Has McLaren kept an ace up its sleeve in fight against Red Bull and Mercedes?

OPINION: With the Formula 1 fight at the front delicately poised, the top teams know that nailing an upgrade package could prove decisive. Rather than throw upgrades at its Formula 1 car at the earliest opportunity, McLaren has found success using a refined strategy that could be used against its rivals

It is hard to say with certainty who has Formula 1’s fastest car right now.

Red Bull’s early season advantage with its RB20 has been wiped away, but its pace at Spa when in clear air – and through Pouhon if you tracked the GPS data closely – shows when it comes to tracks that demand high aero efficiency, it remains a benchmark.

However, it is Mercedes that headed into the summer break with three wins from four races, with the Brackley-based squad having clearly unlocked its understanding of the W15 to push it to the front.

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Author Jonathan Noble

Jonathan Noble is Motorsport.com’s Formula 1 editor. Having graduated from University of Sussex Jonathan worked for sports news agency Collings Sports reporting on F1, F3, touring cars and other sports, with articles appearing in The Daily Telegraph, The Independent, Reuters, Autosport and other publications. In 1999 he moved to Haymarket Publishing to become a senior editor at Autosport Special Projects, and one year later he became Autosport’s grand prix editor. In 2015 he moved to Motorsport Network, becoming the F1 editor for Motorsport.com. He is also a member of the Guild of Motoring Writers, and sits on the FIA Media Council.

Jonathan has won multiple awards for journalism - in 1991 he was the winner of the Guild of Motoring Writers’ Sir William Lyons’ Award for young journalists, in 2010 he was awarded the Outstanding Individual accolade for consumer journalism in the Haymarket wards, in 2011 he won Haymarket’s Scoop of the Year, and in 2018 he was awarded a prestigious Medaglia d’Oro at the Lorenzo Bandini Awards for his contribution to F1 journalism.