Lando Norris has told his McLaren team that, despite its recent upgrades, the B McLaren car still has a lot of work to be done to reach Red Bull’s level.
Many noted that McLaren’s upgrades have made the car look similar to Red Bull’s from the side.
Red Bull principal Christian Horner admitted the resemblance was there to see on the British GP grid.
Horner remarked: “That’s only flattering, right?”
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Both Norris and his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri performed strongly at Silverstone last Sunday, finishing second and fourth respectively.
This led Mercedes technical boss, James Allison, to admit he would have to take a second look at the B McLaren for inspiration.
Allison commented: “The interesting and unusual thing about the McLaren upgrade is that the effect on laptime is really strong.
“It’s quite unusual to have a step of that size midway through the season.”
Allison said he would be paying “more attention than usual” to McLaren’s upgrades in the days to follow.
However, Norris was not satisfied with the renovations carried out by McLaren, despite finishing directly behind Max Verstappen at the British GP.
He was on pace with the Dutchman throughout the weekend.
However, he warned that: “We have a poor car and I would say even pretty terrible in the slow-speed corners. Extremely difficult to drive.
“So we’re going to go to a couple of tracks coming up where people will be saying ‘What have you done now? How has it got so bad all of a sudden?’
“I think it’s definitely clear that we made some improvements, but high speed is one of our strengths.
“So if I’m going to be negative, our weaknesses are still the same and they’re quite weak.”
The British racer said it would take more than added downforce to match the quality of Red Bull’s RB19.
READ: Lando Norris says he’s open to leaving McLaren after Red Bull meeting
McLaren team boss Andrea Stella said that more upgrades are already in the pipeline and will be ready as soon as the Hungary GP later this month.
Stella said: “It is possible because we have unlocked some performance in the car.”
“We continue to see some very effective aerodynamic development as we progress through the iteration.”