(Motorsport-Total.com) – While Audi and Ferrari have each launched their first ADUO upgrades of the year in Barcelona and Spielberg respectively, Mercedes also appeared in Austria with a new specification of their power unit.
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However, for Mercedes it was not the ADUO step, but an upgrade for reliability after numerous technical failures during the season. The early race end of championship leader Kimi Antonelli in Barcelona would be the most recent example.
Most Mercedes customer teams have the new power unit in the rear this weekend. Before the first free practice in Silverstone, Alpine drivers Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto switched to new components. These include new parts of the combustion engine as well as the turbocharger.
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Carlos Sainz is also starting with a completely new power unit after his problems in Austria. Williams teammate Alexander Albon, on the other hand, is still using the same engine as in Spielberg.
This means that McLaren, as the only Mercedes customer team, will not start the British Grand Prix with the new power unit in either of its two drivers. Zak Brown confirmed this in the official FIA press conference.
“Of course, we would like [the upgrade]. That’s always the case when you know there is more power waiting for you, but you don’t yet have it in your car. You want to have it as soon as possible.”
“But I wouldn’t describe it as frustrating. It is just the way it is. We will just keep going and pushing. [The upgrade] will be in the rear [of our cars] in the not too distant future.”
This inevitability brings back memories of the start of the season. McLaren explained at the time that they would experience the disadvantages of a customer team for the first time, especially when thinking about data transfer or the learning curve compared to Mercedes’ factory team.
However, this situation is completely different. Brown clarified that this is about the runtime of the already existing engines and that McLaren has not yet reached the point where they have to change the engines.
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“You have to rotate your engines and we still have some life left in our units, so we are waiting a bit longer before changing.”
“Williams got [the upgrade] because Carlos had his problem, so he had to change the engine. I don’t remember exactly how it looks for Alpine, but I think they got it twice as well. So it’s a matter of timing.”
Looking at the previous runtimes in the 2026 Formula 1 season, Alpine has so far covered the most miles of all Mercedes customer teams, and by a clear margin. This is partly due to how many failures McLaren has had so far. Williams is further down on this list, which also explains why Albon has not yet switched to the new specification.
If McLaren collects significant race kilometers in Silverstone, Brown expects a switch to the new specification for Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri before the race weekend in Belgium.
“You want it as soon as possible, but you have to switch between the different engines. Of course, you can exchange some parts, but we will have [the new specification] soon, hopefully for the next race.”
Spa-Francorchamps is one of the most sensitive tracks on the calendar when it comes to energy consumption. Therefore, an engine change before the Belgian Grand Prix makes quite a bit of sense.
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff already explained in Austria that installing a new power unit brings a small performance bonus. After all, a few horsepower are always lost during the life cycle of an engine.
Apart from the specification of the power unit itself, McLaren team principal Andrea Stella emphasized that 30 percent of the time lost to Mercedes is found on the straights. McLaren is currently investigating this difference, with Stella openly admitting that this is mainly due to the car’s aerodynamic drag.
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