McLaren 'Uncertain' Where They Stand In Relation To Rivals After Promising End Of Season
F1Tuesday, 09 January 2024 at 23:00
Andrea Stella discussed McLaren's position ahead of the 2024 season, saying he is uncertain where his team stands compared to rivals.
McLaren F1 team seemed to be in the best position out of the teams behind Red Bull going into the winter break. The team proved they could make great development progress, and they had drivers to deliver the results.
The Papaya team's principal, Andrea Stella, believes his team has all the "ingredients" needed to perform better in the Championship compared to 2023. He told Speedcafe on the KTM Summer Grill:
"We want to do better. The ingredients now have the potential to do better than the fourth. It will be a long season, so we will see at the start of the season where we are."
McLaren worked on upgrading their facilities, and the team also has two key members joining them, coming from Red Bull and Ferrari.
Zak Brown, the CEO of McLaren, recently said he felt good about the current state of his team. He anticipates a "much stronger start" to the upcoming season. Stella, on the other hand, tempered expectations by saying he doesn't know where McLaren's rivals stand.
"We are uncertain because we don't know our competitors, how much they will be able to improve over the winter, but if we take the 2023 season as an indication, after Austria, McLaren is the team that scored the most points after Red Bull."
The evidence suggests McLaren should have a strong 2024 season regardless of whether the team will be able to challenge Red Bull for the title or not. The team principal added that the team's current goal is to start the season ideally at least in second place.
"And Lando [Norris] is actually the driver that scored the most points after [Max] Verstappen. So it will be a terrific result to be able to confirm this second."
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