McLaren team principal Andrea Stella insists there are no concerns over the fragility of the MCL60 despite missing out on track time in pre-season testing and Friday practice for the Bahrain Grand Prix.
McLaren lost track time during testing last week having to strengthen the wheel brows on a number of occasions. With that issue fixed, more fragility concerns were raised when the team was seen spending time on Friday strengthening the mirrors during FP1.
Asked whether there was a ‘general concern’ about the fragility of some of the bodywork on the MCL60, Stella explained: “So, the issue at the test was actually with some parts that were a little fragile, we needed to maintain those parts, so that they wouldn’t fail. But actually, we are not concerned.”
“They’ve [wheel brows] been reinforced. So I would consider that one as a minor [issue], but impactful in terms of downtime, but not really impactful in terms of concern for the race
“And the mirror as well is a really minor one. So not concerned, nowhere near the difficulties we had at the start of the season last year with front brake cooling.”
McLaren have lost ground in the midfield battle over the winter break, but Stella believes some of this is due to how close the midfield looks to be in 2023.
“I think testing confirmed that, at the moment, we are a midfield car. The midfield is proving to be quite compact, a couple of tenths can move you to the top; a couple of tenths and you can be at the bottom of the midfield.
“I think, for us, the focus is to maximise the package in the short term, but at the same time, focus on delivering our upgrade programme.
“It is ambitious, it should unleash quite a lot of lap time over the course of the season. So, focus on short term, but also focus on development over the season.”
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