Bernie Collins outlines why Mercedes and Red Bull are better at winning than McLaren

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McLaren faced the prospect of winning four of the last five Grands Prix in Formula 1, but costly errors and driver faults have prevented them from adding to the tally of victories.

Lando Norris was close to winning at the Spanish GP had it not been for a poor start and slow pit stop in the final stint, while a costly error by the team when switching from wet-to-dry tyres during the British GP ultimately resulted in Norris losing second place to Max Verstappen.

McLaren did everything right during the Austrian GP to put Norris in a position to win, but a collision between the pair resulted in a DNF and spawned much debate over the driving standards in F1.

Speaking on the Sky Sports F1 podcast, former F1 strategist Bernie Collins has pointed out a key reason why McLaren might not be as good at winning as Mercedes or Red Bull, having been the only team not to win more than one race this year.

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Bernie Collins highlights ‘trust’ issue between Lando Norris and McLaren strategy

Jolyon Palmer has highlighted how ‘chaotic’ team radio calls between Norris and his engineer Will Joseph cost them the win at Silverstone.

The pair lacked the same level of communication as eventual winner Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes, leading to the incorrect tyre choice at the end of the race.

Collins, who used to work for McLaren, believes the infancy of the team’s partnership with Norris could be a factor as to why they have yet to cross the line first more than once so far.

“Mercedes and Red Bull appear to have the edge in terms of making consistently good decisions as a team,” said Collins.

“The same happens across Max and GP. 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.”

“There’s been a few personal changes from a strategy side, so they just need to get a bit more trust. Even if they’d decided in the final pit stop; what tyre they were fitting and it was wrong, then you go back and you review it later. But that would have been better than having this hesitation.”

Can McLaren get back to winning races regularly?

The last time McLaren won more than one race in an F1 season was 2012, since then it has earned only two victories: the 2021 Italian Grand Prix with Daniel Ricciardo and the 2024 Miami Grand Prix with Norris.

It suffered a nine-year wait between Jenson Button’s victory in Brazil 2012 and Ricciardo’s win at Italy, one of the longest for a team in F1 history.

READ MORE: Everything you need to know about McLaren F1 Team from team principal to engine

It is an astonishing rise for the team considering it suffered the worst start to an F1 season in its history in 2023, finishing three races back-to-back without scoring points.

Now it has the potential to win more races in the remaining 12 on the calendar, with both Piastri and Norris poised to exploit their newfound car potential.

Collins has previously noted Red Bull’s ‘consistency’ in the pit stops is giving them the edge over McLaren, as they have fallen short of being one of the best in the field since their world record in Qatar last season.