System 1 | It was ‘important’ for McLaren F1 to start the season in the top 3 but…

The start of the 2023 season seems so far away, where McLaren F1 was in serious trouble with its car and was fighting at the bottom of the standings. From now on, the Woking team are firmly in the top 3 and aiming for more.

But have the goals been achieved so far in 2024? Andrea Stella, director of the British team, answered this question in China.

“Regarding our expectations, we are happy to reinforce the development trend that we started 12 months ago. I think it was important to be part of the first group of cars at the beginning of the season. Third place in the standings, at this time, is something we are happy with, but ultimately we want to fight to win races if possible, improve progress and make improvements to the car.”

We might have expected McLaren F1 to be closer to Red Bull this year given the progress made in the second half of last season, but Stella doesn’t necessarily see it that way.

“It is not necessary to compare with Red Bull, because I think, as I said before, Red Bull did not develop their car last year, so we expected them to gain important knowledge in the last season that they could be sponsored by this year’s car. In this sense, we are happy to combine it” The gap with Red Bull But now we want to try to reduce it as soon as possible more important than ours so it established itself as the second best team.

Stella is ‘happy’ with the change in the parc ferme law

Before heading into the weekend, Lando Norris didn’t see his MCL38 shine on the Shanghai track. Was this also the opinion of the Italian leader?

“The reason for that expectation is that until now statistically when we see that we are losing time compared to other cars, it is low speed corners, long corners, those with more than 90 degrees, we are losing time. compared to the cars around us On the lap, we can be faster, but in this type of corner, we lose time And in China, “There are a lot of these long corners and low corners. So that’s why we expected it from the point of view of competition.”

With the rule changes regarding the parc ferme this season, we can imagine that the Sprint weekend approach will be adjusted, and Stella was eager to welcome them.

“The changes to the parc ferme are logical, they are a good step forward in terms of controlling the sprint weekend. They give you more room to be aggressive, I would say, from an adjustment point of view, to try to see if there is that last millimeter that you can use, for example in the ride length thing, you know you can adjust it after the Sprint so I’m very happy that we have the opportunity to adjust the performance.”