McLaren CEO Zak Brown confirmed at Friday's FIA press conference that the team would not be racing with the new Mercedes power unit at the British Grand Prix. McLaren is the only Mercedes customer team not using the new specification at Silverstone, and Brown emphasized that this is because an engine change is not yet necessary.
Other customer teams switched to the new engine.
Mercedes implemented its first reliability upgrade of the season at the Austrian Grand Prix. This step was not an ADUO performance update, but a reliability improvement developed following numerous retirements since the start of the season — the latest being Kimi Antonelli's fall in Barcelona. Alpine drivers Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto switched to completely new components, including a new internal combustion engine and turbocharger, before the single practice session at Silverstone. Williams' Carlos Sainz also switched to a zero-power unit after his problem in Austria, while his teammate Alex Albon continues with the unit he used in Spielberg. This makes McLaren the only Mercedes customer team not using the new specification with both drivers.
Brown: The engine's lifespan isn't over yet, we'll pass through Belgium.
Brown didn't call the situation a disappointment, but he didn't hide the fact that they wanted the new performance to be in the car as soon as possible. “We need to switch to the current Mercedes engine. We're the only team without the new engine, and it will be coming to us soon,” said Brown. “Of course, we want to have it. It's not what you want to feel like you don't have the performance you know in your car yet. But I don't see it as a disappointment; we just put our heads down and keep working.” McLaren's current engines haven't yet reached the mileage threshold that would necessitate a change. According to Brown, Sainz's engine problems in Austria forced Williams to switch to the new unit; Alpine, being the Mercedes customer team with the highest total mileage throughout the season, was able to switch to the new engine with both of its drivers. Brown said that if enough mileage is completed in Silverstone, he expects Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri to get the new power unit before the Belgian Grand Prix. “We need to keep the engines going, our current engines still have a lifespan. We will make the switch at the next engine change; hopefully that will be in Belgium,” he said.
Spa and flat runway open
Spa-Francorchamps stands out as one of the most powertrain-sensitive tracks on the F1 calendar, making a rework of the engine strategically worthwhile before the Belgian Grand Prix. Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff stated in Austria that a zero-powertrain typically provides only a small performance advantage, as a few horsepower are lost over an engine's lifecycle. McLaren team director Andrea Stella acknowledged that approximately 30% of the time lost to Mercedes occurs on straights, with a significant portion of this gap stemming from aerodynamic drag. McLaren continues to investigate the reasons for this deficiency.