McLaren's dilemma: Follow Red Bull's lead or not?
General
- Ludo van Denderen
Currently, there is no matching of McLaren. The British team of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri have developed a lightning-fast F1 car in a relatively short space of time, staying ahead of the competition almost every Grand Prix. With the car so strong at the moment, several dangers lurk. The question is going to be how McLaren manages to tackle them in the coming weeks.
Even if you have a car that wins all but one Grands Prix and gets off to an excellent start the following season, that is no guarantee of finishing first in the constructors' championship. Red Bull Racing know it all, as the once so dominant team of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez have now been overtaken by McLaren as well in standings - and Ferrari and Mercedes are also regularly faster.
Red Bull's wrong choices
The fact that Red Bull are no longer the standard in Formula 1 is partly due to not knowing how to develop the RB20 correctly. In the last few months, the Austrian team have put updates on their cars, which ultimately turned out to make the car worse rather than improve it. That is the constant dilemma F1 teams struggle with: On the one hand, you have to try to stay ahead by constantly evolving; on the other hand, those updates can also take you in the wrong direction, with all of its consequences.
That is precisely a dilemma McLaren are currently struggling with right now. For the US Grand Prix, all of McLaren's competitors - including, therefore, Red Bull - are bringing major updates. Although the British showed tremendous superiority in the previous race in Singapore and there is nothing to suggest that this would simply disappear in Austin (even though the Circuit of the Americas is incomparable to the Marina Bay Street Circuit in Singapore), the team cannot really be laid back. Then comes the risk then, whether also their new parts make their car better or worse.
Meanwhile, the decision has been made: in Austin, McLaren will really come up with a radical update package. After all, team prinicpal Andrea Stella argues that in Formula 1, you should never take your foot off the gas. Not only McLaren are going to watch with suspicion whether this will make their car faster, the competition certainly will too.
Want more Formula 1? Then follow GPblog on our various social media channels!