Lewis Hamilton urges Mercedes to “wake up and do more” after McLaren resurgence

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton has stated that McLaren's recent resurgence is a wake-up call for his team.

McLaren had a dream qualifying session in their home race at Silverstone as Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri qualified P2 and P3 respectively for the main race on Sunday. With their new upgrade package, the British team out-qualified the likes of Ferrari, Mercedes and Aston Martin.

Speaking to motorsport.com, Lewis Hamilton was complimentary of his former team's efforts. He also said that Mercedes needs to do more to catch up.

“Not surprised. I mean, if you look at the car, it makes sense. I'm really happy for them," Hamilton said. "They've had such a bad run for so long, so to be back up there is really, really great to see. If you just put it alongside a Red Bull, it looks very, very similar down the sides. It's working. It is great. We now have another team up in the mix, which is what we want to see in this sport.”

“It's not a blow. It's just a wake-up call for us. Others have overtaken us, and we need to do more. Of course, I'll try and be optimistic and do our best. But realistically, I'm not sure. We will find out. It was difficult to get past two Ferraris and then we've got two McLarens out there. It's going to be a tough race,” he added.

Mercedes team boss agrees with Lewis Hamilton's comments regarding McLaren

Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff agreed with Lewis Hamilton's comments regarding the physical similarities between the McLaren and Red Bull cars. However, he also pointed out that what you see from the outside is "only half the information."

Speaking to the media, including PlanetF1, Wolff said:

“I think from what you see from the outside, which is obviously only half the information, the car looks like a Red Bull. And as a matter of fact, to be honest, it doesn’t matter, because only the stopwatch counts. And this is what I guess Lewis was referring to, that this kind of design seems to be a good direction, but this is easier said than done."

He added:

“I think each of us had bodyworks that were perfectly good in the tunnel and it didn’t come out in performance, so you’ve got to leave no stone unturned and maybe look at it again, because another team just found a second in performance.”

It will be interesting to see if Lewis Hamilton (P7) and George Russell (P6) can challenge McLaren and Red Bull in the race on Sunday.