System 1 | McLaren F1: Stella shows the goal of the development of Miami

McLaren F1 will bring development to Miami, and team principal Andrea Stella explains the purpose of these new parts. In particular, he hopes for better tire management which will be important for progress against the competition.

“For Miami, we will finally have the first series of developments made for our car” Stella confirmed in Shanghai. “This development will also try to improve tire damage, so we will try to see if we can make a step forward.”

“Considering the improvements we would need to make to be close to some of our competitors, I would say we need more than one set of developments to improve the tire’s behavior.”

“But in any case it’s a constant development. You can never assume it’s enough when it comes to keeping the tires in the right operating window. The next race will certainly be interesting from a tire point of view.”

“Especially if in Miami we have high temperatures like we had before, then the track becomes very small at the back, a lot of drag and cornering at low speed and then accelerating.”

Stella said it was clear that Red Bull and Ferrari still had the best ability to damage the rear tires a bit, and that the front placement was not as much of a problem as many had predicted in Shanghai.

“I think the track has been stable since the biggest obstacle is the overload of the rear axle. It is not surprising because this track, in terms of the asphalt, despite its amazing shape, is close to Bahrain and Suzuka.”

“We are aware that we are degrading more at the rear, and some cars are doing better than us, for example Ferrari and Red Bull. Regarding the shortcomings of the front, it is surprising to note that since we introduced the big tires, there has been much less grain in China than before 2017.”

Other factors helped McLaren perform better than expected in China.

“If we look at the sprint, we had a high temperature. Ferrari looked better, Max had a big advantage. I think there is a situation where there is more damage for us.”

“But the Grand Prix was under control. The rear was under control due to the cold. So it was a small combination of factors that contributed to the performance of our car.”

“Then what helped was the new regulations on the conditions for opening a closed field after the Sprint.”

“I think that some adjustments we made to the settings after the sprint helped the speed of the race, because we changed the car with the aim of improving the speed of the race, rather than the characteristics”

“So we were surprised that, even in qualifying, we were OK. But it seems like it helped the race. So a number of things helped us, not just one silver bullet.”