Hamilton & Verstappen Hold Key Advantage Over Norris

The race for the championship is heating up between Red Bull Racing, Ferrari, McLaren, and Mercedes.

McLaren has narrowed the gap to Ferrari to just seven points, while Mercedes is now 74 points behind McLaren. On the Sky Sports F1 podcast, Bernie Collins pointed out McLaren’s biggest weakness compared to other top teams.

McLaren’s Struggle with Team Dynamics

Unlike Red Bull and Mercedes, who have won many titles, McLaren hasn’t clinched a Constructors’ Championship since 1998 or a Driver’s Championship since 2008. Collins believes that long-term relationships within teams make a big difference: “Mercedes and Red Bull appear to have the edge in terms of making consistently good decisions as a team… I think it’s just the build of the relationship with Lando Norris is pretty new and there just doesn’t seem to be that trust there,” she said.

This season saw McLaren win their first race since 2021 when Lando Norris took victory at the Miami Grand Prix. Before that, their last win was in 2012. However, Collins doesn’t see this as their main issue: “I don’t really think it’s that Mclaren not having the experience… At the end of the day, it’s as big a difference as the win versus P2,” she explained.

Fans might feel that trust issues are costing McLaren potential wins.

“Lewis is happy to call out the pit wall; they are happy to call out Lewis,” Collins noted about Mercedes. “We’ve heard it so many times where he’s saying I can’t make it and they’re like well you can.” In contrast, she described McLaren’s approach with Norris as too polite: “It’s all you go first; we just can’t have that… It just needs more work,” she concluded.

What do you think? Should McLaren change their approach?