Whether it’s a qualifying simulation or race pace, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri have become the ‘benchmarks’, or the references for the rest of the group. Those hoping that the updates brought to the track at Zandvoort by the two MCL38s could turn out to be a boomerang (something already seen in several teams throughout this season) were disappointed.

The day’s standings don’t tell the whole story. Lando Norris (FP1 leader) ended the afternoon session in fourth place, but both he and Max Verstappen completed the qualifying simulation well in advance to be able to start the long-run, planned on a good number of laps.

McLaren made its mark in the race simulation. Here Norris’ supremacy was clear, both in terms of pace and consistency. Lando and Max started the long run at the same time and with the same compound (medium) and McLaren confirmed itself to be both faster and better at managing degradation.

“There is something strange,” commented Red Bull, given that with medium tyres Max’s simulation was (slightly) slower than Hamilton’s.
“We were too slow both on the fast lap and on the long run,” Verstappen admitted. “At the moment we don’t have a clear answer to the problems we encountered, we will have to examine things calmly. But I can’t say I’m completely surprised, in the end we are not far from the performance seen in the last races.”

There is a better atmosphere in McLaren and Mercedes. Norris prefers to keep expectations low, but obviously his race simulation has been, at the moment, the performance that has scared the opponents the most.
“Am I the fastest? Calm down, Mercedes also did well, I don’t think there is a faster team at the moment, let’s say it depends on several factors. We haven’t brought any technical innovations to the track since Miami, I can say I’m optimistic but I’m not yet sure that everything is working perfectly. Today was a good day, but I think there is still something to find to be able to challenge Mercedes in the best conditions”.

Lando Norris, McLaren

Photo by: Erik Junius

Norris’ analysis of the gap on the two Mercedes is correct. Russell still had the best time at the end of FP2, he and Hamilton were among the last to complete the qualifying simulation, but the pace was still very competitive.

The engineers definitely promoted the tyre that debuted on Friday at Spa (then removed from the two cars) and overall driveability was good. Russell’s long run (with soft) was two tenths slower with the same compound than the Norris-Verstappen tandem, but the comparison should be taken with a pinch of salt since they were not on the track at the same time. Hamilton’s race simulation was less convincing, as it was far (half a second per lap) from Norris.

George Russell, Mercedes F1 W15

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

Russell especially laments the unstable weather conditions, a regret he explained well at the end of the day. “In the first part of the season our car was out of the game,” he reiterated, “and we had very linear and simple weekends, without external variables. Since we confirmed a change of pace over the weekend in Montreal, difficulties of all kinds have arrived. It’s true that we are all in the same conditions, but I can say that so far we have not been very lucky. However, in general the situation is good, I can’t wait to understand tomorrow what we can aim for.”

The challenge seems to be a ‘five-way’ one, with Verstappen hoping to be able to be part of the game alongside the Mercedes and McLaren tandems. Eyes are also on Oscar Piastri, second in the fastest lap at six hundredths of a second from Russell and author of a long-run crossed with Norris. The two have alternated the use of soft and medium to obtain data with the two compounds with different fuel loads.
“Our pace was good,” Piastri explained, “I still have to analyse the long run, but the qualifying simulation went well. Mercedes confirmed to be fast, so I expect a pretty tight weekend. Regarding the updates, I didn’t feel much difference in the car’s behaviour, so yes, everything went as expected.”