McLaren ready for the big F1 triumph in Silverstone?

McLaren impressed across the board on Friday at the Formula 1 Silverstone practice session: P1 for Lando Norris and P3 for Oscar Piastri in the first free practice session, crowned by a McLaren double lead in the second free practice session. Norris lapped the Silverstone Circuit with a best time of the day of 1:26:549, which is already two tenths faster than Max Verstappen’s pole lap from last year. This means that the papaya oranges are the top favorites at their home race. Who or what can stop them?

Confidence at McLaren: We have made good progress

For Norris, the most important thing is the development over the course of Friday. The Briton didn’t feel so comfortable in the morning, which is why he doesn’t see the start to the British weekend as his cleanest. “Over the course of the sessions, however, we made some improvements that helped me find a good rhythm. That’s very important on a track like this, which is twisty and has a lot of high-speed areas. We’ve made some good progress,” Norris describes the upward trend.

His teammate Piastri also doesn’t want to attach too much importance to Friday’s success for the entire weekend. He is just as cautious and sees room for improvement: “We had a good session. The car felt pretty good. All in all, it was a decent day for the team, especially in FP2. I just need to improve a few things on my side and we need to sort out a few things overnight. But I think it was a solid first day at Silverstone.”

Rain as a spoilsport? McLaren team prepares for wet conditions

While they are in a reasonable position for Saturday, said Piastri, one factor could throw things into disarray: how will the British weather gods play along? More rain is expected for the rest of the weekend. With Saturday expected to be very wet, this could change things, said the Australian. “Today’s pace in dry conditions will not necessarily be important for the rest of the weekend.”

“To be honest, I would prefer it if it were dry. Because we seem to be in a good position and I wouldn’t want to stray too far from that,” said the best driver in training at Silverstone, expressing his wish for the weather. He fears that it could be more difficult for McLaren if wind and rain are added to the mix.

In this regard, team leader Andrea Stella: “The conditions were very special today, so we are not looking too much at the lap times themselves. We are now concentrating on tomorrow, when we have to be prepared for all weather conditions.” However, everyone else has to deal with the weather as well. So the team from Woking can only hope that the other F1 teams will find it just as difficult to cope with the weather.

In FP2, the gaps were larger: Piastri was three tenths behind Norris and Verstappen, who finished in 7th place, was another three and a half tenths behind. However, there is something to be said for this point too: the Red Bull driver set his time much earlier than the two McLaren drivers. This means that he had completely different track conditions. Norris drove his qualifying simulation at a comparatively late point, about a quarter of an hour after Verstappen, and thus had the better conditions. This can be countered by the fact that Sergio Perez started the qualifying runs even later and still finished behind the two McLarens.