Mercedes looks at McLaren upgrades: 'Step of that size unusual'

Mercedes is once again not having the season it hoped for in 2023. The German constructor occasionally gets on the podium, but that's about it. James Allison says that Mercedes will still come up with a number of upgrades this season and indicates that his team will look closely at McLaren's upgrades, which provided a lot of speed.

Allison announces more upgrades for W14

Mercedes is not going to focus entirely on 2024 just yet, despite disappointing results in 2023. "There are absolutely improvements that we would like to
make on our current car that we know will also carry into next year. The feeling is that you are investing in both seasons with
those upgrades. For us yes, you will see the upgrades coming for a little while longer. I suspect for the others too," Allison said in the Mercedes Debrief.

McLaren makes 'unusual' move

The McLaren team managed to make a huge step at Silverstone. At the start of the season, the British team had perhaps the slowest car in the field, but in Britain McLaren was the second team behind Red Bull Racing. Lando Norris scored the first podium for McLaren in 2023 at Silverstone. Allison says Mercedes will look closely at the McLaren upgrades.

"The interesting and unusual thing about the McLaren upgrade is that its lap time effect is quite strong. It's unusual to have a step of that size of relative competitiveness in the middle of a season and chapeau to them. They've done a good piece of work there, but that also makes it interesting for us because we have the before and after shots and we know the lap time effect was big. So it’s well worth us paying more attention than we normally might to another competitor team's upgrade because in this case, we know that whatever changed has made a meaningful difference to their lap time. It’s quite useful for us to know what that was and see whether it can play into our own thoughts of developing our own car."