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Lambiase leaving: what next for Max + Red Bull? Can McLaren catch Mercedes in '26?

Lambiase leaving: what next for Max + Red Bull? Can McLaren catch Mercedes in '26?

F1 Nation Apr 12, 2026 40 min
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About this episode

GP Lambiase is leaving Red Bull for McLaren, staying on as Verstappen’s race engineer until 2028 before taking a chief racing officer role. The hosts debate how seismic the move is for Verstappen’s future, Red Bull’s rebuild under Laurent Mekies, and whether McLaren can close the gap to Mercedes in 2026. They also discuss the importance of driver-engineer chemistry and Red Bull’s likely need to promote from within. Mark Tempel then breaks down McLaren’s 2026 priorities, explaining how drivers are adapting to new energy/traction demands and why chassis development should drive most gains.

Topics: gp lambiase leaving red bull verstappen future and contract speculation driver-race engineer relationship red bull rebuild under laurent mekies recruiting vs promoting from within who could replace verstappen mcLaren’s 2026 chase of mercedes mark tempel on 2026 development priorities driver adaptation to energy management power unit vs chassis performance gains
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We've had some big news involving one of the most successful race engineers in the sport.
Punchy move from GP. That's a big coup for McLaren.
What does this all mean for Verstappen?
Do we think this will just hasten his departure from Red Bull?
That's exactly how I see it.
When I read the news, the very first thought that I had was almost the other way around.
Man, what does GP know that we don't?
Other people must look at this as an empire falling.
And this is where it's going to be, I think, a defining moment of Luarmeki's tenure,
if Verstappen were to leave Red Bull.
Who would be at the top of your shopping list?
Oh!
Hello, everyone, and welcome to F1 Nation.
I'm Tom Clarkson, here to provide your F1 fix with no racing in April.
And joining me on the show, as usual, is former F1 driver Jolyon Palmer
and IndyCar race winner James Hinchcliffe.
Guys, great to have you on the show again.
Later on, we're going to be talking to McLaren's technical director of performance
to hear what's happening back at the factory between now and the Miami Grand Prix
as they chased the pace-setting Mercedes.
But first, we've had some big news involving one of the most successful race engineers
in the sport, Jampiero Lambiasi.
GP, as you might know him, is going to leave Red Bull and join McLaren.
GP has been Max Verstappen's race engineer for the past 10 years,
and all 71 of Max's wins, including that first one in Spain back in 2016.
In that time, they've won four drivers' championships together,
making them one of the most successful driver engineer partnerships in F1 history.
This isn't happening immediately.
GP is going to remain with Red Bull as Verstappen's engineer until 2028
when he'll join McLaren as chief racing officer.
It's another big name departure from Red Bull, and it may affect Max's future as well.
So, guys, can I get your initial reaction to this news?
JP, it's seismic, isn't it?
It's really big.
I mean, one of the prominent figures that's not a racing driver now.
His relationship with Max has been so well documented.
They get on so well.
He has now risen up the ranks of Red Bull as well,
so he's the head of their race engineering team.
And that's a big coup for McLaren, I think.
It's another sort of nail in the coffin of Red Bull, it feels like,
to lose yet another key personnel.
And, yeah, for McLaren, bringing in that wealth of experience,
obviously GP is incredibly talented at what he does.
He's got a great understanding not only of how to build a fast race car,
but how to deal with a world champion that is pretty ruthless
in terms of what he wants and his demands.
And he's another person that goes to McLaren
with a full knowledge of how Red Bull operates.
So he's bringing the rival's information in-house to McLaren,
as you say, not immediately,
but Red Bull has got to be careful because a bit like driver swaps,
you know, they don't want GP to be learning all the information
before the switch in 2028 either.
I mean, Hench, remind us of the importance
of the race-engineered driver relationship.
Why is it so special and what made this so special?
I mean, without sitting in engineering meetings with them,
it's tough to tell you exactly why these two work so well,
but they obviously did.
And the reason that that relationship is arguably
the most important one on the team is the driver is out there
getting all this feedback from the race car.
It's all a feeling, right?
It's all a second nature thing to a driver.
Being able to verbalize it is a key strength
and a key asset for a racing driver.
That's a key ability that a racing driver needs,
is being able to really dissect and explain in detail
what the race car is doing
and what you need out of the race car.
That engineer then needs to understand that language
because, let's be honest, drivers have varying degrees
of communication skills
and finding a driver engineer pairing
that really just speak the same language,
understand each other.
You know, we've talked, I think, a lot in the past
about how race engineers these days
almost need to be, you know, 75% race engineer,
25% driver engineer, psychologist, coach, cheerleader.
That's a big part of it.
You're engineering the whole package.
There's the mechanical element in the race car,
but there is a human element
that you also sort of have to engineer
and finding that balance is so difficult.
That's why when you see a successful pairing,
they tend to stick together.
I mean, Lewis Hamilton's won most of his races
in championships with one engineer, with Bono.
Max has won all of his races with one engineer.
Michael Schumacher and Ross Braun
did most of their damage together.
It's not like these drivers that have won
two, three, four championships
do it with different engineers.
You find your person, you stick with them.
Hinge, I was reminded in 2023
to remember when Max won all but three races.
And I think we were trying to work out
of something to say in the media
because we basically knew what was going to happen
when we turned up.
But there was all these sort of moments of bickering
between GP and Max.
And they were winning everything.
But if Max was like P3 in a session,
you'd hear GP say, go round for a practice start.
And Max would say, do I have to?
And GP would almost give him like a kind of dressing down
it sounded like.
But they had that level of kind of like
brotherly understanding, didn't they?
Where they could kind of bicker on air,
but they would totally get it.
And it was the same way that you can sort of bicker
with your best mates or your family
that you can't with someone else over the comms.
And it's difficult to replicate that.
I think this helmet Marco referred to them
as the old buried couple, right?
And we heard GP say things like,
Max, you're being childish over a broadcasted radio message.
I mean, that's taken a shot at it.
Drivers can have sensitive egos.
That's a big thing to say to a driver
on a publicly broadcasted message.
But again, Max never took it as an insult.
He understood, I think, GP understood
when he needed to kind of stand up and
let's say recalibrate Max's attitude a little bit
and Max responded to it.
And yeah, there's not a lot of people
I don't think out there that can do that.
I think there are three elements to this story, aren't they?
One is what does it mean for Max Verstappen?
Then what does it mean for Red Bull?
And what does it mean for McLaren?
Let's deal with each of those three elements.
We're talking about Verstappen now.
This now reminds me of something Verstappen said
in Suzuka at the Japanese Grand Prix.
When he was saying,
I've got some life decisions to make, he told us.
And I think he obviously knew that GP was off.
And let's go back to 2021,
just after he'd won his first world title.
He was giving an interview in the British media
and he said, if GP goes, I go.
That's what he said five years ago.
So what does this all mean for Verstappen?
Do we think this will just hasten his departure from Red Bull?
That's exactly how I see it.
I think we're already talking about Max probably leaving the team at some point.
You've got Red Bull not being competitive
with not the easiest route back to being competitive with where they're at
when you add in all the personnel that have left.
Max, for me, GP is such a linchpin of him.
It sort of connects driver to team.
And I see this being the break of the news,
a sort of more in-depth understanding as to another reason
that Max isn't particularly happy in the team.
And I just don't, on many levels,
I don't see him sticking around particularly long,
probably beyond the end of this year,
unless they have a concrete plan in place
and a good sign of progress.
It's interesting.
When I read the news, the very first thought that I had
was almost the other way around.
It was, man, what does GP know that we don't?
Has Max maybe played his hand and shared with his work partner
what he's doing?
But then something hit me,
and I'm curious if you guys remember this.
In Abu Dhabi last year,
the end of the race on the pit stand after the checkered flag,
Max came within two points of the greatest comeback
in motorsports history.
And GP was just head on the table.
You could tell he was exhausted.
He was emotionally exhausted from that battle.
And I wonder if even back then he knew that,
hey, this was our chance to do it one more time together,
because you look at the scope of this deal.
2028.
I remember when Hamilton announced he was leaving Mercedes
before the start of the season.
We're like, this is nuts.
No one's ever started a season knowing they're leaving the team
at the end of the year.
We're two years away.
So this is not a decision that was taken lightly.
This is not a decision that came together quickly.
These deals need to be ironed out.
There's a lot of caveats and a lot of intricacies here.
I think you're right.
They did see it as certainly their last opportunity
for a while.
They both knew that the new Red Bull powertrain was coming in
with the regulation changes as well.
So I'm sure that's why Max was so happy to develop
late into last year,
because he knew it was going to compromise the starter
this year, but this year was compromised anyway.
I mean, it's really interesting to sort of turn it
on its head like that, Hinch.
I hadn't sort of viewed it from the,
does he know something about Max's future?
I mean, both of them, ironically,
have contracts until 2028, don't they?
So are they going to leave early together?
I don't know, but I'm with JP, certainly,
that this is surely...
If he was undecided before,
this surely has to be the moment where Max goes,
right, I need to look elsewhere.
Well, his home has moved, hasn't it?
I mean, the building's the same,
but all the furnishings are gone effectively at Red Bull.
It still turns up to work at Milton Keynes,
but he says hello to just different people
in all the different areas.
Not only that is not fighting for the title,
not only that, he's not loving driving the cars,
and you think, oh, is it still...
I'm not here for the building, I'm here for the success,
and for at least the people that I'm working with
to believe in them.
And when they're both changing,
yeah, I think it seems inevitable.
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I sold my car in Carvana last night.
Well, that's cool.
No, you don't understand.
It went perfectly.
Real offer, down to the penny.
They're picking it up tomorrow.
Nothing went wrong.
So what's the problem?
That is the problem.
Nothing in my life goes as smoothly.
I'm waiting for the catch.
Maybe there's no catch.
That's exactly what a catch would want me to think.
Wow, you need to relax.
I need to knock on wood.
Do we have wood?
Is this table wood?
I think it's laminate.
Okay, yeah, that's good.
That's close enough.
Part two of the chat is what does this mean for Red Bull?
GP is another name in quite a long list of names
over the last 18 months that have left the team.
I feel that Red Bull is a team
that needs to get recruiting some big names
to just instill some confidence at Milton Keynes
if nothing else that, you know,
this isn't a team in transition going the wrong way.
We're just rebuilding a team
just rebuilding on our way back up.
I think if you look at,
you look at when Laurent Meckies came into this team,
it was kind of struggling a little bit.
There was, you know, obviously the issues that we know about
and immediately the team's form turned around, right?
And so he sort of was seen as,
and not that he took it this way.
I mean, he was very humble in his acknowledgement
that any success was in the pipeline
and he's just sort of managing the situation today.
But he got to enjoy the fruits of the labor
and the success in the moment.
For me, this is a really big test of his ability
to kind of pull this team back up.
They have the wherewithal, they have the know-how.
You try to build a team that is well over 1,000 people,
you know, not off the back of one or two individuals.
But the problem is with this situation,
it's four, five, six potentially high, high-ranking individuals.
That's a big hole in your structure.
And this is where it's going to be, I think,
a defining moment of Luan Mekki's tenure at this team.
What moves does he make?
How does he position the team to kind of get back
to that former level of success?
It's tricky though, isn't it?
Because I think other people must look at this
as an empire falling, mustn't they?
This is a great Formula One team.
The amount of the success that they've had,
the ruthlessness that they chased that success
and the way that they could execute with,
I would say, to the maximum of their potential
across all the elements, the race prep, strategy, driving,
generally reliability as well.
But everyone is leaving.
So when you actually look at it, we're talking GP,
but this is almost the tip of the iceberg today,
where it's a big one.
But when you look at all the other people that have left,
sort of around the, well, kind of following on
from Christian Horner or at least from a few years ago,
even pre-Christian Horner,
but it's been a rocky time at Red Bull for a long time.
And I wondered if it would stabilize a little bit
with Laurent now at the helm
and the fallout from Christian Horner
sort of settling down a little bit.
You obviously had Adrian Newey go
and Jonathan Wheatley go early on.
But when you see more big names going,
it's probably not that enticing for people
to go and join them either.
So you sort of see everyone heading one way
and you're a big name designer,
you're a big name race strategist,
you're a big name whatever.
You think, hang on, maybe I want to go
and join the dream team over here.
But I kind of see it the other way as well.
I think it's a huge opportunity, right?
For some opportunistic engineers, management style people
that maybe feel like they've been overlooked
or haven't gotten the promotion they wanted at a given team
to join a squad.
And this is where I think Laurent has to be
so particular about the recruiting.
As you said, TC, he's got to go find these diamonds
in the rough.
He's got to go find the next GP.
I don't think he's going to be able to attract
a GP quality individual because of what you just said.
But that's the problem, Hinch.
We're talking he needs to go and find diamonds in the rough.
Whereas everyone else is just getting the diamonds.
Right.
So it's easier to find diamonds that are not in the rough.
So I think it's a chance for Red Bull to have the rebuild.
But I've been thinking that already for like a year.
It's another person that goes,
they will be opportunities for people.
I still believe there's a lot of great people working at Red Bull
that may be getting promotions as well
and getting reward for their hard work.
Because as we've already said, they almost won the title.
And most of that core team from the end of last year
is still there.
The powertrains have done a good job as well.
So if they can find, replace these guys
with some new people to lead the next generation of Red Bull,
it'll be okay.
But just finding that the core team and putting them together
is not easy.
I think you've got to promote from within.
Because think of the lead time.
Okay, you go and find someone at Ferrari,
someone at Mercedes who you want.
You give them an offer that they can't turn down
so they commit to you.
Well, hang on.
How long is their contract with their current team?
How long is the gardening leave going to be?
You're talking years, up to three years
before they start having an influence
on a car that is actually racing on track.
So let's not forget that it's a team of 1,200 people.
Maybe the solution is to promote from within.
And they also have, let's not forget, racing bulls.
They're promoting from within.
If there's someone in Italy at Fianzo,
who they like the look of, they can just come across.
They would imagine much more easily
than if they were at a Ferrari or a Mercedes.
So maybe you've hit the nail on the head, JP.
Maybe they do have to promote from within.
If they're going to turn this situation around quickly anyway.
I think it seems to be the obvious way
that they'll go at this stage.
Also, when you look at Adrian Newey going to Aston Martin,
you see the most legendary designer of all time.
And it takes him.
He's talking about, he joined the project late.
So now the car is in all manner of issues,
but the car's not good either.
And that's with Adrian there.
He still needs time to bed in.
Jonathan Wheatley didn't adjust fully to life at Salber
and he's out again within a year.
So it's not easy to just get new people into new jobs.
Big names.
You know, they still, they might not gel
and there's plenty of stories of key designers
moving around the place.
Big names that work somewhere,
they get approached for big money
and it just doesn't work out in another team
and they go somewhere else.
Quick one.
If Verstappen were to leave Red Bull,
who would be at the top of your shopping list?
If you were Laura Mechiers.
Have you got carte blanche?
Have we got all the money that we,
I guess they would if they lose Verstappen.
So all the pulling power of,
what are we talking, nine figure sum?
I think take money, no object, JP.
Who are you going for?
Oh, I, for me,
if money, no object,
probably Charles Leclerc.
I think he's been at Ferrari a long time.
I think he's supremely talented.
I think he's shown that
if Ferrari can't show this year
that they can be capable of winning a title,
which they might do yet.
I think he's someone that could be tempted away.
Would he be tempted enough to go to Red Bull?
We're talking, you know, real hypotheticals here,
but I still think there's a title in him
and I think he might be tempted.
What do you reckon, Hinge?
Well, he was my first thought as well,
but I have a second,
so I'll throw that one out there instead.
At Piatri.
He's, you know,
as much as I don't buy into the
McLaren, his Lando's team
and favoritism and stuff, I never have.
To the same extent,
he's not been there as long.
The loyalty might not be as deep.
He joined that team
quite at the top of the pecking order
and was a part of helping them
get back to the top,
so I don't think the idea
of going to a Red Bull in their current state
would be terrifying.
Maybe he relishes the idea of being in a team
that does support a
number one and number two driver format.
And if that could be something worked into his contract,
being the de facto number one at a Red Bull,
is that as good or better than being
equal number ones out of McLaren
in the long term?
Could be an interesting one.
Well, I'd go for Carlos Sainz
because if Red Bull are rebuilding,
as looks obvious at the moment,
I can't think of a better guy out there.
James Val said recently that Carlos
would be a brilliant team principal
because he sees the full picture,
the whole picture.
And I don't think Piatri does yet.
I don't think Leclerc does yet.
And I think Carlos is quick enough
if the car is there
to win a world championship as well.
So three different drivers.
There you go.
Exciting times.
Is it weird that none of us
picked anyone in their development program?
If you think about the rebuilding
process of this team,
and it does look like it's heading into that
sort of a phase,
when you look at,
you had Sebastian Vettel at Torroso
at the time,
you had someone to step into that team
and eventually lead it to great success.
On the back of him,
Daniel Ricardo who was so successful
and quick enough that kind of upset
maybe Vettel a little bit
and forced his hand early to leave.
Then you had Verstappen to come in.
He sort of, you know, was upsetting
the Ricardo camp
and was then the de facto leader.
I don't know if that person is there.
Hajar's already at the team, right?
So let's give that caveat, right?
Because he's obviously young and very talented
and was the next guy in line.
But if Max were to leave
and you've got Hajar already there,
and we didn't say Linblad, we didn't say Lawson,
is the Red Bull program
still a little bit deficient
in its driver lineup long term
in its development, do you think?
I think it's just too young.
And I think to partner Hajar
with a Lawson or a Linblad,
I just think leaves them too inexperienced.
I think they'd have to import
some experience to help bolster Hajar
if nothing else.
I completely agree.
In the previous iterations,
they've kind of always had the obvious next choice.
And even last year, they did.
Two years ago, they didn't.
And that's kind of led to a certain situation.
A few years back, they didn't.
That's why they brought in Checo.
So they've had these little gaps
and they seem to be in one right now
in terms of driver development.
Finally then, the last bit of the puzzle,
what does this mean for McLaren?
Well, it's obviously very exciting.
What it means is
GP is going to come in
as the head of the race team at McLaren,
which is a role that Andrea Stellar
is currently occupying
as well as being technically team principal.
So it will free up Andrea
to overview things
and it will be another key appointment
for McLaren.
And as I've said, they'll learn
with GP's Bank of Knowledge
all about Red Bull,
all about another bright engineer
in the team to help get on top
of things through each race weekend
as it goes.
Yeah, I think it's a huge coup for them
to sign.
And technically, it means Andrea
can focus on the overview.
Yeah, it's a big get for sure.
And there are people,
Hype and that organization
that he's already worked with.
So there'll be some familiarity there already.
But what I really love about it
is I just love the long-term thinking
from McLaren.
We mentioned this.
2028, in theory, is when he's coming.
This is not the first person they've gone after
that they've had to wait a fair amount of time
before they were able to start.
I love that this isn't deterring them
from going after the people
that they think are going to be
the key parts of the structure
that this team needs to be successful going forward.
Yeah, and it's punchy, isn't it,
from GP as well,
who's had a great runner at Red Bull,
10 years plus,
moving up through the ranks.
But we're seeing a lot of race engineers
becoming team principals.
Case in point, Andrea Stella,
who's at McLaren.
And I do think GP is maybe looking at this
as a chance to...
Well, he's obviously going above
race engineer level
when he comes across.
Move more into the upper echelons.
Again, his experience will be invaluable.
And across the board,
you've got Ayo Kamatsu at HASS,
was a race engineer
that became a chief engineer
and became a team principal.
A lot more of them coming.
And why McLaren for Jampiero Lambiasi?
I remember last year
he was being linked to Aston Martin.
Lots of money.
They had the works Honda deal coming their way.
What do you think it is about McLaren specifically
that he will find so enticing?
It could be a lot of different things.
We don't know what kind of money
they were offering versus Aston Martin.
If you want to look at it that way,
pure performance.
Obviously Aston's got a long uphill battle
in front of them where McLaren's got a much shorter.
They were at the top.
They're not quite there anymore,
but they're pretty darn close.
But again, I don't think this was the work of a moment.
So this was probably a decision
that was made some time ago.
It could just be the people,
the culture, the structure.
He is, to JP's point,
going into an organization
that is very engineer-led.
And as an engineer,
that might be something that was appealing to him.
So again, to steal with your line, JP,
punchy move from JP,
but I think it's a really good one
from a career standpoint.
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Now, the teams are spending April
back at their factories.
So let's find out what's happening
at the McLaren Technology Center
with the team's technical director of performance,
Mark Tempel.
Mark, great to have you on the show again.
How busy are things back at the MTC?
Yeah, great to be on the show.
So thank you for having me.
Yeah, things are, let's say,
although there's a break in racing,
it's actually a very busy time for us.
It's been a very intense start to the season
with a lot of change in the regulations and the cars.
We went straight into three tests
and then also three flyaway races.
So this is a great opportunity to kind of
just take a little bit of a break from going racing
and look at where we are,
work on some things for the longer term
and take stock of things really.
So there's still a lot of activity going on,
but it's maybe not so quite the same nature
as it is when you have races every other week.
So flat out on the simulator,
flat out in the design office or all of the above?
I mean, the design office in Aero,
they're always kind of flat out.
There's obviously a lot of work going on in that space.
The simulator actually is a little bit quieter
because the race drivers would normally be coming in a lot
for, you know, race weekend prep.
We'll be using the simulator
to support race weekend activities that's reduced.
So we're able to do a little bit more
of the kind of longer term development work.
But at the same time, you know,
we do still have the drivers in.
It is still an opportunity for them to come in,
get to grips with the 2026 cars a bit more,
you know, start to explore
some of the power unit exploitation aspects
that we know have been a feature of the first three races,
but with a little bit more time
to do that kind of exploratory work
rather than having to prepare for the next race
and the one after that.
All right, it seems like with so much being different
in 2026, it would almost be difficult
to pinpoint where you start.
When you get this break, you've had your first three races.
How does the team sort of prioritize
which area is going to get the most attention
and the most focus?
When there has been such a big change on the chassis side,
lots of performance in the car itself,
but then obviously the power units
are still a little bit of a black magic
and trying to figure out exactly
how to get all the lap time out of those as well.
Having done the first three races,
we've learned an awful lot
because you just learn so much
by just going out there and racing,
being in a competition in many ways,
way more than you do when you go testing
because you have those references
of what are other people doing.
So we've come out and we've said,
yeah, okay, there are key areas
that we want to work on with the drivers
around driving, learning about power units.
We can also see that on the chassis side,
there are opportunities,
both the feedback from our own drivers
and also we see how we compare on track
to other cars.
We've learned about tyre behavior now
at three different tracks.
In all of those things,
the normal processes that we follow
in terms of understanding race weekends,
reviewing them, I think,
give you quite a good sense
of what those priorities are.
I'm interested, Mark,
you talk about the...
talking to the drivers
about how to work on their driving.
You've obviously got a world champion now
and a nearly world champion from last year,
but the new regs obviously require differences
in techniques to maximize it.
But what sort of things specifically
are you going through with them
in terms of how to get a lap time
qualifying on the race?
I think there's a few different aspects.
So if you like how you drive the car
through the corner when you're grip limited,
that's changed in any case
because the cars are lighter,
they have a different level of downforce,
the tyres have different behavior,
so the kind of pure cornering performance
has changed.
But in some ways,
that's more familiar to them
because that's, I guess,
like driving a car of a lower grip
or a lower formulae.
Where it's more interesting
is you have situations where
you may choose to drive
slightly differently,
use the throttle differently to conserve some energy
so that then you have more power on the strain.
I think if we think about Suzuka,
there's an interesting example
where you have the first sector,
a lot of very high-speed corners.
And if you drive them just,
if you like, carefree
on how you use the throttle,
you will use energy through those corners
and that energy that you use
from the electrical system
will then reduce some of the energy
that you have available on the straits.
So you then want to drive
those corners using the energy more efficiently,
but you still want to be as fast as possible.
So it's then you use the throttle slightly different,
you choose slightly different lines
and you kind of have a slightly different focus
in how you drive it.
And that's different
to how they would have driven in previous years
and requires a little bit of a kind of reset
in how they think about getting the most out of the car.
It's not that you're kind of driving
within the limits of the car all the time,
you're just exploiting them differently.
Mark, there's so much emphasis on the power unit
or has been so far this year.
Tell us a little bit about the shorter,
narrower, lighter cars.
Just from a setup point of view,
as an engineer,
how different is it to work on this car
compared to last year
and how much potential do they have
just in terms of grip?
I think the biggest aspect with this year's cars
compared to certainly last year
is the amount of downforce the cars had last year
and the max that they had.
This year they are a bit lighter,
but they also have a lot less downforce.
And the nature of that downforce
is not as sensitive to the ride heights.
Obviously last year we were very much trying to get
the front end, the rear of the car very low.
We had the rear of the car hitting the ground,
sparking over the 2022 to 2025.
You had quite visible examples of cars hitting the ground
hard at the rear of the car
and the front big sparks coming out.
That created a lot of driving challenges,
but it also meant you were really very focused
on optimizing and minimizing that.
That's less of a differentiating factor this year.
There is still performance to be had
in getting the ride heights correct,
but the sensitivity is less
and it's less about being really aggressive
with minimizing it.
So that does make the cars in some ways
a little bit easier to set up
because you can then use that ride height
to manipulate the handling a little bit more
without giving away as much grip.
The other aspect of the cars having less downforce
but also being a little bit shorter and narrower
is that you'll see that there's more load transfer.
You lift an inside front wheel a little bit more easily,
lift an inside rear wheel a little bit more easily.
That's just a consequence of the dimensions
as well as the downforce.
So that is a little bit more of a factor,
but in truth it's not been as much
of a concern as we expected.
So it's just a small aspect
that you're kind of working around
the same constraints and the same tools,
but that window's got a little bit smaller.
F1 has always been a developmental series.
It's always a racer who can develop
the car the most over a season
with so much potential development
both on the car side, the engine side
and also the driver side.
You mentioned about how you do have to
adjust the driving a little bit
and there's a lot of lap time in that.
So my question to you is
if where you started in Australia
and where you end up in Abu Dhabi
in terms of development,
let's say we're 10% of the way
of your absolute improvement in lap time
over those first three races.
Of the remaining 90
between now and the end of the year,
is it possible?
Best guess, what would you say
the percentages of each of those three elements?
How much is coming from the driver
learning how to drive these cars?
How much is coming out of pure car performance?
And how much is really figuring out
and developing these power units?
If I start with the driving,
then the rate of learning has been very rapid
through testing in the first few races.
So I think we're going to be much closer
to optimum say in Japan
compared to where we were in China
and in China compared to where we were in Australia
and then the learning from those three races
carries forward into Miami.
So I think both learning
about how to get the most out of the driving
from an engineer's point of view
but also the driver's point of view,
that's very much diminishing returns
albeit each track will create
new challenges.
So you're relearning how to deploy
the same things at different tracks
but I think we'll see quite quickly
that there's not much remaining
through the rest of the season
after these first few races.
For sure there will be some
power unit performance
increments.
I would be surprised if those are large.
I think there will be maybe,
let's say we're going to say 10%,
there's a start point, but that's
a little bit of a made up number.
I think the bulk of performance will come
from the chassis, you know, chassis development
because the power units are
much more stable.
They've been developed for many years.
There's more restriction.
It's harder to add performance
to those things in season, whereas
I think on the chassis side, you know,
we were only able to start working
in the aerodynamics in the wind tunnel
in CFD at the beginning of last year
and they're still on quite a
sort of a early phase
if you look at the 2022
to 2025 regulation cycle.
You saw a lot of gains
over the first three to four years
and it started to diminish in
2025, but I think we're
in a similar situation now.
We're in that kind of early phase where
teams will be finding performance a lot
on the chassis side.
In terms of then just to finish off
the power unit, are you happy with
where you're at with Mercedes now?
Because I know in Melbourne it seemed
like the team were a little bit on the
back foot with how to best use
the hardware that you had.
Obviously we've done a few races now.
You've got a month to look through it.
Are you thinking now you understand
performance differential between yourself and
Mercedes is going to be on the chassis
side more that you know where you're at
with the power unit?
Yeah, I think that's a fair assessment.
We have a much better understanding ourselves.
The tools that we use to go into
each event have improved
and we've worked very closely with HPP.
They've been very supportive on those things
and we're definitely in a much better place.
There's still left one.
There's always more performance to find,
but I think we're very much
now in terms of the gap to Mercedes,
the chassis performance and
exploitation.
Can we ask you about that?
What was 0.1 off George Russell
in qualifying
in Suzuka? Are Mercedes
beatable by McLaren
this year? Just how much can you
achieve between now and the end of the
year?
Honestly that's very difficult to say
and people who know me will know that
I don't like to speculate about those
too much. I always think
better just to focus on what's in front of you
and what you can control and what you can do about it.
But I will say, obviously
in Japan
Mercedes didn't finish first and second.
So they have their weak points.
Absolutely they're beatable.
Hopefully we can be the ones
who are able to beat them.
But I think
they're certainly not invincible
that's for sure and I think it's really important
that they'll be working very hard
to try and build their performance
and pull away from other teams
and we're all working very hard to try and close those gaps
and I hope that we are the ones to do it first.
What we've seen from
McLaren over the last couple of years has been
big steps at various points
including Miami a couple of years ago
which was the real turning point of your season
and it kind of led to
last year as well.
Is there something big in the pipeline?
You've got a month off, loads of time to
get new parts on now. Have you been targeting Miami
already as a chance to put new parts on the car
and hunt a win?
For sure the fact that there's a gap
means that it's a natural place to add
components because there's two races
that you can't add stuff to so for sure
we'll be aiming to bring some new bits to the car.
Hopefully
it's a big step but
let's see. I think we're
happy with the development we're doing
the team's working really hard
will it be enough
to jump any teams
will they bring big steps
I honestly don't know
at this point we're kind of
it's all about hope
but actually it's much more
about just getting on with it and it'd be nice
to think we can definitely.
Got one more random question for you Mark
if Mercedes didn't develop
their car at all we've got
the field spread that's already closing down
where do you reckon they'd end up
by Abu Dhabi? Where is the rate
of everyone's development going to be basically
as a hunch?
Do you think they'd fall back to the midfield
are we talking like a second's worth of performance
on the cars?
I suppose if we look historically
then yeah you would say teams will
if you start the season
what was their advantage
half a second, seven tenths over the first
few races something like that
if you did nothing to it
by the end of the year I wouldn't expect them to be in the lead anymore
but
whether it would be super tight
or not I don't know
but historically
teams have found a second or so
over the course of a whole year
Mark best of luck
with what's coming for Miami
can't wait to see it on the car
can't wait to see what progress you make
enjoy the break that's not a break
and thank you very much for your time
Thank you very much for having me
Cheers Mark
Thanks
very much to Mark Tempel
for this time and of course to Jolien and Hinch
and to keep across
all the latest F1 news during this break
please go to F1.com
the official F1 app and at F1
on social media
and don't forget to check out F1's other
official podcast
my guest on F1 Beyond the Grid this week
is the FIA safety car driver
Burt Melander who's recently celebrated
500 races in the role
that's out on Wednesday
and you can watch our chat on the F1
YouTube channel
and former F1 strategist Bernie Collins
joins Christian Hugill
on the latest episode of F1 Explains
to discuss how strategy has changed
in the new era of F1
and to answer your questions
that's just below this show on the F1 Nation feed
Thank you very much for listening
we'll of course be back next Monday
so speak to you then
F1 Nation is produced by F1
and Audio Boom Studio
www.f1nion.com

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