Why McLaren is sliding backwards in British GP after…

If Lando Norris' sprint podium at the Formula 1 British Grand Prix offered hopes that McLaren was in better shape than previously anticipated, those hopes were well and truly quashed in qualifying.

Norris claimed third in Saturday morning's 17-lap shootout after coming out on top of a three-way fight with George Russell and Max Verstappen, although there was clear daylight between the reigning world champion and frontrunners Kimi Antonelli in the Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton's Ferrari.

Grand prix qualifying, which had given teams the opportunity to revisit their car set-ups, painted a more dramatic picture. McLaren, much like Red Bull, was nowhere, with Norris qualifying a distant sixth, 0.766s off pole. Oscar Piastri fared even worse in eighth, another tenth and a half adrift.

High-speed Silverstone is a circuit that brutally exposes weaknesses, whether from a power unit or from an aerodynamic efficiency point of view.

In McLaren's case, its main deficit is the latter, because that's an area where the team had previously admitted to being two to three months behind its rivals. Its lack of aerodynamic load and efficiency was accentuated even more but the gusty conditions, according to team principal Andrea Stella.

"This is a circuit where we have a bit less grip overall than in Austria," he said. "The car slides a lot. It was not only windy, but it was gusty. And when you have these conditions, I think there's a premium for the cars that have the best behaviour and grip in the corners, so I'm not surprised that Ferrari and Mercedes opened up the gap to Red Bull and McLaren when the grip and conditions were more difficult.

Andrea Stella, McLaren (Photo by: Steven Tee / LAT Images via Getty Images)

Stella also stressed McLaren is still catching up to Mercedes regarding optimising the Mercedes HPP power unit. "It's a circuit where power unit exploitation and performance is particularly important and I have to say that we still seem to have a little bit of a deficit in extracting the most from the HPP power unit," Stella acknowledged.

"We are three or four tenths behind in terms of development of our car. To this, today, we need to add the fact that the conditions were difficult plus the exploitation of the power unit, on which we seem to be having a bit of a deficit.

"If you look at the GPS overlays, it becomes apparent that somehow we need to keep our conversation open with HPP, because there's some performance we seem to be leaving behind."

Stella was therefore encouraged by Norris' surprise third place in the sprint, but said that was the result of "overdelivery" rather than painting a realistic picture, with Norris getting a good launch to gain track position and then soon being able to establish a rhythm instead of having to stay involved in yo-yo racing games that drain the battery.

"The result in the sprint was definitely encouraging after the performance we had in the sprint qualifying and even in practice, but I think that was a little bit of an overdelivery," the Italian said. "This was also thanks to the fact that the car had competitive starts.

"Once Lando was in third, he did a very, very good job maximising everything, no issues at all. He only lost some time with Perez in corner nine. And I think it's also important that when you get in a rhythm where you can use the deployment, the power unit, not to fight, but to have the fastest lap time, because you are not in a fight anymore, then you gain some pace."

McLaren is now bracing for an equally challenging Belgian Grand Prix in Spa-Francorchamps before pinning its hopes on a significant Hungary upgrade package, on a circuit that also doesn't punish a lack of aerodynamic efficiency as much.