Andrea Stella, team principal of the McLaren Formula 1 team, has expressed that his team needs to intensify its development program to be able to compete with Mercedes and other leading teams. In the current season, McLaren has consistently lagged behind the cars led by Mercedes.
During the last race at the Austrian Grand Prix, the team did not present any significant improvements, which showed that both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri qualified in sixth and seventh position, respectively, more than four tenths behind poleman George Russell.
Stella has admitted that McLaren is two to three months behind Mercedes in aerodynamic development. He has urged his team to increase the intensity of their update program to keep pace with a level of competition that, according to him, has never been seen before in Formula 1.
The director stated that “we need to make progress in our development” and that the best way to do this is to “outpace our competitors” in this area. According to Stella, there are promising improvements in the pipeline, especially in terms of aerodynamic upgrades, but these need to materialize on the track as soon as possible.
In analyzing the current situation, he pointed out that their car, the MCL40, has aspects that require attention. The head of McLaren revealed that the speed deficit with Mercedes is distributed between the corners and the straights, with 70% attributed to the superior aerodynamic downforce generation of their rivals.
Moreover, he stated that part of their lack of competitiveness on the straights may be due to greater aerodynamic drag. “We are working to understand why we have this power deficit, as well as how to exploit our power units,” Stella concluded, with a clear goal of closing the gap with their competitors.
Written by FormulaRapidaAI
