Mercedes driver George Russell says there’s no reason why McLaren can’t replicate its Silverstone podium performance level for the rest of the Formula One season.
McLaren’s recent upgrade has produced a huge step forward, with Lando Norris fourth in Austria and then second at his home British Grand Prix.
Teammate Oscar Piastri, who did not run the upgrade until Silverstone, finished fourth, narrowly missing a podium because of a late safety car.
McLaren’s upgrade has similarities to the class-leading Red Bull design which has so far won the reigning champions all 10 races this year.
Mercedes has had an up and down season, which included a change in design concept after a disappointing opener in Bahrain, and Russell believes McLaren has joined them in the fight behind Red Bull.
“I see no reason why they shouldn’t be up there now,” Russell said.
“We’ve come from Red Bull Ring, which is a very different circuit to Silverstone. And they were a small step ahead of us on both occasions.
“So I don’t know how they’re found this much performance. It’s been quite surprising. We don’t tend to focus too much on our competitors. We just need to keep focusing on ourselves.
“Yes, it gives us inspiration that it can be possible, but we need to try and turn it up and we need to find more performance and quick.”
Norris has suggested otherwise, with McLaren still wary of its weaknesses on certain circuits, specifically those with low-speed corners like the Hungaroring, which hosts the Hungarian Grand Prix on July 23.
The Englishman has urged McLaren to keeps its expectations in check despite two strong results.
“We do have a poor car — and I say poor, I would say pretty terrible in the slow-speed corners, extremely difficult to drive,” Norris said after the Silverstone race.
“I feel if we’re getting excited and I accept that, but we’re going to go to a couple of tracks coming up where I’m sure people are going to be saying ‘what have you done now? Like, how has it got so bad all of a sudden?’
“So, we’ve improved a lot of things: tyre degradation, there’s always little things you try and do with tyre cooling and blah, blah, blah, but nothing big from that side.
“It’s just this track’s allowed us to look after the tyres nicely, keep them in a good condition. Simple as that.
“So a lot of it is track-specific. I don’t want to get too excited, but good things have come from the upgrade but there’s still plenty of things which are miles away from, say, competing in certain places with a Mercedes and as a whole package competing even with a Red Bull, so a lot more work to be done from both of those areas.”
Source: www.espn.com