Andrea Stella expands on what has gone wrong for McLaren with the MCL60 as they talk about being optimistic and catching up the rivals as season progresses.
Already during the launch of the MCL60, there were chatter about McLaren not actually meeting the targets what they wanted to with the car. With no runs done, no could assess that but with two days done in Bahrain, they now can confirm about being a bit behind.
McLaren boss Zak Brown admitted about not meeting the development targets and new team principal Stella has now expanded on what went wrong for them over the winter. The Italian noted that they achieved most of the targets that they had set up.
But they fell short on the aerodynamic efficiency side which is one of the biggest challenges in the sport. In fact, the development direction they took from last year to this, Stella admits it to be a touch slower than what he can see their rivals have done.
The realisation came too late for them to take that option as Stella reckons they are probably three months behind to what McLaren can see and assess from their rivals. The Italian is not surprised about it because they could already see it coming over the winter.
It is now about getting trough it and bringing the updates which will help them take that step forward. He is not looking at a B-spec car with a lot of changes, but the changes will be enough to help improve the aerodynamic side of car. He also clarified that they were not affected by the regulations.
Stella was open to admit that they just didn’t develop fast enough. Regarding the first few rounds, the Italian is 50-50 where he has out it down to conditions and situations with regards to Q1 knockout or being in Q3 but he is clear that the car is not in the Top 4 range.
How has been the test, what’s lacking –
Stella: “I think based on what I’ve seen in these two days, our performance is pretty much where I expected it to be. No surprises. The data correlates with what we were expecting from an aerodynamic point of view. Even performance-wise, for whatever is possible to assess based on lap times in tests, where we know that lap times can depend on fuel level, engine modes and conditions, I am not sure how much of this is noticeable but the track keeps changing in terms of were it is from a lap point of view, like towards the end of Day 2, the track became quite quick, so very difficult to assess. So far for us we would say, no surprises, we know we have work to do. But if we think about the season, it is long, and there can be variations in the competitive order. And, like I said already in the car launch, we know there’s a good development rate. That’s where we are focusing. So I think the start will have to be realistic. But in terms of looking ahead to the season, we remain optimistic.”
What happened –
Stella: “Last year, we had some clear objectives in terms of development, they had to do with aerodynamic efficiency, some development related to the exploitation of the tyres, tyre usage and also some other objectives to improve the balance. The reality is that most of these objectives have actually been met. But the objective in terms of aerodynamic efficiency of the car, that’s the one where we are still shy of what was our target. So some of the objectives have been met. Aerodynamic efficiency is still not where we would like it to be, or where we would like it to be a Top 4 contender. So I would say that’s the one in which we are still short.”
Not too optimistic from word go despite talk of it –
Stella: “I wouldn’t call it a problem. In F1, the material you have right now trackside is material that you had two or three months ago in development. So the good news is that we have good development streams going on and they will land trackside in some weeks. Obviously when you know you have a good development ongoing, you kind of realise, maybe our competitors already have it. So it is reference to yourself that this game is very competitive if you slow down in terms of development rate, you can’t presume that it can happen the same to others, that’s why you see me not necessarily the most optimistic now, but rather more optimistic for what’s coming in the season.”
Realisation of problem and how to asses rivals being ahead –
Stella: “I think that’s the topic in one which I can’t disclose too many details but in general, lets say, tat we realised probably late that there were some development directions that had more potential in terms of development rate and also in terms of the development over a longer period but we didn’t realise early enough to actually put this development directions to the part of the launch specification of the car. The fact that you assume that our competitors have this level of development, you look at some other cars, the geometry of the car is visible, so it is just looking at competitors and also looking at yourself as I said before, it is not only relative to what you see in other cars is also like we understand this direction now and then you see that you should have been there already three months ago, lets say.”
Q1 knockout situation –
Stella: “I think we will see again that the midfield is very compact. And this means that if you don’t do a good enough job, even in setting up and maximising what you have, you may struggle to get out of Q1. At the same time, you might be a Q3 contender. So I think the fork is relatively open, it is relatively wide. I think when I’m talking about competitiveness, at the moment, I would say our objective through the season is to be a Top 4 car. At the moment, I would say we are not necessarily in this range.”
B-spec car wen updates comes, slowed due to regulations –
Stella: “Not necessarily. We are under definition of the package itself but there are a couple of components where we see that there’s quite a bit of lap time sensitivity, let’s say, I can’t say what. So, not necessarily that will look like a completely different car, but some of the changes seem to make a significant difference for aerodynamic efficiency. It’s not an effect of the changes of regulation. And we didn’t take a step backwards. We just didn’t develop fast enough.”
Here’s Zak Brown on McLaren not meeting development targets
Here’s Zak Brown on new F1 teams
Here’s Andrea Stella on learning from other bosses
Here’s Mark Webber explaining Oscar Piastri situation
