Sky Sport’s Formula 1 pitlane reporter Ted Kravitz has tipped McLaren to surprise in 2021 after an impressive by ‘shy’ testing performance in Bahrain.
McLaren was ‘best of the rest’ last year as it claimed third place in the Constructors’ Championship behind Red Bull and Mercedes. It did that with a Renault power unit many suspect was down on power compared to the Mercedes PU.
McLaren is now running that Mercedes PU this year and spent much of the winter integrating the new engine into its MCL35M – which it seems to have done effortlessly after a trouble-free three days of testing.
Alongside that performance boost, the team has stolen a march on its rivals with a unique diffuser design. Although McLaren itself has played down the design, it caught the attention of rivals teams up and down the pitlane.
Kravitz suspects the team, which he described as “looking optimal”, are in a good position ahead of the new season, even going as far as to suggest they may be ahead of Mercedes after hiding their pace.
“It was a weird test, actually,” Kravitz told the In The Fast Lane podcast. “McLaren had a very good day one in the dusty conditions and then they had a good day two. Then they all sort of went coy and thought ‘Oh my goodness, better not show everything’.
“It’s like McLaren scared, spooked themselves into not giving anything away and stopped setting quick times to put everybody off the scent. But they were very happy towards the end of it.
“And that wasn’t just because they thought ‘Oh look, we’ve stolen a march on everybody with this diffuser’, it’s just because everything, globally as they might say at McLaren, is looking optimal.
“There was even some [thinking] that they may actually be quicker than the factory Mercedes team themselves. Some people have got McLaren as second behind Red Bull.”
Kravitz believes the combination of the Mercedes PU and the new aerodynamic rules, might favour McLaren this year.
“Not only have McLaren managed to put a huge new bargeboard arrangement in, which looks absolutely tip-top and cutting edge, but they have done this thing on the diffuser which nobody else has thought about.
“That’s given them a tenth or two and given them some rear downforce in a season where downforce has been cut back on and it’s really worked for them.
“So it’s two things really: it’s aero stuff, which is free and not part of the token system, and the Mercedes engine.”
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