Ferrari and McLaren fight over millions for third place in championship

This season there doesn't only seem to be an exciting duel being fought out at the front. A fierce battle for third place is also unfolding between McLaren and Ferrari this season. The Italian carmaker fell back in 2020 but has now picked up where it left off and is even ahead of the British team, who are trying to maintain their current form.

In an analysis by Auto, Motor und Sport, the two teams are put side by side as they battle to hold on to that third spot. After six races it is Ferrari who occupies third place with a minimal difference. It is also notable that both teams have also reduced the gap to the top teams. "At some tracks, it's even so close together that the leaders can't have a bad weekend. Because of that, a team like Ferrari can suddenly be on pole."

Ferrari and McLaren don't race each other much

This also happened twice, in Monaco and Baku. In the Principality, however, Charles Leclerc had to watch as a broken car prevented him from participating in the Grand Prix, which Max Verstappen eventually won. AMuS noticed that McLaren had the upper hand for the first three races, including a podium for Lando Norris in Imola, after which Ferrari started to run a lot better. In Monaco, both teams were on the podium. They keep a close eye on each other in terms of developments and it shows in the strengths of both cars.

"Ferrari's car feels at home in the slow corners and is also fast in other types of corners. McLaren has a car that goes well on the straights, is strong on the brakes and loves fast corners". This is mainly due to the new Mercedes engine that McLaren has been running since this year. So Ferrari goes well on circuits with a lot of corners and can also handle fast corners, something that also goes well at McLaren. In Paul-Ricard however, McLaren will be favourite for P3, with their Mercedes engine being faster than the Ferrari powerplant.