Zak Brown reveals why McLaren cannot use latest Mercedes engine upgrade

Following the FIA’s release of its assessment of the ADUO [Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities] update, Mercedes were granted two percent ADUO to try and extract more performance from its power unit. The updated package has since made its debut with several customer teams, with Williams and Alpine among those believed to have taken new power units.

However, McLaren remain without the latest specification. Quizzed on the situation during his media interactions at the British Grand Prix, Brown admitted McLaren would have liked to be running the upgrade, while also explaining why the team is currently unable to take it.

“Yeah, of course we’d like to have it. Any time you have performance that you know is coming but you don’t have it on your car yet, you want to get it as quickly as possible. But I wouldn’t say it’s a frustration. It just is what it is and we just keep our head down and keep pushing hard and it’ll be in the back in not too long,” Brown detailed to the media.

Pressed further on why McLaren cannot currently adopt the updated Mercedes specification, the McLaren CEO explained that the team still needs to cycle through mileage on its existing power units and must wait for a scheduled change before fitting the upgrade.

Asked when McLaren might finally switch to the updated Mercedes engine, Brown suggested it could arrive as soon as the next round in Belgium.

“You’d want it as quickly as you can, but you need to run the cycles through the engines. Obviously, you can move things in and out, but we’ll have it soon. Hopefully next race,” he concluded.

So far, all Mercedes customer teams, barring McLaren are running the updated engine. Alpine received the upgrade after completing the highest mileage of all Mercedes customer teams by some margin. McLaren’s retirement issues and various reliability setbacks over the season have left them short of the benchmark mileage required for an early switch.

Williams also have the updated power unit, although only in Carlos Sainz’s car, who was forced to change engines due to an issue with his existing unit, while teammate Alex Albon has not yet switched to the new specification due to limited mileage.