McLaren not ready for F1 title fight after losing British GP double

McLaren’s inability to capitalise on having a car capable of consistently winning F1 looks set to be a common trend in 2024. While the blame has often been placed on Lando Norris for a number of missed opportunities or mistakes at crucial moments, both McLaren drivers were largely blameless at the British Grand Prix.

The MCL38 lacked the pace of the Mercedes W15 in the dry, as George Russell and Lewis Hamilton controlled the race in the early stages, opening up a three-second gap to Max Verstappen. The McLaren came alive as the stint wore on – as it often does in 2024 – combined with track conditions that deteriorated in the rain.

On lap 15, Norris got the better of Verstappen, who showed no signs of repeating his Austrian aggression by fighting back. Two laps later, Oscar Piastri showed that McLaren were in the ascendancy by passing Verstappen at Stowe.

By this stage of the race, teams were considering switching to intermediates as lap times were plummeting. The worsening conditions changed the face of the Grand Prix at the front, as on lap 18 Hamilton took the lead from Russell.

Lando Norris (GBR) McLaren MCL38. Formula 1 World Championship, Matchday 12,…

Moments later, both Mercedes drivers went off track at Turn 1, while Norris stayed on track to get ahead of Russell through the first set of corners. It quickly became clear that the McLaren excelled in the changing conditions, as Norris took the lead a lap later from Hamilton.

Piastri followed suit and gave McLaren a one-two on lap 20 as they continued to run on dry tyres on a slippery track. But with the rain getting heavier, McLaren had to make a decision.

McLaren’s first mistake

With Piastri a second behind Norris in the lead, McLaren had a key decision to make: either force Piastri behind his team-mate and lose a few seconds to Norris, or stay out for one more lap on dry tyres in intermediate track conditions.

Verstappen reacted perfectly by stopping at the end of lap 26, followed by Norris and Hamilton a lap later (Mercedes chose to bring Russell in on the same lap and positioned themselves behind Hamilton). By mistake, Piastri remained on track.

By the time Piastri pitted at the end of lap 28, he had lost almost an entire pit stop (20 seconds). Piastri then dropped from second (he would have probably lost to Hamilton and possibly Verstappen if he had double-lapped), but it would have still given McLaren the chance to fight for a one-two.

Oscar Piastri (AUS) McLaren MCL38. Formula 1 World Championship, Matchday 12,…

McLaren boss Andrea Stella has vowed to learn from it, admitting the team had clearly made a mistake.

“Not only should he (Piastri) have attacked, but we should have attacked harder for the double stack, because by delaying Oscar’s stop by one lap we lost a lot more time than the time we would have lost in a double stack pit stop,” he said after the race at Silverstone, where Crash.net has a presence in the paddock.

“In hindsight, it was the right thing to do, stopping both cars at the same time. We will learn from this experience and do better next time.”

McLaren’s second mistake

With the rain having stopped, attention quickly turned to when to switch to dry tyres. Team radio chatter suggested that McLaren were considering which compound they would use when the time came.

For Piastri, it was crystal clear.

“The racing cars don’t have medium tyres. At the moment we think it’s the right tyre, there are 15 laps to go,” Piastri explained.

He replied abruptly: “Yes, yes, it’s the best.”

McLaren had the advantage over their rivals as they had a spare set of new medium tyres – the preferred race compound – while Mercedes and Red Bull had to choose between the softs and hards. Hamilton was the closest threat to Norris and stopped a lap ahead of him at the end of lap 38 – Verstappen did the same.

Given that Norris was leading the race – by a few seconds – one can’t criticise McLaren’s timing in switching to slicks, but the choice of compound baffled many, including Red Bull boss Christian Horner. With Hamilton opting for the softs, McLaren decided to follow suit.

Lando Norris (GBR) McLaren MCL38. Formula 1 World Championship, Matchday 12,…

Hamilton and Norris therefore had to rely on the softs, Verstappen on the hards and Piastri on the mediums. It quickly became clear that the harder compounds were more favourable, as Verstappen and Piastri traded fastest laps in the race.

On lap 48, Verstappen passed Norris, who was struggling on his soft tyres, to take second place. Hamilton, although slower than Verstappen and Piastri, showed why he is still one of the best drivers at saving his tyres.

Piastri’s electric pace on the mediums was consistently faster than Hamilton’s at the front – and on par with Verstappen. On average, Norris was 0.7s slower than Piastri over the final stint of the race, so it’s very likely the former would have beaten Hamilton to victory at Silverstone had he fitted the mediums for his final stop.

Was Norris to blame?

Indecision over team radio and McLaren’s failure to directly inform Norris which compound was best ultimately proved their undoing.

Norris said as Hamilton pitted: “We have to go in, the soft is better now… any slick.”

His race engineer replied: “We can choose a medium to counter people like Verstappen (he is on hard) or just a soft to counter people like Hamilton.”

Norris added: “Am I thinking Hamilton, or are you thinking average? I don’t mind.”

His engineer told him: “We’re going to move on to software.”

Lando Norris (GBR) McLaren during the FIA post-race press conference. Formula…

In this situation, McLaren should have taken the initiative and put Norris on the medium because they knew it was the most suitable race tyre and the soft simply didn’t work on the MCL38. After the race, Stella admitted that their decision to use the soft had been “influenced” by Hamilton’s.

“The fact that Lewis went to the soft tyres is one of the factors that disrupts the fact that we went to the medium tyres, if that makes sense,” he explained. “I think the gamble was whether the soft tyres would go all the way and how much of a gap they would make.

“At the beginning, in transition, from the medium tyres, because the medium will be quicker at the end. But how much time do you lose in the first two or three laps with a medium and is there a risk of putting a wheel on a wet track and losing the car? I think we were too influenced by the fact that Lewis went to the soft tyres. I think we should have said that the medium was the right tyre.”

McLaren will have to rue another missed opportunity, especially when Verstappen looked set to finish fifth this weekend. Had they got past the safety car in Canada, Norris might have won the race.

Similarly, in Spain and Austria, crucial moments against Verstappen in the wheel-to-wheel duel cost Norris further victories. While McLaren has escaped criticism from Ferrari (at least so far), there is still much to be done on the pit wall to convert its winning pace into consistent grand prix victories.