“Toto and Lewis Were […] Looking at Our Cars”: McLaren Mastermind Laughs Off Mercedes’ Attempts to Copy the MCL60

Remember the Bahrain GP? The two Red Bulls and Fernando Alonso finished on the podium. During the post-race conference, Sergio Perez took a dig at Aston Martin by advising that there were three Red Bulls on the podium. The AMR23 did seem to have taken inspiration from the RB18. A few months later, we saw the Spec B MCL60. Surprise, surprise, it was also heavily inspired by the Red Bull. Despite all this, a McLaren mastermind has now come out to expose Lewis Hamilton and Co.’s attempt to copy them. 

At the start of the season, Aston Martin was the second-fastest car on the grid. Many were confused as to how a Mercedes customer team is actually faster than the works team. Coming toward the end of the season, another customer team of the Silver Arrows, i.e., McLaren seemed to be the fastest car with a Mercedes engine. After Mark Norris’ revelation, it seems as if Mercedes themselves were confused about their concept and needed inspiration.

Mercedes’ 2023 campaign was underwhelming compared to the expectations. The Zeropod concept carried over from last year was scrapped after the first couple of races. A new concept was brought to the Monaco GP. Still, Mercedes didn’t seem to have gotten the hang of things and was always behind in development. McLaren on the other hand started as the slowest car on the grid and coming toward the end of the season was arguably the 2nd fastest one. 

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McLaren’s Director of Operations, Mark Norris, advised on the Papaya Team’s development. He said, “You look at the stats of the development against any other team and McLaren is head and shoulders over their development.” He then revealed how even Hamilton and Toto Wolff came to have a sneak peek at their car. Norris added, “It’s been really interesting. If we look at some of the races, recently, in Brazil, Toto and Lewis were standing at the front of the garage, looking at our cars.

“We’ve had other teams that have come down the pitlane, looking at our cars. So they obviously see that we’ve got something right. Puts a smile on your face when you see these people, [who] for a few years have ignored us, and now all of a sudden realize that we are serious contenders.” 

While Mercedes weren’t able to challenge Red Bull during the 2023 season, the signs for 2024 are bright. 

James Allison breaks the silence on the progress made by Mercedes with the W15

Christian Horner recently suggested that the RB20 will be more of an evolution of the RB19. On the other hand, Toto Wolff took the complete opposite path and advised how the W15 would be a completely new beast built from the ground up. And be honest, if they need to catch the Red Bulls, they’ll need something special out of the box. Nonetheless, James Allison has given some hope to the Mercedes fans. 

James Allison appeared on the Performance People podcast recently and said, “We have quite a lot of strength in depth here and we’ve made quite a lot of progress with next year’s car. Whether it proves sufficient or not, only time will tell, but that’s what I’m hoping for us and I know that all my colleagues and team-mates around me will be hoping for the same.”

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