McLaren on the rise
The Hungarian GP saw the first win of the season for Lando Norris and McLaren just before the summer break. The Woking team started the season about three months behind the competition in terms of project maturity, but is catching up.
McLaren introduced in Hungary the first part of an upgrade package that will be completed in Zandvoort and definitively in Baku. From Azerbaijan onwards Norris and Piastri will have the MCL40 in its ‘final’ version for a 2026 finale where the hope is to play the role of Max Verstappen of 2025 launched in pursuit of the World Championship leadership of Andrea Kimi Antonelli.
Mercedes brought the main upgrade package to Canada for now and a second and final batch of updates is expected to secure the world titles at stake this season.
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Montoya’s predictions
According to Juan Pablo Montoya, Mercedes will introduce this upgrade package at the Madrid GP scheduled after those in Zandvoort and Monza. “Mercedes has not yet introduced major updates, while all the other teams have, yet it is still more than competitive – Montoya told Betpack – if you consider this fact, rivals should be worried. The longer Mercedes can ‘delay’ these updates, the more resources and budget it can allocate to next year’s car. At Zandvoort we will see a really, really fast McLaren, a fairly competitive Red Bull, especially with Max who, in his home Grand Prix, will want to prove his worth. We will see a really strong Ferrari, so the standings are getting very tight, almost too much for Mercedes’ liking. The only way Mercedes can prevail is by introducing its major updates.”
“Everyone has revealed their cards from now until the end of the season. So, when Mercedes presents the next package, I think it will be even further ahead than everyone else. The cards and aces are in Mercedes’ hands – Montoya added – Zandvoort would be a good place for Mercedes to introduce its updates, but in the bigger picture then you go to Monza, and there they are not needed. They have to understand if they are needed for Madrid. My hypothesis is that it will be in Madrid that we will see Mercedes make changes. They will want to see how they perform at Zandvoort, which will not be an easy race for them.”
