ZANDVOORT, Netherlands, Aug 24 (Reuters) - McLaren have taken a big step forward and Mercedes no longer have the quickest car in Formula One, championship leader Kimi Antonelli said after Sunday's Dutch Grand Prix.
McLaren's reigning champion Lando Norris celebrated his second win in a row from pole position at Zandvoort, with Antonelli and Mercedes teammate George Russell second and third ahead of Ferrari pair Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc.
"We’re clearly not the fastest car anymore on the grid," said Antonelli, who won five races in a row earlier in the season.
"We’re probably second or third, at least in today’s race, and McLaren has taken a huge step, especially since Hungary, since the big upgrade package they brought."
Norris, who lost out to Antonelli at the race restart and then had to overtake him on track, questioned that assertion however.
"I don’t think it’s true. I think if I didn’t get Kimi when I overtook him, I don’t think I would have won the race," he said.
"For once I would give myself a little bit of credit that I feel like I’m doing a better job than everyone, and I think that can also make a difference.
"We certainly have a car now capable of beating them ... but I think they have a better all-round performing car than what we do."
Zandvoort, and Budapest's Hungaroring before that, played to McLaren's strengths but some of the tracks coming up may be less favourable.
Ferrari can be expected to go well at their home grand prix at Monza early next month, with upgrades in the pipeline, while Antonelli faces hefty grid penalties for an engine change.
A TOUGHER RIDE
Mercedes are still way ahead of Ferrari and McLaren in the constructors' championship and scored more points (46 to McLaren's 43 and Ferrari's 31) than anyone else over the weekend.
"We have a strong car in certain areas. It’s not like last year where we were pretty good everywhere," said Norris.
"We’re very, very strong in high speed, and that’s the place we’ve improved the car the most, is high-speed performance. No one matches us in high speed, and that’s a good thing.
"But the advantage that they (Mercedes) have to us in slow speed is also crazy. And therefore, I don’t have the confidence to say 'yeah, I can easily fight for a championship for the rest of the season.
"I know I’ve just won two races in a row and had two poles in a row, but at the minute I don’t have the car I need to fight for a championship," added the Briton, who is 83 points behind Antonelli with another 11 rounds remaining unless the situation in the Middle East forces a calendar change.
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said cost-cap restrictions meant Mercedes did not have the money to put developments on the car as fast as they might like to.
"We are trying to evenly split that through the season based on our calculations of when we can bring the biggest updates and optimising the championship points," he told reporters.
"So the ride has been a bit tougher than at the beginning of the year."
McLaren principal Andrea Stella said he expected Mercedes to accelerate their car's development regardless.
"I'm sure their car in the wind tunnel is quite a bit faster than the car they have on track," said the Italian.
"And they will want to now convert some of this potential into upgrades that make it to the real car. I'm just pretty sure that they will have upgrades."
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
