This weekend, McLaren F1 Team will look to return to their stellar form at the team’s home race, the British Grand Prix, after a less than ideal Hungarian Grand Prix.
Only Carlos Sainz Jr. finished in the points in Hungary as he came home in ninth place, while Lando Norris finished thirteenth, but the team still sits third in the constructor’s championship with 41 points, one point ahead of fourth place BWT Racing Point Formula 1 Team.
Coming out of that first tripleheader, technical director James Key is pleased that everything is on course with the car, and new developments are on the way for the Woking outfit.
“We have come away from the first triple-header recognising similar strengths and weaknesses in the car from those we saw back at testing in Barcelona,” Key said in a press release.
“This is good because it allows us to keep our priorities for development consistent with what we had previously planned.
“The British Grand Prix will see a continued evolution of the MCL35 with some developments that will be tested over the coming race weekend.
“We’ve got a unique challenge in balancing upgrades for this year while ensuring our 2021 car is moving ahead in parallel, as the only team to be changing engine partners between 2020 and 2021, our design work and planning for next year is more critical than for others.
“Looking ahead to the second grand prix at Silverstone and to Spain, we’ll have further test items to add to the car to provide new insight into potential development opportunities for the future.
“It’s quite an intensive period at the moment and there has been some great work, by the design and production teams in particular, to push all these items through in a relatively short space of time after coming back from the shutdown and furlough periods.”
Key also mentioned that Silverstone presents a new challenge compared to the Red Bull Ring and Hungaroring, and is excited to see how the MCL35 will perform.
“Silverstone will be the first high-speed circuit this season and offers a mix of different corner types that give will another useful data point for our car,” he said.
“It is a fantastic circuit and the flowing nature of the high-speed corners, combined with long, technical low-speed turns and the need for good efficiency will be a new challenge compared to Austria and Hungary.”
Last season, McLaren finished with Sainz sixth and Norris eleventh, and with a more competitive car this year, the team will look to deliver a double points finish.
