Red Bull may have enjoyed an almighty one-second per lap advantage in Valencia just under a fortnight ago, but McLaren doesn’t expect that to be the same case this weekend at the British Grand Prix.
Sporting director Sam Michael believes the nature of the Valencia circuit suited the RB8 considerably more so than McLaren’s MP4-27 which, he believes will be the opposite at Silverstone.
“It [Red Bull’s advantage] probably has got some circuit-specific nature to it,” he said during a Vodafone McLaren Mercedes phone-in on Wednesday.
“Valencia hasn’t been a track that we have traditionally been very good at and if you look forward to Silverstone this weekend, it definitely fits more in line with where the McLaren car strengths are.”
Michael doesn’t however deny that Red Bull took a step forward in terms of performance with their latest upgrade which channels air from the floor to the diffuser, effectively creating a blown-diffuser effect.
“They did take a step forward, but I don’t think it’s as big as the pace that Sebastian showed in that first stint and we will be looking to correct that at Silverstone.
“If we look back to Barcelona, we were almost six tenths in front of them on the grid before we took the penalty, so looking at the type of track that Silverstone is, we’re hoping for a repeat of that.”
