McLaren took a huge step forward with their upgraded car to become Red Bull's nearest challengers at the British Grand Prix; Lando Norris finished second at Silverstone, with team-mate Oscar Piastri fourth; watch the Hungarian GP live on Sky Sports F1 from July 21-23
Tuesday 18 July 2023 06:20, UK
After a stunning display at Silverstone, McLaren's quest to maintain their hugely improved pace promises to be one of the biggest storylines of the weekend at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
The MCL60 leapfrogged the midfield to become world championship leader Max Verstappen's nearest challenger at the British Grand Prix.
While Lando Norris couldn't deny Red Bull a record-equalling 11th successive Grand Prix win, the Brit's second-placed finishes in both qualifying and the race announced a return to podium contention for a McLaren team that started the season in something of a mess.
The Silvestone success couldn't just be put down to Norris' talent either, given his rookie team-mate Oscar Piastri qualified third, and was on course to seal a double podium for McLaren before the unfortunate timing of a safety car cruelly denied him.
However, Piastri's fourth in the race meant the 30 points McLaren scored on home soil were more than they had managed in the first nine races of the campaign.
As the Formula 1 season continues at the Hungaroring, with Sky Sports on-track coverage beginning with Practice One at 12:30pm on Friday, all eyes will be on the papaya challengers.
McLaren began the season in a state of apparent disarray, with newly appointed team principal Andrea Stella admitting at their launch in February that he was "not entirely happy" with the car they would be rolling out on track for testing and the opening race of the season in Bahrain.
The reason for his discontent became clear in Bahrain and the race that followed in Saudi Arabia, with Piastri's 15th at the latter the best placing they managed.
Then came the sacking of technical director James Key in March, along with the establishment of a new structure that would see three technical figureheads reporting into Stella.
There were some signs of progress as upgrades to the car helped produce a more competitive showing in Azerbaijan, but just one point from the next four races had left real doubt as to whether Stella's revolution was taking the team anywhere.
But then came the first major upgrade package for the Austrian Grand Prix, which was only ready for Norris' car, but helped the Brit to finish fourth at the Red Bull Ring.
Then, with more parts added, and Piastri given most of them too, the stunning Silverstone display followed to plunge McLaren into the chasing pack behind Red Bull.
While Norris had impressed in Austria, there was caution over reading too much into a result at a circuit where the Brit has excelled throughout his career.
If that performance hadn't quite caused the paddock to take note, Silverstone did, with Mercedes drivers describing the McLaren as a "rocketship" after failing to overtake Norris in the closing stages.
Perhaps most cautious of all about McLaren's speed is Stella, who still pointed to factors such as the track layout and cool conditions as being crucial in his team's success.
"I think we have to acknowledge that the improvement seems to be genuine here in terms of race pace," he said. "However, as I keep reminding, we are at a circuit with high-speed corners… So it gives a bit of a premium, this track, if you are competitive in high-speed - in the race, possibly even more than in qualifying.
"And at the same time, it was cold conditions. I keep being prudent that we may be flattering a bit the situation thanks to these conditions, but I think it's fair to acknowledge that the car seems to be more competitive in the race as well."
Former Aston Martin head of strategy Bernie Collins explained on the Sky Sports F1 Podcast how McLaren's ability to quickly get heat into their tyres has been a key factor in their success.
"What impressed me this weekend was how quickly they get the tyres working up to temperature," Collins said. "Norris, notably, on top of Verstappen at the start of the race, fit to hold off Hamilton after the safety car restart when Hamilton, on the soft.
"So something in that McLaren, be it the brake heating and how they get the tyre up to speed, really, really helps in these colder track conditions. And maybe that helped them in qualifying as well in those tricky sort of crossover conditions slightly damp."
After the cool and damp conditions and fast corners of Spielberg and Silverstone, Hungary is set to offer a completely different proposition.
The Hungaroring consists largely of slow-medium speed corners, while the weather in Budapest is reliably hot at this time of year.
"I actually think looking forward to Budapest is going to be a big test for them. It's a very different circuit, a lot lower speed corners," Collins said. "So it will be interesting to see how the order - Aston, Mercedes, McLaren - is it going to sit post Budapest."
While uncertain of how the MCL60 will perform, Stella says he is actually excited to find out where McLaren stand when conditions aren't necessarily in their favour.
"In a way we look forward to Hungary to check more comprehensively where we really are," he said. "There's not as much high-speed, if anything it's a low-medium speed dominated track, and also you can have hot conditions, which is another testing territory for us."
Another element that makes McLaren's performance at Silverstone difficult to assess was the fact that new, tougher Pirelli tyres were being used for the first time, as the manufacturer seeks to keep pace with downforce being added by teams to their 2023 cars.
It could be that as well as the cool conditions, the tougher tyres helped address some of McLaren's issues with tyre degradation.
"Everybody was saying before the race with this new construction, nobody has done a 52-lap race on these new tyres, nobody," Ted Kravitz said on the Sky Sports F1 podcast.
"So it was a real trip into the unknown. There was some tyre jeopardy and a trip into the unknown. People didn't know how the construction was going to go because it was sort of under the radar, quite a big change, but it worked out well."
McLaren's performance at Silverstone saw them leapfrog the likes of Mercedes, Aston Martin and Ferrari, who have fought intensely amongst themselves to challenge Red Bull so far this season.
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has repeatedly warned that there is no "silver bullet" to propel his team to a pace comparable with Red Bull, and that's proven correct as the W14 has made gradual but unspectacular progress.
McLaren's sudden - and spectacular - gain has left some to question how they have been able to achieve a feat that one of the sport's superpowers, Mercedes, have now.
Ted Kravitz explained on the Sky Sports F1 Podcast how McLaren's extremely early decision to tear up the initial 2023 design is the key difference, and why it could prove crucial over the remainder of the season.
Ted said: "Mercedes decided that in March and April, and Mercedes are trying to figure their way of getting out of that. McLaren realised much earlier that they were going to have to do a new car and by the summer break and after it, we will have the entire McLaren new car.
"And if that is for the rest of the balance of the season better than the Mercedes, then that proves what Toto is saying, which is true in the regard of there's no silver bullet to make the Mercedes suddenly great from a compromised concept.
"McLaren, who stopped and then started again with a good concept, and that car makes sense when you look at it, that might end up for the rest of the season being faster, it's possible, being faster than the Mercedes.
"And if Aston get some upgrades on there and get back to where they were consistently, you know scoring podiums for fun, then they might end up being faster than Mercedes. But yeah, those three Mercedes powered teams are going to be really close towards the end of the year."
Thursday July 20
2pm: Drivers' press conference
Friday July 21
8:55am: F3 Practice
10am: F2 Practice
12pm: Hungarian GP Practice One (session starts 12:30pm)
2pm: F3 Qualifying
2:45pm: F2 Qualifying
3:40pm: Hungarian GP Practice Two (session starts 4pm)
5:15pm: The F1 Show
Saturday July 22
8:45am: F3 Sprint
11:15am: Hungarian GP Practice Three (session starts 11:30am)
1:10pm: F2 Sprint
2:15pm: Hungarian GP Qualifying build-up
3pm: HUNGARIAN GP QUALIFYING
5pm: Ted's Qualifying Notebook
Sunday July 23
7:20am: F3 Feature Race
9am: F2 Feature Race
11am: Porsche Supercup
12:30pm: Grand Prix Sunday - Hungarian GP build-up
1:30pm: F1 Juniors: Hungarian Grand Prix
2pm: The HUNGARIAN GRAND PRIX
4pm: Chequered Flag: British GP reaction
5pm: Ted's Notebook
Watch Daniel Ricciardo's return to the Formula 1 grid at the Hungarian Grand Prix from July 21-23, with every session live on Sky Sports F1.
