Lewis Hamilton feels McLaren’s new-found performance is due to the fact it now looks “very, very similar” to the Red Bull.
McLaren produced one of the qualifying performances of the season as Lando Norris and team-mate Oscar Piastri secured second and third on the grid for the British Grand Prix behind another pole from Red Bull’s two-time F1 champion Max Verstappen.
For a few moments McLaren fans – and many British fans around Silverstone – were poised to celebrate a pole position from Norris until Verstappen ousted the 23-year-old by almost a quarter of a second.
When Piastri then jumped up the order to third, it sparked wild celebrations inside McLaren, albeit with feet on the ground ahead of Sunday’s race at Silverstone.
Hamilton, who won the first of his seven world titles with McLaren in 2008, was naturally delighted to see his former team finally produce a strong result, although conceded he was “not surprised” by the achievement.
“I’m really happy for them,” said Hamilton. “They’ve had such a bad run for so long, so to be back up there, it’s really, really great to see.
“But if you look at the car, it makes sense.”
Asked by Speedcafe to clarify the meaning of his remark regarding the upgraded MCL60, Hamilton added: “If you put it alongside a Red Bull, it looks very, very similar down the side, and it’s working.”
Norris headed into the weekend sporting the second round of a trio of successive updates, with the first delivered in Austria last weekend where he qualified and finished fourth.
As for Piastri, although only possessing the initial development parts seen at the Red Bull Ring, the Australian finished just 0.131s behind Norris with his lap at the death.
As for Hamilton, he starts seventh, with the Ferrari duo of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz also ahead of him, along with team-mate George Russell.
In witnessing how Mercedes has been leapfrogged in the development race by both Ferrari and now McLaren in recent races the 38-year-old declared it “a wake-up call” for his team.
“Others are overtaking us and we need to do more,” said Hamilton, who feels McLaren will not be a pushover during the race.
He added: “They had the edge on us in the last race so I anticipate tomorrow it will be the same.”
As to the possibility of claiming a podium on home soil, he said: “Of course, I’ll try to be optimistic and we’ll do our best, but realistically, I’m not sure. We will find out.
“It will be difficult to get past the two Ferraris and now we have the two McLarens there. It’s going to be a tough race.
“While it’s always a great feeling to be here for the British Grand Prix, you always hope you have a great performance for the British fans.
“So naturally it’s a bit disappointing we couldn’t do more, but hopefully tomorrow we can give them a good race.”
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