Whilst “two swallows don’t make a summer” McLaren F1 have caused a mini tornado amongst the F1 paddock folk. They brought a significant upgrade to Lando Norris’ car in Austria and the British driver duly delivered a P3 in qualifying and just missed out on ugh podium at the end of the Grand Prix.
Both cars had the upgrade for Silverstone and to the surprise of most, Lando qualified alongside Verstappen on the front row with rookie team make Oscar Piastri one slot further behind.
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Norris held of a race Lewis Hamilton to finish the race in second and but for the cruel dealings of a safety car, Piastri would have joined him on the third step.
This season has seen the order of the pack chasing Verstappen yo-yo in terms of performance, much of which has been track specific. However, given the Austrian and Silverstone circuits are significantly different, F1 observers are waiting with baited breath to see if McLaren can repeat their ‘best of the rest’ for another weekend.
Red Bull and Max Verstappen in particular are on one of those once in a generation type winning runs. The team equalled Mclaren’s record of 11 race victories in a row with Max win at th recent British Grand Prix.
Verstappen has now won six F1 events in a row, has beaten Lewis Hamilton’s best of five and is chasing down the retired Sebastian Vettel’s nine in a row which he scored in 2013.
Brown we can “catch Max”
Yet while history is being written, McLaren boss Zak Brown believes his team can save the McLaren record from being taken next time out in Hungary.
Celebrating sixty years of McLaren history at last weekends Festival of Speed, Brown was bullish about his drivers’ up coming challenge.
“I think it’s great time for F1 that in one weekend you have one team that’s second quickest and the following weekend they’re struggling to get out of Q1.
“That’s the competition that we’re looking for in F1, so someone will catch Max. Hopefully it’ll be us, chances are it’ll be a handful of people.”
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Verstappen something special to behold
Brown accepted in Verstappen the world is seeing something special emerge.
“He’s doing an unbelievable, unbelievable job and it is great to see World Champions at the top of their game so you got to admire what he’s doing,” he said.
“But I think once you look past Max, the field is unbelievably condensed. I think it’s just going to get more exciting as as we move forward.”
Meanwhile Red Bull are targeting Hungary for their first significant upgrade of the season. According to German publication AMuS, the world champions are set to make “visible” changes to their side pod and surrounding bodywork for the Budapest race this weekend.
Red Bull “smaller side pods” coming
Having spent a year debating their zero sidepod design it would be ironic were Red Bull to move away from their much vaunted ‘downwash’ concept towards a slimmer and even more efficient solution.
Sources claim this reworking of the car should bring around 0.2 seconds in terms of lap time.
McLaren have another tweak to their upgrade package and with the summer break fast approaching, most teams will be keen to fit any last aerodynamic tweaks before they switch their focus to next year’s car in the autumn.
Speaking ahead of the Hungarian race, Verstappen sent a chilling message to his fellow competitors.
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Verstappen exudes confidence
“The stable factor so far is that every single weekend, it seems like we are on top, which of course is the most important [thing] from our side,” said Max.
“Hungary is a completely different track, we will put some upgrades on the car there and hopefully they will work well.
Red Bull upgrade “shocking”
From the world champion’s next sentence it sounds as though red Bull have in fact overhauled the RB19.
“Drag, low speed, medium speed, high speed, DRS effect, tyre wear… all of these areas [will improve].
“That’s what we’re working on.
“I’m not kidding,” he concluded to stunned reporters.
Expect an Aston Martin return
The problem for the rest of the field is Red Bull appear to have used their significant advantage from the start of the year to good effect. Instead of constantly seeking another tenth or two with persistent upgrades every other race, the team have concentrated on the next generation platform which will appear in Hungary.
So the 0.2 second improvement will just be from a new baseline measurement. The as they have done with the current platform, the development for the rest of the season will be mostly about improving the setup from circuit to circuit and climate to climate.
The Hungaroring should see a return to form for Aston Martin as their start driver Fernando Alonso pointed out earlier this season. The Spaniard was disappointed not to claim pole position in Monaco where the Aston Martin had great traction out of th slow speed corners.
The Hungaroring will offer Aston Martin a more sympathetic layout which should suit their car at the track where Alonso held off Hamilton for lap after lap to gift team mate Esteban Ocon his first win in Formula One.
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No defending necessary into Turn 1 for Lewis 👀
One of the most incredible lights out of all time 😮#HungarianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/vfcInNLs5S
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 16, 2023
No, he’s simply unbeatable on pure pace in his current form, so even if Mclaren’s improved form proves true also at other circuit characteristics, they still can’t beat him unless something happens to him.