in the last three races only harris and williams have scored fewer points than mclaren the four-point return from three grand prix marks mclaren's worst run in terms of points since the end of NUMBER_TOKEN when it managed four points from the final six races in its first season after splitting with honda clearly mclaren's not slumped to such a low point now but it shows just how out of form the team is at the moment and in the context of its fight with ferrari mclaren's been on the back foot a little while longer ferrari has now outscored mclaren in five consecutive races picking up NUMBER_TOKEN points in that period compared to mclaren's NUMBER_TOKEN. that has turned a NUMBER_TOKEN and a half point deficit for ferrari into a NUMBER_TOKEN and a half point advantage with two races to go ferrari introduced an upgraded hybrid system back in russia while mclaren's car remains largely unchanged since the summer break however while the extra performance from ferrari's power unit has helped swing the fight in its direction it does not fully explain mclaren's downturn the fact mercedes and red bull are pushing each other so hard in the pursuit of performance has played a part in stretching the gaps in the field mclaren's average deficit to the front over the triple header was NUMBER_TOKEN a little worse than its average for the season of NUMBER_TOKEN in fact mclaren even posted its worst deficit of the season in brazil where it was NUMBER_TOKEN percent off the pace but even though these races were among mclaren's worst they were not anonymously uncompetitive lando norris and daniel ricardo still made it to qNUMBER_TOKEN five times out of six between them during the triple header the real problem is they were never at the head of the midfield group mclaren had the fifth fastest car overall in each of the three events that comprised the triple header ferrari's pace has generally been stronger than mclaren since the introduction of its upgraded hybrid system but in all three events alpha towering driver pierre gasly was quicker than the best of the mclarens in qualifying and in qatar alpine was a shock interloper too fernando alonso was fifth fastest in qualifying and converted that into third in the race ferrari alfertari and mclaren's performance average for the season is similar with less than NUMBER_TOKEN percent covering the trio so it's no surprise to see the swings between the three over the triple header alpine's interference was more puzzling but it seemed that his car simply worked well at lasalle meanwhile mclaren struggled particularly in brazil and qatar with the long medium speed corners playing to the weaknesses of a car that has a high peak downforce level but struggles for balance on such configurations there's much more to come on what's going on at mclaren but before we get to that we just wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone who has subscribed to our channel so far it means a lot to us and if you'd like to keep up with everything that we're doing here at the race consider hitting that button at any time to join the team while mclaren's underlying pace across the triple header was nothing special by its standards its return of four points all taken by
START_INTERACTION_TOKEN there's much more to come on what's going on at mclaren but before we get to that we just wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone who has subscribed to our channel so far it means a lot to us and if you'd like to keep up with everything that we're doing here at the race consider hitting that button at any time to join the team END_INTERACTION_TOKEN