McLaren on ban qualifying mode: "Mercedes will continue to be the benchmark"

The McLaren team still drives the Renault engines, but from 2021 the Woking race stable will be a Mercedes customer team. With this, McLaren hopes to definitively close the gap to the top teams.

"I think whatever the impact of the rule change: With the capacities and capabilities of Mercedes, they will continue to be the benchmark for the modern hybrid era", Zak Brown is quoted by the German Motorsport-Total.com.

The CEO of McLaren is also not afraid that his race stable will have a less powerful engine than the factory voice of Mercedes itself. "As a customer, the most important thing for us is that we get the same modes - no matter what the rules are. I have every confidence in Renault and Mercedes that they treat their customers the same as the works teams."