McLaren’s ‘new car’ upgrade raises hopes of Mercedes fight at Miami GP

James Hinchcliffe believes the Miami GP could offer McLaren its best chance yet to challenge Mercedes after the five-week break and a major upgrade package

Oscar Piastri, McLaren

Photo by: Zak Mauger / LAT Images via Getty Images

Former IndyCar driver and F1 TV presenter James Hinchcliffe believes that the Miami Grand Prix could be the best chance that McLaren has had to beat Mercedes.

The Miami Grand Prix comes after an unexpected five-week break due to the cancellation of the Saudi Arabian and Bahrain Grands Prix, and so the teams have had a chance to take a bit of a reset ahead of the race at the Hard Rock Stadium.

In addition to the break, the FIA and Formula 1 have introduced tweaks to the regulations after complaints and safety concerns, which could also lead to a reshuffle in the pecking order.

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has said that the Woking outfit will be bringing an almost completely new car to the Miami Grand Prix, a race that the outfit has won for the past two years.

“It’s almost like a restart to the season,” Hinchcliffe said during the F1 Nation Podcast. “With this amount of time off, the information, all the data that the teams have from the first three rounds, we know that everybody is bringing a lot of upgrades.

“I think they have as good a shot as anyone in the top three teams, we have to remember that Mercedes has been very quick here as well in the last few years, especially Kimi Antonelli’s performance here last year was incredibly impressive.

“But this could certainly represent the best chance of the season that McLaren’s had just because it is a little bit of a reset, and historically they have run well here.”

Hinchcliffe’s co-host and former F1 driver Jolyon Palmer added: “They feel confident heading to this race. All the talk is new car. They’ve preset Miami as an upgrade chance anyway, which they did a couple of years ago when Norris got his first win with a massively upgraded car. And they’ve done a similar thing this year.

“I think they knew they were on the back foot on the back of last season, pushing so hard for the title. So, they were getting through those first races, and then Miami was going to be a target.

“Now, it’s obviously better for them that the two Middle Eastern races didn’t happen because they’ve got that deficit. I don’t know if they’ll win. I don’t know if they’ll be able to fight, but they have got the Mercedes power unit that they’re getting more on top of.

“And that extra 30 minutes of free practice, I think, could be so important for them with the amount of upgrades we’re expecting on the car. I think we’ll see this weekend if they can fight for the title.

“I think we’ll see really if they’re going to be close enough because if they don’t make enough strides here, then I don’t think they’ll catch up over the year.”