Formula One is one sport that never stands still due to it being a data driven and technological sport. McLaren were the fastest car for the majority of the season thus far with all the other teams trying to make slight improvements through various upgrades they developed between races.
Normally at this time of the year we see very few upgrades due to the lateness of the season with the budget and focus being spent on next seasons car. McLaren have already announced there will be no more upgrades this season leaving the drivers to battle out with what they have. The Constructors Championship is already in the bag so their prime focus is now on 2026.
The recent upgrades carried out by the other teams has definitely seen an upward performance in the various team cars. This is the natural progression over the course of the season as fractions of seconds are found through data. The more laps the cars run the more data is collected and thus performances can be improved. McLaren having lost 0.24s per lap is quite incredible and will not necessarily play out that way as each track lay out is different due to cornering and how much down force is required versus straight line speed. The important part to read into this data is that Red Bull have the fastest car on track with the fastest driver and with the wat the data is going McLaren could be the 4th fastest car on track within the next week or so.
When we look at the data being released by Formula One we van see Red Bull is now the team with the fastest car on track followed by Mercedes and then McLaren. Not that long ago McLaren had an 0.08s per lap advantage and now find themselves trailing Red Bull by 0.24s per lap. That is a big advantage swing created by the various upgrades without throwing in the driving skills of Max Verstappen
The problem McLaren now have is that both their drivers are vulnerable and have 3 teams attacking their dominance. There are 5 races left in the season calendar and on current form Verstappen will take the Drivers Championship. Verstappen has come from nowhere after Piastri and Norris had substantial leads. 40 and 26 points is nothing to over come if you are winning the races and then you throw Russel, LeClerc and Hamilton in the mix that can steal points from the McLaren drivers.
We saw the amateurish approach last year by McLaren with the policy of letting their drivers race and not protecting one driver. This season if they had made the call that Piastri was the driver in line to win the drivers championship which should have happened then Lando Norris should have been told to play the team role. This not happening and Norris hoping to over take his team mate has now left them both in no mans land open to attack and the chances are they will end up with nothing.
Piastri has been screwed over and this can be seen with Norris's race engineer
with the coded messages about how to overtake Piastri. It is refreshing to see teams go to these tactics, but the reason why it is refreshing is not necessarily great news as other teams stick to one driver by making that call. If I was abetting man which I am not I would say Verstappen will win the Drivers Championship this year.