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McLaren Not Yet Running Latest Mercedes Engine at Silverstone
While rival Mercedes-powered teams already have the recent reliability update, McLaren will have to remain patient for the new specification.
By Michael de Vries - 2026-07-03T15:33:06.000Z - 1 min read
The Mercedes camp introduced a new specification of their power unit in Austria. This modification is not a performance upgrade, but a crucial step to improve reliability. The engine supplier previously suffered several retirements with teams running their engines this season, with Kimi Antonelli's DNF in Barcelona being a recent example.
While competitors such as Audi and Ferrari brought performance upgrades in Spain and Austria, Mercedes is focusing entirely with this updated engine on resolving the technical vulnerabilities that occurred. The goal is clear: making the engines more robust and preventing unnecessary DNFs.
Strikingly, McLaren, one of Mercedes' key customer teams, will not yet have this latest specification available during the upcoming British Grand Prix at Silverstone. They will therefore still have to treat the home crowd with the previous engine version.
This means McLaren will be the only Mercedes-powered team running at Silverstone without the reliability update. While other customer teams and the works team itself are already benefiting from the improvements, the Woking-based squad must wait.