McLaren has no more major improvements coming this season
This season, McLaren was not supposed to bring any more "magical" improvements according to Andrea Stella. The best chances of beating Red Bull would have passed according to Norris.
McLaren should no longer get closer to Red Bull this season. The team’s director, Andrea Stella, said his team has no more “magical” improvements waiting, which could improve the race pace and reduce tire degradation. Moreover, the upcoming races (Mexico, Brazil, Las Vegas, Abu Dhabi) do not play in favor of McLaren’s cars. For Lando Norris, it seems that his best chances of getting his first career win this year are past. The MCL60 is more performant on high-speed circuits.
« We are realistic about the fact that this season, we will not have magic in terms of car development to really reduce lap times or significantly improve degradation », explained Andrea Stella. « But at the same time, we did not expect to lead the race for a full lap and a half in Austin. We look forward to the upcoming races and hope to achieve good results. »
Constant Improvements
McLaren started 2023 in pain. The British team finished the first Grand Prix of the year in Bahrain with its drivers in 20th and 17th place in the race. The early races of the season, up to Baku, were challenging, with few notable improvements on both cars. In Azerbaijan, Norris and Piastri were able to benefit from a new floor, and from Spielberg onwards, the engineers completely overhauled the aerodynamics of the vehicle by replacing every possible piece. These updates to both cars took place in three stages. Norris benefited from them a Grand Prix before Piastri.
These changes have brought about a significant transformation to the team, allowing Piastri to clinch the sprint pole position in Qatar, before going on to win it. Thanks to these performances, McLaren regularly confirmed its position as the second force on the paddock during the second half of the championship.
Despite the team’s rapid progress, some results may cause regret. « Mixed feelings » about the loss of victory in Austin, Andrea Stella is still satisfied with the weekend. « We are celebrating a podium here but at the same time, after the first relay, it seemed that we could have enough pace to finally win the victory », said the director of the Oranges.
« I would like to reaffirm that we are very happy with the podium and it is certainly something that everyone in the first few seconds after the race said: “Ah, pity we didn’t win”. I think everyone realizes the proportion there is to add a sequence of podiums this season thinking from where we started. But I also love this determination where, now, we are looking for the next step »
After achieving two big results in the last two sprints, the drivers will have the opportunity to repeat their performances in this format in Brazil.
