McLaren’s big jump forward on the grid at the British Grand Prix has convinced Mercedes to bring forward the date it switches focus to next year’s car.

Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri qualified second and third and raced to second and fourth respectively at the British Grand Prix. McLaren was denied a double podium only by a poorly timed safety car that promoted Lewis Hamilton to a fortunate third place at Piastri’s expense.

It’s not the first time this season Mercedes has been seriously challenged by an engine customer.

Aston Martin burst strongly from the blocks at the start of the season and would still be ahead in second in the constructors standings if Lance Stroll scored as heavily as lead driver Fernando Alonso.

McLaren’s upturn in performance casts a harsh new light on Mercedes’s efforts to turn around its difficult start to competition under the current regulations given its major philosophy-changing upgrade introduced in Monaco appears to have flopped.

“They’re now getting to the tipping point where they’re going to start shifting more of their eggs into the 2024 basket,” Speedcafe European editor Ian Parkes told the Fox Sports Pit Talk podcast. “It’s almost getting to that point now where they’re going to almost have a complete redesign of the car going into 2024.

“Even though they’ve almost had a complete redesign recently, they are still not quite there. They know they’re not there with where this car should be.

“Third and fifth in the race is not good enough for them. This is a team that has to be constantly fighting at the front.

“It’s got to be at the front winning titles, winning grands prix. So for Toto it’s now getting to the point where 2024 is going to be their focus, not what they can do this season.

“The primary focus now is going to start shifting to the 2024 car and seeing what they can do with that and hopefully then challenge Red Bull.”

Wolff didn’t put a time line on the change other than that it would arrive sooner rather than later.

“I think pretty soon,” he said, per Autosport. “We have no choice.

“P2 or P3 fundamentally doesn‘t impact me and the team. It’s about coming back and being able to win a world championship in that respect. That’s not going to happen this year.

“So we need to set our eyes to next year and then, at all the races to come, learn and develop and make sure that we can carry that forward into next year.”

But returning to competitiveness isn’t as easy as looking to next season.

All teams are restricted to the same annual cost cap and development restrictions based on their position in the constructors standings. Mercedes is second this season, up from third at the end of 2022, so have lost some wind tunnel time for the next six months.

The cost and development caps were introduced to equalise the field, though ironically both appear to be playing a role in maintaining Red Bull Racing’s advantage.

“It’s a double-edged sword,” Pit Talk host Michael Lamonato said. “It’s been interesting to hear Toto Wolff talk this year and even a little bit last year about how in previous times he would’ve been free to just spend his way out of this problem.

“We would’ve been talking about a genuine B-spec chassis on the Mercedes had they decided, as they did this year, to completely overhaul the car.

“But it’s not possible under not only the cost cap but even the development restrictions the team have.

“You can see that working [for equalisation]. The field behind Red Bull, who have all be caught one step behind, are converging — but you do have one team at the moment under the current system that can’t be caught this year.

“We just have to hope next year the step can be made.”

Red Bull Racing has also signalled it is already looking to 2024 given its considerable pace advantage, which will counteract any early switches from rival teams looking to completely overhaul their cars and start fresh for next season.

“We talk about Mercedes having a six-month start for next year’s rules. Christian Horner has already talked about Red Bull Racing looking at next year as well because of their development restrictions,” Lamonato said.

The latest episode of Pit Talk, hosted by Michael Lamonato along with Speedcafe’s Mat Coch and Ian Parkes, is live now wherever you get your favourite podcasts and also on YouTube.