Lando Norris
McLaren
Mercedes
Red Bull
Ferrari
Williams
Racing Bulls
Aston Martin
Haas
Alpine
F1 world champions McLaren have been outclassed by Mercedes at the start of the new regulations.
After six races, McLaren sit third in the standings, 126 points behind their engine suppliers. Lando Norris’ Sprint win in Miami is the only interruption to the Silver Arrows’ dominance.
Both teams, particularly McLaren, have suffered from unreliability in the early part of the year, but it’s clear that the Brackley squad are operating on another level across the board.
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McLaren explored Audi partnership but deal didn’t progress
Earlier in the season, there was tension between McLaren and Mercedes over a perceived lack of support. This now appears to have cooled.
But McLaren admit that their customer status has held them back following the rule changes last winter. They are the only team in the top four who don’t build their own engines.
“It’s because you have less opportunities to integrate, to stay on the same timeline when it comes to addressing reliability problems or exploitation of the power unit from a performance point of view,” team principal Andrea Stella explained to The Race.
“You have some experiments on the chassis side that you can add to a long run of the power unit when you are a works team.”
Should McLaren start building their own engines like Red Bull?
According to the same publication, McLaren actually considered splitting with Mercedes when their contract came up for renewal. One possibility was becoming an Audi works team – similar to the arrangement Aston Martin have with Honda.
However, Audi wanted to ‘own the team’, and McLaren weren’t prepared to give up that level of control. The German manufacturer ended up acquiring Sauber instead.
McLaren haven’t ruled out setting up their own powertrains division, like Red Bull, but say their plan A is to continue with Mercedes. The team announced in 2023 that the partnership would continue in 2030.
It was reported earlier this year that some Mercedes figures wanted to ‘get rid’ of McLaren as a customer after Zak Brown’s squad won back-to-back constructors’ championships, but the immediate threat has now receded.
Audi have made a respectable start as a new manufacturer, but McLaren’s path back to the top is likely to be far shorter with a Mercedes power unit in the back.
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