Guenther Steiner Picks Three Reasons Why McLaren Lost to Mercedes Despite Having the Best Car in Spa

Guenther Steiner Picks Three Reasons Why McLaren Lost to Mercedes Despite Having the Best Car in Spa

Despite the uptick in performance that McLaren have unlocked on the MCL38 this season, the Woking-based team have not managed to achieve the results that would have been expected of them. On the most recent episode of The Red Flags Podcast, Guenther Steiner pointed out how McLaren also lost out on an opportunity to win the recently concluded Belgian Grand Prix as he believes they had the fastest car.

Steiner gave three reasons for why he believes McLaren failed to beat Mercedes at Spa. He said, “There were just a few things that went wrong. Lando [Norris] messed up the start again. The real thing was that the overtaking was very difficult. I think the Mercedes strategy was better.”

Steiner then explained that because the field is so closely bunched together at the front of the grid, overtaking was almost impossible. To overtake at Spa, a driver needs at least a 0.5-second per lap advantage. But because the performance deltas were so minute, very few overtakes were witnessed over the course of the 44-lap race at Spa.

McLaren is confident of fighting Red Bull for the Constructors’ title

As the 2024 F1 season has progressed, McLaren have emerged as the closest rivals to reigning champions Red Bull. After 14 races, Red Bull currently have a 42-point advantage over McLaren, which Zak Brown believes his team can cover to win the Constructors’ title this year.

The McLaren CEO also claimed in a recent interview that Lando Norris may have a chance of fighting for the Drivers’ Championship as well. However, for Norris to beat championship leader Max Verstappen, he will have to cover a whopping 77-point deficit with just 10 races remaining in the season.

That being said, the Belgian GP exposed certain limitations of McLaren. The biggest one of them was their habit of dropping points despite having a quick car.

With Norris again getting a poor start at Spa, he only managed a P5 finish. If this trend continues, Red Bull and Verstappen could run away with the titles this season.

Post Edited By: Vidit Dhawan
Belgian GP McLaren Mercedes

About the author

Anirban Aly Mandal

Anirban Aly Mandal is an F1 writer at The SportsRush, with over 1000 articles under his belt, Anirban's love for F1 started when he discovered a copy of F1 2014 on his computer. With over half a decade's worth of time spent religiously following the sport, he’s dived deep into the world of motorsports. However, Anirban's expertise goes beyond just writing - he has also written several academic papers focused on the domain of motorsports and the law. His passion for the sport is so immense that he aspires to work as a legal advisor in the most prestigious racing series in the world someday. When it comes to Formula 1, Anirban finds great pleasure in re-watching classic races and idolizes the likes of Ayrton Senna, Nigel Mansell, and Sebastian Vettel. His top picks include Brazil '91, Silverstone '92, and Germany '19. Outside of the sport, Anirban is an avid sim racer, often found racing on titles like Assetto Corsa, F1 22, and Automobilista. Apart from his interests in gaming, Anirban has a keen interest in philosophy, literature and music.

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