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Hamilton and Verstappen look continue triumphing over Norris

Hamilton and Verstappen have this advantage over Norris

17 July at 14:00
Last update 17 July at 14:03
  • Sophia Crothall

The title battle is becoming increasingly closer between the top four teams: Red Bull Racing, Ferrari, McLaren, and Mercedes. McLaren have been able to close the gap to Ferrari to just seven points whilst Mercedes have also been able to get closer to the British team, as they sit 74 points behind. Speaking on the Sky Sports F1 podcast, former Aston Martin race strategist, and current strategy analyst for Sky Sports and F1TV, Bernie Collins, has identified McLaren's biggest weakness against the other top teams. 

Unlike Red Bull and Mercedes, McLaren have not won the Constructors since 1998, with their most recent Driver's championship being in 2008, which was won by Lewis Hamilton. The teams have worked with key personnel for a long time, and it is these strong relationships which Collins argues McLaren need to work on: "Mercedes and Red Bull appear to have the edge in terms of making consistently good decisions as a team. If we talk Mercedes, one was a mistake from pit wall to call him in [Hamilton at Silverstone] and they got away with it because as a team the decisions are really good, same happens across Max and GP for example. I think it's just the build of the relationship with Lando Norris is pretty new and there just doesn't seem to be that trust there," she said. 

Is McLaren's lack of recent winning experience affecting them?

This season, McLaren won their first race since 2021, when Lando Norris won the Miami Grand Prix. Prior to that, they had not won since 2012. Nevertheless, Collins does not believe this is ultimately their biggest flaw: "I don't really think it's that Mclaren not having the experience of it because every team, even the midfield battles of meek and strong decisions is really tough when you're fighting for the points. At the end of the day, it's as big a difference as the win versus P2," she explained. It seems to be this lack of trust which McLaren lack that is a losing them potential wins, like at Silverstone when Hamilton was able to take the victory.

"Lewis is happy to call out the pit wall, the pit wall are happy to call out Lewis. We've heard it so many times where he's saying I can't make it and they're like well you can, so they're just a bit more, almost less polite with each other if we say it like that," Collins said in a comparison between the two teams. "Whereas you know with Lando it's a bit more polite, it's a bit like well what do you think? What do you like? It's all you go first, we just can't have that. It just needs to be, 'this is my opinion and I'm sticking to it' type of thing. It just needs a bit more work," she concluded.