What do McLaren have in the pipeline to turn their season around?

McLaren has confirmed that a significant upgrade package is scheduled to arrive for the Hungarian Grand Prix, with CEO Zak Brown and Team Principal Andrea Stella both expressing confidence that the new parts will help close the gap to the front-runners.

Ahead of the British Grand Prix weekend, Brown was asked how McLaren's development programme compared to those of Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes.

While acknowledging that Ferrari and Red Bull have been aggressive with their upgrade schedules, he stressed that it is still too early in the season to judge which team has won the development race.

Brown praised Ferrari and Red Bull for the progress they have made so far: "Ferrari and Red Bull have been very, very close. If you look at the list, it doesn’t necessarily always give you a clear story, but I think Ferrari and Red Bull have done a fantastic job with their upgrades."

He also believes McLaren has made good progress, even if many of its latest developments have yet to reach the track. According to Brown, comparing the number of upgrades introduced by each team can be misleading because every outfit follows its own timetable.

"We’ve done a fantastic job with their upgrades. We’re a little bit behind. I think it’s very early in the season to draw conclusions because you don’t know when everyone’s going to deploy their upgrades."

While Ferrari has already introduced several new components, Brown revealed that McLaren has a similarly extensive development programme in the pipeline.

"So hopefully we’ll have as many as Ferrari has and you don’t know when their next one’s coming."

He explained that McLaren has deliberately delayed introducing some of its new parts until they reach the desired level of performance.

"So I think the whole story is a bit early in the year because, you deploy them when they’re ready. They got them ready earlier than ours," continued the American.

Brown added that McLaren is unwilling to rush components onto the car before they are fully validated.

"We have just as many upgrades coming, we just haven’t put them on the race car yet because they’re not quite at the level that we’d like it to be before we produce the parts."

Despite the different approaches, Brown reiterated his admiration for two of McLaren's main rivals: "Clearly Ferrari and Red Bull have done a fantastic job."

Following the British Grand Prix, Team Principal Andrea Stella confirmed that McLaren's next major step forward is planned for the Hungarian Grand Prix, the final race before Formula 1's summer break.

Stella admitted that Silverstone clearly demonstrated where the team still needs to improve: "The clearest takeaway from this weekend is that we must improve the performance of the car."

He acknowledged that McLaren still lacks the pace required to fight consistently at the front: "We have a consistent gap to the front-runners that we need to close if we are to be in contention for podiums and wins, which is our ultimate goal."

The Italian also revealed that the team is preparing an extensive package of updates for Budapest.

"We have some major upgrades planned for Hungary, and until then, the entire team trackside and at the factory must continue to work hard and maximise every opportunity."