McLaren could take drastic action after Mercedes exploited loophole in F1 engine regulations

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McLaren’s performance at the British GP once again underlined that they are not optimising Mercedes’ class-leading power unit.

In qualifying, Lando Norris was the best part of eight-tenths down on the pole time set by Kimi Antonelli. Clearly, some of this deficit is chassis-related, but McLaren can see a clear shortfall in engine performance too.

McLaren were ‘grumbling’ behind the scenes because Mercedes didn’t provide them with the latest power unit specification, which offered reliability improvements. It was made available to fellow customers Alpine and Williams.

What, in your opinion, has gone wrong for McLaren this year? 📉

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McLaren consider building their own F1 engine after latest Mercedes decision

Mercedes told McLaren that their current engines were still too fresh to justify a change. According to The Telegraph, the reigning world champions were not satisfied with this explanation, even if they took a diplomatic tone in public.

While the latest spec didn’t deliver more performance on its own, a more reliable engine could theoretically be run more aggressively on track.

Appendix four of the F1 technical regulations deals with the treatment of customer teams. It states that all power units in the pool must be ‘identical’ both in software and hardware; all teams should be able to operate them the same way and achieve the same results.

Should McLaren start building their own engines like Red Bull?

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Clearly, McLaren’s power unit at Silverstone was not ‘identical’ to what Mercedes were running, but the Silver Arrows found a loophole related to component allocation. Each driver is limited to four internal combustion engines per season.

McLaren didn’t seem to think it was necessary to wait and, given the wording of the regulations, justifiably feel hard done by. While they won back-to-back titles with Mercedes power in 2024 and 2025, they are now seeing the drawbacks of being a customer.

• READ MORE: Key voices at Mercedes want to ‘get rid’ of world champions McLaren as an engine customer

It’s no surprise, then, that ‘rumours’ sprang up in the Silverstone paddock suggesting that McLaren could start building their own power unit in ‘the not-too-distant future’. Their contract with Mercedes runs until at least 2030, which aligns with the end of the current rules cycle.

The FIA are also considering setting up an independent engine supplier to prevent teams like McLaren being put at a disadvantage in the future.

This year, it feels as if Mercedes have made a concerted effort to exploit the full advantage of their works status after the embarrassment of losing to a customer in consecutive seasons.