The package of new upgrades, McLaren’s management of the power unit, and a somewhat messy Sprint Qualifying session for Mercedes led the Woking-based team to secure the pole position for the Sprint Race in Miami. However, the situation in race conditions could still change significantly, as Sprint results do not always reflect the full competitive order over a complete Grand Prix weekend.
The comparison between McLaren and Mercedes in the Sprint Qualifying session held yesterday at the Miami circuit provided an early example of the new performance areas that teams can exploit to make a difference in modern Formula 1. In the opening rounds of the season, the reigning world champion team had paid the price for limited familiarity with the power unit developed in Brixworth, a know-how gap that has generally favoured the works team. In this context, the idea has spread that being a customer team could represent a disadvantage when facing direct competition against the manufacturer that designs and builds the engine itself.
But over the long term, is that really the case? After the setback in Melbourne, McLaren responded by intensifying internal analysis aimed at optimising power unit usage. This has been a complex and partially new area of work for a team traditionally used to receiving engines from an external supplier. The outcome of yesterday’s qualifying session was also influenced by McLaren’s substantial upgrade package introduced in Miami, developments that Mercedes is only expected to bring to the next round in Montreal. However, there are two additional key factors that helped Lando Norris secure Sprint pole position.
The first, and arguably the most interesting, concerns McLaren’s decision to deploy the power unit differently compared to Mercedes. Data analysis shows that Lando Norris used significantly more electrical energy in the first sector, building a margin of over four tenths over Kimi Antonelli between turns 2 and 4. Norris managed to retain much of that advantage up to turn 11, where Antonelli matched the McLaren number 1 in sector times. Even on the long straight between turns 16 and 17, Lando was around two tenths faster than the Mercedes, although Kimi Antonelli recovered that time in turn 17 before dropping another two tenths in the final section leading to the finish line.
The data clearly highlights a more efficient McLaren in terms of overall energy management across the entire lap, although there remains a question mark that will likely only be answered in today’s Grand Prix qualifying session. When comparing the fastest laps of the two Mercedes cars, Antonelli experienced two noticeable drops in electrical power (linked to battery deployment) in the run-up to turn 11 and again approaching the braking zone for turn 17. This loss of power becomes even more evident when compared with George Russell’s slower but more stable lap, suggesting a total deficit of around two tenths that could have allowed Kimi Antonelli to challenge Norris for pole position.
Looking ahead to today’s qualifying session, Mercedes will investigate the root cause of the issue that affected Antonelli’s lap, but will also likely study McLaren’s energy management strategy in detail. “We will dedicate time to energy management and the overall car setup,” said head of engineering Andrew Shovlin on Friday evening, confirming that not everything within Mercedes’ weekend execution has been fully optimised.
What we saw yesterday opens up an interesting scenario in which a customer team, with strong understanding of its power unit, can potentially extract more performance from the package than the works team itself. This represents the opposite situation compared to the early races of the season, when the greater familiarity of the manufacturer team in designing and producing the power unit made a clear difference. However, as Formula 1 continues to evolve, these dynamics can change quickly, and as Miami has shown, they already are.
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