McLaren and Williams complete shakedown at Silverstone

McLaren and Williams have become the first teams to perform the first shakedown runs with their 2021 Formula One cars by completing filming days at Silverstone.

After unveiling their brand-new 2021 F1 car on Monday, McLaren completed a shakedown run yesterday with Daniel Ricciado and Lando Norris getting their first taste of the MCL35M at Silverstone. The first run presented a very important moment for the Woking-based outfit as it intends to complete a smooth switch from the Renault to the Mercedes power units.

Ricciardo, who has joined McLaren after leaving the Renault F1 Team at the end of last year, said that the first runs with the heavily-revised car were as expected.

“I think McLaren started [this season] on the right foot with the fire up – that was a day early And first day of running on track, everything’s been smooth. You can’t ask for too much more at this part of the season. Everything’s firing on all cylinders for now – we’re all good.

“The target is to get to [the Bahrain Grand Prix on] Sunday afternoon, be on the grid and for there to be no inch of panic,. It is really just about feeling comfortable, familiar with all the crew. So we’re going through all that, we’re going through scenarios that we would face on a race weekend. We don’t have the atmosphere around us now, but we can certainly try and replicate it and put a little bit of pressure on ourselves,” he said.

Today belonged to the Williams F1 Team as the Grove-based outfit took its new car to Silverstone where the team’s unchanged driver line-up of Nicholas Latifi and George Russell had their first taste of the new Williams FW43B. The new car will be unveiled on Friday March 5, one week before pre-season testing in Bahrain begins.

Despite the chilly weather conditions, the team did not encounter any major issues during the filming day on which they were restricted to a maximum of 100km of running and Pirelli’s demonstration tyres.

The team, which has collected a total of 9 Constructors’ Championship titles, has undergone significant changes following the departure of the Williams family, who sold the team to investment firm Dorilton Capital, with Jost Capito drafted in as CEO, Jenson Button confirmed as Senior Advisor and the appointment of Simon Roberts as Team Principal.