McLaren's new car upgrade brings hope of fightback against Mercedes at Miami GP

Former IndyCar driver and F1 TV presenter James Hinchcliffe believes the Miami Grand Prix is McLaren’s best opportunity to beat Mercedes.

After an unexpected five-week break following the cancellation of the Saudi Arabian and Bahrain Grands Prix, the Miami Grand Prix provides teams a chance to take a reset before the race at the Hard Rock Stadium.

The FIA and Formula 1 have also made tweaks to the regulations following complaints and safety concerns which, along with the break, could also see a reshuffle in the pecking order.

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has revealed the Woking outfit will be bringing an almost entirely new car to the Miami Grand Prix, which it has won for the past two years.“It’s almost like a reset to the season,” Hinchcliffe said on the F1 Nation Podcast. “With this amount of time off, the information, all the data the teams have from the first three rounds, we know that everybody is bringing a lot of upgrades.I think they have as good a chance as anyone in the top three teams.

We have to remember that Mercedes has been very quick here as well in the last few years, especially Kimi Antonelli’s performance here last year was incredibly impressive.But this could certainly be the best chance McLaren's had all season because it's a little bit of a reset and they've historically run well here.

"They feel confident going into this race," said Hinchcliffe's co-host and former F1 driver Jolyon Palmer. The new car is all the talk. They've already flagged Miami as an upgrade opportunity, which they did a couple of years ago when Norris got his first win with a massively upgraded car. And they've done the same thing this year.I think they knew they were on the back foot after pushing so hard for the title last season. So they were getting through those first races and then Miami was going to be a target.

”Now obviously it's better for them that the 2 Middle Eastern races didn't happen because they've got that deficit. I don't know if they'll win it. "I don't know if they'll be able to fight but they've got the Mercedes power unit that they're getting more on top of," he said.And that extra half hour of free practice I think could be so important for them with the amount of upgrades we're expecting on the car".

I think we’ll see this weekend if they can fight for the title.”“I think we’ll see if they’re going to be close enough, because if they don’t make enough strides here then I don’t think they’ll catch up over the year.”