Mercedes is impressed to have been overtaken by their customer team, McLaren, and will draw inspiration from it

Mercedes, like all the other teams, were greatly surprised by the step forward made by McLaren at Silverstone. As a reminder, the Woking team qualified 2nd and 3rd on the grid and finished 2nd and 4th. A real leap that even allows them to overtake Alpine in the constructors’ championship, benefiting from the double retirement of the French team.

Mercedes, one of the losing teams in McLaren’s step forward, is not worried nevertheless. At least, its technical director is not particularly afraid.

James Allison congratulates McLaren

James Allison praised McLaren for this significant progression, also noting how difficult it is to make such a big step forward during the season, especially after such a poor start. As a reminder, in Bahrain, Oscar Piastri retired and Lando Norris finished 17th. The situation has certainly changed.

« They did a good job. It’s unusual to have such a big step forward in performance during a season, and I congratulate them,” exclaimed the technical director of Mercedes.

However, McLaren’s development could help that of Mercedes

James Allison intends to use what he saw at McLaren to drive the development of Mercedes.

« “It is very useful for us to know the improvements that have helped them and to understand if that can influence our own thoughts on the development of our own car,” he explained.

« We take note of any novelty or unusual element. What is interesting and unusual about McLaren’s update is that the effect on lap time is quite strong. But it also interests us because we have the photos before and after and we know that the effect on lap time is significant,” he then detailed.

James Allison doesn’t really know where Mercedes will be in 2023

Despite all their good intentions, it is not certain that Mercedes will find a solution to play for victory in a fair manner this season. In fact, James Allison does not see clearly what will happen in this second half of the 2023 season. What you will see in this next series of races is a bit of a yo-yo for position in a very tight pack, as upgrades make a difference for a team for a while, until someone else brings another improvement a race or two later to rebalance things, explained the technical director of Mercedes.

The updates on the Mercedes are also not coming anytime soon: « For us, yes, you will see the improvements coming a little later. I think this is also the case for the others » said Allison.

With caution and a hint of unknown, James Alisson declares to be observing every team: McLaren has proven to everyone that each team can take a big step forward. « We keep an eye on all the teams as they improve. We will see where all this will stabilize during the last quarter or the last third of the season », he concluded.

Head to Hungary for Mercedes, where the team will try to secure another podium finish.