Andrea Stella is surprised how McLaren has performed with just the one big update in first half of F1 2024, as he adds on competition now.
Ever since the midway of the 2023 F1 season, McLaren has made significant inroads. After how their winter went last year, it was not expected to see where the Woking-based team is at the moment i.e fighting for race wins and podiums being regular.
The steps they have taken with their updates, it has mostly worked out well for them in terms of gaining time and performance. In fact, they are the only ones in the front-running teams to yield results due to their updates where even Red Bull has dropped out.
Team principal Stella is surprised by their own achievement, considering that they only had one big update in Miami this year and they are already excelling albeit now gaining ground which they lost to Red Bull at the start of the 2024 F1 season.
And they have more to come in the second half. “In terms of the ATR, I’m not sure, effectively, Red Bull have taken trackside more developments so far, in terms of physical parts delivered, when you look at the submission, than what we have done,” said Stella to media. “But definitely, I can talk for McLaren.
“We seem to be now in condition to cash in some of this development that we have accrued in the ground, and I would expect that for the second part of the season, we will have at multiple times, some new parts. In a way, I’m surprised that we’ve been so competitive, considering that from Miami onwards, we haven’t actually brought trackside many new parts.
“So it means that obviously the Miami upgrade was was big. There’s some upgrades that will come in the second part of the season, yes. We have gone 50% of the journey [in sorting our weakness]. I’m more confident that at high downforce, we have the car in a good place, like the car does what we want in terms especially of aerodynamic behaviour.
“But we haven’t yet done a lot of development at lower drag level. So to me it’s not a surprise that in Belgium, we were not as competitive as Hungary and it’s not a surprise that for the same, or a little bit better top speed, still we were losing quite a bit in the second sector.
“It means that if we want to gain speed, we will give up quite a lot of grip. But I hope that in future, possibly next year in Belgium we have completed this quest to have the most efficient car, even when top speed is important,” summed up Stella, who wanted to quash down the notion about McLaren being the best car currently.
He feels it depends on circumstances and that there are four teams who are more or less on par at the moment and it depends on the variable factors. “I’m not surprised [by pace of rivals], but I keep receiving observations that McLaren is like the best car,” said Stella. “I always keep putting some water on the fire and say like ‘there’s four cars that are pretty much at the same level, and there’s a bit of a bit of variability, which is a function of the track’.
“It’s a function even of the conditions to some extent. Like in Belgium’s hot temperatures, Mercedes did a good job of making the tyres last that long. It’s all to be proven that we would have been in condition to do such a long stint, because we saw different times this year like, for instance, completely different conditions.
“But even in Silverstone, Lando and Hamilton, they both had used soft. Hamilton somehow managed to keep them alive and win the race in Silverstone, for us, the tyres went off. In some other conditions, we actually seem to be good with tyres, so it looks like it is everything so close together that some small factors and variable circumstances can modify the pecking order. And like I always say, this is really good and interesting for Formula 1.”
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