Edd Straw

It seems a bit early, doesn't it, John, in there?

They're on a curve that could take them to race wins this year, but in a normal race, by which I mean one that plays out in a straightforward fashion and is one kind of on merit without safety cars or any other interventions from the outside, it's hard to see that Red Bull having...

the speed to do that.

weekend Red Bull will be in that mix but I think you've got to look towards McLaren and Mercedes yeah McLaren have been interesting haven't they Matt you weren't embedded with McLaren last year but they were the arch rival weren't they ultimately and so obviously you've got a good appreciation for for how they work are you surprised by how quickly they've leapt forward this year because

They do embody quite a few of the traits that we talk about with Red Bull now in terms of how quickly they turn things around and develop.

Yeah, we are seeing, obviously, these swings from track to track because there's kind of two factors when it comes to the energy recovery site because you've got the actual harvesting, which you can work out kind of how much braking there is and get kind of, well, roughly...

That's how many kilowatts you can harvest just with a normal lap.

But then it's what the straight configurations are, isn't it?

And that means that it's not kind of two-dimensional calculating that, isn't it, John?

But if you're Mercedes, how worried are you about McLaren?

Because Mercedes had reasserted itself, the works team back on top, and now...

They've got the customer team that they were very nice about for the past couple of years when they were struggling.

But the last thing they want really is the customer team being a genuine rival.

And they look like they're on a trajectory where they could potentially surpass Mercedes.

It's funny, isn't it?

Because McLaren have become the thing that Mercedes desperately didn't want to happen with Red Bull because there were a few times when actually a Mercedes engine deal for Red Bull started to get quite close, but it was always scotched because you do not want a team like that having your power unit.

And now they've got McLaren there doing exactly the thing they wanted Red Bull not to do.

Matt, what do you make of McLaren in terms of the way they work and as a counterpoint to, say, Red Bull?

Also, they've got a slightly different leadership.

I mean, Stella, you could say roughly is equivalent to Laura Mechia's.