McLaren boss Andrea Stella believes the perception that the team has lost ground to Red Bull Racing in 2024 is mistaken. He argues that Red Bull’s focus on innovations for the 2024 car last season created this impression.
After an impressive leap forward last season, McLaren was seen as Red Bull’s main rival. However, Ferrari has taken on that role so far this year, with five podiums and a one-two finish at the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix.
Even so, McLaren took advantage of a bad weekend for Ferrari in China to take second place with Lando Norris. Stella believes that the team continues to evolve, even if Red Bull’s decision to suspend innovative projects in the RB20 gives the feeling of a drop in McLaren’s performance.
“If we consider the period of twelve months, we have certainly evolved more than anyone else,” said Stella. “Red Bull didn’t develop much last year. Clearly, they were working hard behind the scenes because they innovated this year’s car drastically.”
“To innovate like they did, it takes months of redesign. They did all this work, and when they presented the new car, it was a huge leap forward. So even though we apparently lost ground, I think we lost because we gained a lot of ground before, while they weren’t developing,” he said.
“That’s why I think we need to look at things long term. We are on a strong trajectory. If we continue at this pace of development over the next twelve months, we can catch up to Red Bull,” he added.
Stella has previously said that McLaren needs to replicate last season’s development to compete with Ferrari on a consistent basis. The former Ferrari racing engineer reiterated that the British team will bring updates to the MCL38 in Miami to try and close the small gap.
“We will have some updates in Miami,” Stella continued. “Let’s see how they behave. It’s like that for everyone. There are a lot of people at the factory focused on generating development. It’s always a battle of evolution.”
“We have already seen teams like Sauber and Haas evolve their cars and consistently enter Q3. That’s the real work in Formula 1, constantly improving the cars. And that’s what we have to do”, added Stella.
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