In the Sprint Qualifying session at the 2025 Belgian Grand Prix, Oscar Piastri delivered a commanding demonstration of McLaren’s superiority. The McLaren MCL39 introduced a new floor concept at Spa-Francorchamps, which had been briefly tested at Silverstone, allowing the team to run a lower downforce rear wing without significantly compromising speed even through the two fastest sections of the circuit.
Rather than seeing rivals close the performance gap midway through the season, it feels like McLaren is actually expanding its technical advantage over the competition. This is an anomaly created by regulations that have reached the end of their development cycle, which started in 2024.
Every time McLaren introduces an upgrade, the team makes a significant leap forward that distances it from opponents unable to match the MCL39’s pace. During Sprint Qualifying at Spa, Oscar Piastri shattered the long-standing track record, which had remained unbroken since 2020. This wasn’t a minor improvement; it was a huge leap, improving the record by over 1.1 seconds—an enormous margin in Formula 1 terms. The gaps Piastri inflicted on his rivals speak volumes: 0.477 seconds ahead of Max Verstappen’s Red Bull and 0.768 seconds faster than Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari.
McLaren debuted the updated floor that made a fleeting appearance at Silverstone. Contrary to rumors that the floor had been rejected in the British Grand Prix, it is part of Woking’s deliberate strategy to preview upgrades at one event and implement them fully at the next, relying on detailed analysis of track data combined with simulation results. This approach ensures certainty about performance gains before full deployment.
The Friday qualifying session highlighted McLaren’s dominance clearly: the new floor generates roughly 60% of the car’s total downforce, enabling Oscar Piastri to dominate the second sector—the most technical and demanding section of Spa-Francorchamps—by over four-tenths of a second compared to Max Verstappen.
The MCL39 has taken over the role once held by the Red Bull RB19, which dominated the 2023 season. The RB19 owed its superiority to a strong vertical load that consistently kept Max Verstappen’s tires in the optimal operating window. After the departure of Adrian Newey, the Milton Keynes team shifted its aerodynamic philosophy, now focusing more on overall efficiency and achieving higher top speeds than their rivals.
At the Kemmel Straight, Verstappen reached 345.3 km/h, while Piastri clocked 341.4 km/h. However, those 3.9 km/h of extra speed for the Red Bull are unlikely to make a meaningful difference in overtaking the McLaren on this track. Why? Because in the fast first sector, Piastri only lost 0.095 seconds to Verstappen, and in the third sector—another high-speed section—the Australian actually beat the Dutchman, albeit by a small margin.
This advantage is possible because McLaren chose to reduce rear wing downforce even further, the only declared technical upgrade for the Belgian GP. Under the guidance of aerodynamic chief Peter Prodromou, the team improved efficiency while maintaining a similar drag level. The British aerodynamicist of Cypriot origin is known for generating innovative ideas rapidly, while technical director Rob Marshall’s role is to select only the concepts that truly merit integration into the car, driving a relentless development process that leaves competitors struggling to keep pace.
At this stage of the season, teams still bringing updates are likely less focused on catching the McLaren “rockets” and more interested in gathering valuable data for the 2026 car. The carry-over—the transfer of knowledge and technology from ground-effect cars—will probably be greater than previously anticipated.
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