McLaren Needs To Find 0,5 Seconds In Pace To Stay Competitive In 2024

Monday, 11 December 2023 at 03:00

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella explained his team's philosophy behind developing next year's MCL61 car.

What are many people surprised to hear about when they get into Formula One, is that it is not only competition of the best drivers, but also a development race.

Moreover, it might be said it is a lot more of a race of manufacturers than a race of drivers because even the seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton showed during the last two seasons it is almost impossible to win a race without a competitive car.

Therefore, the winter break that just started is one of the most critical periods for the F1 teams. It is now that it gets determined whether or not they will be fighting for the Championship in 2024. Andrea Stella explained:

"You like to see what kind of progress you are making in the wind-tunnel, in the computer simulations, and you know that a certain rate will mean you are two-tenths, half-a-second, seven-tenths better at the start of a season."

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As Ferrari team principal said, in Formula One, it is always a matter of comparison. All teams will keep improving, but the one who improves the most compared to others wins. Stella continued:

"Realistically, we know that if we want to retain our competitiveness going into next season, you need to have half a second in hand, otherwise, you are moving backwards."

The McLaren team principal explained anything below 0,5 seconds would mean the team is not able to keep up with the development pace.

"It's because you would have become steady and everyone is catching up, so we will look at the data, and then based on that, we will position the entire team internally and externally."

Similar to his driver Lando Norris, the Italian wants to avoid predictions. On one hand, he described his team does not want to create false expectations:

"Our philosophy is to be very fair to what we know. We don't have to create false expectations because the reality will come to you in a violent way, and we don't want to find ourselves in that position."

On the other hand, the team principal also doesn't want his team to downplay the situation. McLaren went into the winter as the third-best team in the second half of a season. Stella added:

"At the same time, we don't want to downplay too much and then find out we weren't ready to fight at the front, and we didn't make good decisions based on that. We will just stick to the data, be realistic and be honest. That is our philosophy."