The four tracks where McLaren could be ‘unbeatable’ for the rest of the F1 season

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McLaren is now the team that everyone needs to beat in Formula 1 with nine races left of the 2024 season.

Lando Norris put on a dominant display when he won by 22.8 seconds from Max Verstappen, which caused alarm bells among Red Bull.

The team knew they faced a challenge from McLaren but the extent of it was not revealed until last weekend, and now Red Bull is having to play catch-up in the final nine races of the season.

Team Helmut Marko believes they made a critical setup error in Zandvoort which hurt their tyre management, but stopped short of saying they had found a solution.

It is anticipated that McLaren will be quickest at most of the upcoming circuits, with Mercedes set to be in the mix as well after they showed strong pace prior to the summer break.

After he latest run of tracks, journalist Michael Schmidt believes there is a trend that could point to where McLaren is set to be the most dominant in the second of the season when speaking on the Formel Schmidt podcast.

The type of tracks where McLaren is strongest

McLaren has only just managed to win by a sub-20 second margin this season, but after Verstappen suffered from chronic understeer in his RB20 it could continue that way at the next few events.

Discussing his pace at the end of the race, Martin Brundle has a theory on why Verstappen was so far behind Norris, suggesting that the Dutchman was holding back on purpose to make sure Red Bull is rushed into finding a solution fast.

Verstappen believes Red Bull is now dealing with a problem that did not exist earlier in the season, meaning they are having to work backwards to solve their issues.

Schmidt expects McLaren to continue to be strong and gave an idea into where they are most likely to show similar pace to Zandvoort in the final nine races of the year.

“McLaren is definitely the car [to beat] on this type of race track. Those are tracks like Barcelona, Silverstone, Hungary and now Zandvoort with these long, medium-fast corners,” said Schmidt.

Four tracks where McLaren could be unbeatable

With the strengths of the MCL38 appearing to be in the high-speed corners, expect there to be four circuits that will suit McLaren the most.

The US GP at the Circuit of the Americas features a mix of long and sweeping corners with fast changes of direction, while the straights at Mexico should also play into the strengths of McLaren.

Brazil also has similar characteristics to Zandvoort, in that it’s a relatively short lap with a lot of twists and undulations.

Qatar also has a lot of long and high-speed corners that the drivers have to deal with, although the climate can make things just as challenging as exhibited last year.