The McLaren team of Formula 1 is examining the reasons that led to a disappointing weekend at the Sepang circuit, a track that seemed favorable for its MCL40 model.
After a difficult performance on the streets of Baku, the team arrived in Malaysia with high expectations, hoping that the demands for high aerodynamic load would benefit their car. However, McLaren ended up qualifying as the fourth fastest car in the competition, on a complicated day on the worn asphalt of Sepang.
Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri finished in sixth and seventh positions, respectively, with a distance of six-tenths from poleman Max Verstappen. After an unexpected attempt to start on slick tires on a wet track, the best qualification of the day went to Piastri, who finished in sixth position.
Despite the risky move, McLaren’s performance did not seem to compete with the top teams, a fact that surprised, especially after the standout performances recently shown in Zandvoort and Madrid.
Andrea Stella, the team director, commented that although no anomalies were identified in the data, it is likely that other teams have advanced in their developments more aggressively. “We do not see any anomalies in our data. However, we must acknowledge that perhaps some competitors have evolved faster than us,” he said.
Stella emphasized that he does not want to make hasty conclusions based on a single difficult weekend, although he also noted that performance on challenging tracks like Malaysia can lead to particular conditions that affect the behavior of the car.
In this context, McLaren continues to await the arrival of some smaller developments that were in production, hoping for better performance in the last races of the season. Stella concluded: “There will be more components for the final grands prix, so we hope to take another step forward and fight for podiums again.”
Written by FormulaRapidaAI
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