McLaren ‘surprised’ as Mercedes finds way to revive banned F1 engine trick

Andrea Stella admits McLaren has been left "surprised" that Formula 1 engine supplier Mercedes has found a way to revive a trick that had been banned. 

Earlier in the season the Italian team principal made it clear that McLaren lagged behind the works outfit in terms of getting the best out of the new power unit. 

In recent weeks the team has appeared to be more confident that it was gaining an understanding.

However at Silverstone doubts re-emerged, especially after GPS traces showed that the Mercedes drivers were lifting off at the end of the lap in order to gain an advantage by avoiding a ramp down of power.

In addition there is some frustration around McLaren not being able to use the latest spec power unit, which was taken by other teams this weekend.

Stella stressed that PU exploitation was just one of several factors that combined to leave Lando Norris as fastest McLaren driver in P6 and almost 0.8s slower than pole man Kimi Antonelli in Silverstone qualifying, with the circuit also highlighting aero efficiency.

“I think this is a circuit in which we have a little bit less grip overall than we have had, for instance, in Austria,” Stella told media including Crash.net. “The car slides a lot. Today, it was not only windy, but it was gusty, and when you have these conditions I think there's a premium for the cars that have the best behaviour in the corners, the best grip in the corners. 

“So I'm not surprised in a way that Ferrari and Mercedes, they opened up the gap to Red Bull and McLaren today, where the grip conditions were more difficult.” 

He continued: “Also, it's a circuit where there's an important starvation from an energy point of view, and power unit exploitation and power unit performance is particularly important, and I have to say, and I said that other times, that we still seem to have a little bit of a deficit in extracting the most from the HPP power unit.

“To this today we need to add the fact that the conditions were difficult, and if anything in these conditions we seem to be having even more of a gap in the corners plus the exploitation of the power unit on which we seem to be having a bit of a deficit. 

“And if you look at the GPS overlays, it becomes apparent that somehow we need to keep our conversation open with HPP, because there's some performance we seem to be leaving behind.”

Stella made it clear that the lifting-off trick had caught the attention of McLaren.

“It kind of surprised us a little bit, because it's not something that we discussed and nor I'm sure, at all, that it is available to us, because it requires probably some further elements, let's say, to use the power unit. 

“So, like I've said before, there's definitely conversations ongoing with HPP at technical level to make sure that we use what is available in this power unit, which is brilliant, a really piece of great technology. 

“There is a lot of performance, which is also in the details of the exploitation, and we are now waiting to see if we can upgrade our specification. 

“And if this helps exploitation somehow… It should be just a reliability upgrade, so I'm not sure that the case, but definitely there's some other factors that we need to keep discussing with HPP, because when we look at the performance in the straights, even taking into account the fact that they may have less drag, there's still some question marks.”

Stella hopes that McLaren will have the latest spec PU for the next race at Spa.

“We discussed with HPP as to the reason why we are not receiving this specification yet. We understand the reasoning. We trust HPP. We had such a great collaboration in previous years. 

“They've been totally instrumental in the plan and becoming World Champion twice. So this is not changing the foundation of the relationship. The conversation is ongoing. They are running fast, like we are running fast to try and develop our car. 

“They are running fast with four teams to supply, so there's some conditions whereby it was not possible to supply the power unit to the client. Hopefully, this is going to happen at the next event.”

Despite the frustrations of qualifying Stella acknowledged that an unexpected P3 for Norris in the sprint was a positive, although he stressed that the main event is still likely to be tough for the team.

“The result of the sprint was definitely encouraging,” he said. “After the performance we had in the sprint qualifying, and even in practice, I think that was a little bit of an over-delivery. 

“This was also thanks to the fact that the car had competitive starts. I think our drivers, together with the engineers, they did a good job in exploiting the power unit. You have seen how much this affects the positioning at the start of the race. 

“I think Lando, once he was in third, did a very, very good job maximising everything. No issues at all. He only lost some time with Perez in corner nine, and I think it's also important that when you get in a rhythm whereby you can use the deployment, the power unit, not to fight, but to have the fastest lap time, because you are not in a fight anymore, then you gain some pace, and Lando did a good job, even from this point of view. 

“So a bit of an over-delivery, I think. I would have never expected to finish ahead of Mercedes like we did.”

Regarding the GP he said: “I think for tomorrow will be a bit more difficult, so we remain realistic. Hopefully, tomorrow the wind will be less gusty. We've seen today that we do suffer in these conditions, but at the same time I think in qualifying we rank fourth best, but in the race we seem to be having a little bit possibly tyre degradation advantage of Red Bull.

“And I think also Red Bull seem to be doing a good job with the power unit in qualifying, while we see more competitive in the race. So I think beating Red Bull is possible, podium difficult.”