McLaren team boss Stella: “Why can’t we win the race this year?”

McLaren is in a better position after four races than in the same period last year. The change came in the middle of the 2023 season and the team reported Lando Norris in Oscar Piastri compete for the platform. McLaren is currently third on the grid behind Red Bull and Ferrari, but team boss Andrea Stella is hoping for similar growth to last year.

“It looks like we lost in Japan, but we are working hard to be more competitive in the near future,” Stella said on the F1 Nation podcast. “Ferrari is really not far away and it will definitely be a battle with the development of the car this year. There is a little bit of performance gained with development. That is our main goal, to get more performance.”

“It’s good to see that we’re only ten behind at this stage. Suzuka goes downhill and it’s easy to pass. So it’s hard to put fast cars behind you, even if you had a strong qualifying. This means that the results reflect the difference between us, but when of the race it became clear that this was not the case.

Stella thinks she can already hit the ground running in Miami. “Even though it’s a race weekend, we can bring extra performance to the car. This will be followed by one or two more development phases during the season. The first message I give to everyone at McLaren is that we want to hold on to third place. “It seems to be good and we can focus on the battle with Ferrari. If we grow as good as last year, why can’t we win the race this year? It may sound arrogant, but I think that is possible. That must be McLaren’s thinking and we are working hard on that.”