Why McLaren turnaround didn’t dispel Toto Wolff’s ‘silver bullet’ theory

McLaren’s rapid rise to the front of F1 hasn’t dispelled Toto Wolff’s suggestion that there are no ‘silver bullets’ to making a flawed concept into a world-beating car.

McLaren suddenly shot up the pack from being mired in the midfield, showing up in Silverstone with the second-quickest car as both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri brought the fight to the podium positions.

Having narrowly missed out on an all-McLaren front-row, Norris raced to second place, with Piastri only missing out on the final podium spot due to the timing of a late Safety Car intervention.

Does McLaren rise suggest a ‘silver bullet’ is possible?

Given that McLaren started the year with a poor car, only to turn it around into something far more competitive, could other teams make a similar leap?

Mercedes are one of the teams competing with a car that is arguably not performing to the true capability of what the team is capable of, but team boss Toto Wolff has made it clear all year that there is no quick and easy fix for turning the W14 into something world-beating.

Earlier in the year, Wolff said expectations at Mercedes were being managed through the introduction of update packages targetting the floor, suspension, and aero package. The W14 has gone through its initial upgrades, with Mercedes roughly remaining in the same place in the pecking order.

“I have never, in my 15 years in F1, seen a silver bullet being introduced, where suddenly you unlock half-a-second performance. So I very much doubt that this is going to happen here,” Wolff had previously said.

But, with McLaren unlocking such a serious amount of pace, does that dispel Wolff’s theory? According to Sky F1 broadcaster Ted Kravitz, it does not.

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“No, because you remember at the start of the season, McLaren came to the launch and, effectively immediately after in testing, said ‘We’ve messed up here. This car is not the one we wanted. We found out probably in about December, January that there was something much better in the wind tunnel. And we’re busy making that,” he said.

“While McLaren were making that, they had to put up with this car that we know isn’t great.

“Mercedes decided that in March and April and Mercedes are trying to figure their way out of getting out of that.

“McLaren realised that, much earlier, they were going to have to do a new car and, by the summer break and after it, we will have the entire McLaren new car. If that is, for the rest of the balance of the season better than the Mercedes compromise…

“If it’s better, then that proves what Toto was saying, which is true in the regard of there’s no silver bullet to make the Mercedes suddenly great from a compromised concept.

“McLaren, who stopped and then started again with a good concept and that car makes sense when you look at it, that might end up for the rest of the season being faster than the Mercedes.

“If Aston Martin get some upgrades on there and get back to where they were, consistently scoring podiums for fun, then they might end up being faster than Mercedes. But yeah, those three Mercedes power teams are going to be really close toward the end of the year.”

Ted Kravitz: McLaren have a long way to go to catch up in the championship

While McLaren have suddenly joined in the fight for prominent positions, Kravitz suspects a clearer picture of where the Woking-based team slot into the general scheme of things won’t be apparent for a few weeks yet.

There’s also the issue that, due to their terrible start to the year, McLaren face an uphill challenge to catch up on their rivals in the Constructors’ Championship.

“Silverstone definitely suited their car with the upgrades,” Kravitz said, when asked if McLaren can maintain their strong form for the rest of the year.

“Lando took a bit of wing off as well. So the answer is I don’t know. Hungary will tell, but they will be in amongst the non-Max Verstappen championship for the rest of the season. It will depend on track conditions, tyres, track temperature, and tyre behaviour on whether they can sustain that and move up the Constructor’s order.

“Because they’ve been quite lowly, they are still far off the Constructors’ points of everybody else. So McLaren have only now got 59 whereas Aston Martin have got 181. They’re so far off. I know you can score a lot of points of a weekend and it can turn around quite quickly. But yeah, McLaren have got a bit of a way to go to get back up there in the Constructors’.”

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