McLaren has revealed that its MCL38 Formula 1 car is showing promising signs comparable to the mid-season upgrades that revived the team’s competitiveness in 2023.
The Woking-based squad completed one of the most remarkable turnarounds in F1 history last term, recovering from struggling for points to registering regular podiums.
Having emerged as the most consistent challenger to Red Bull in the second half of the season, McLaren is bidding to build on that with a stronger start to this campaign.
However, Team Principal Andrea Stella has heeded caution regarding McLaren’s prospects in 2024, reiterating that a natural rate of development remains the priority.
When asked whether McLaren was on the precipice of greatness after last season, Stella told Speedcafe: “I don’t think it will be a precipice it will be more of a gradient.
“The ingredients are coming together. We need to work very carefully, with attention on how we make the recipe work.
“Sometimes, you may have good ingredients, but if you are not a good chef, these ingredients don’t necessarily produce the result you expect.
“This is one of the main areas for me and Zak [Brown, McLaren CEO] to work on making sure that these ingredients find the right way to combine all together. So far, we are happy with that.”
Following McLaren’s dreadful start to the previous campaign, Stella ushered a reorganisation of McLaren’s ranks with then Technical Director James Key departing.
The British outfit announced the acquisitions of David Sanchez (Car Concept & Performance) and Rob Marshall (Engineering & Design) from Ferrari and Red Bull respectively, with the pair commencing work last month alongside Peter Prodromou as part of a new three-pronged arrangement.
Stella admits that it will take time for the revised structure to operate seamlessly, but he has revealed that the team is optimistic about the data emanating from the MCL38.
“Definitely, for instance, including Rob Marshall and David Sanchez, while we have a nice structure in place, it will require adaptation of working ways, it will require integration of their ideas, the way they look at developing a car, so there’s certainly quite a lot of work ahead of us,” he explained.
“But we are very encouraged by the gradient.
“We keep seeing, even in this period of the winter, we are encouraged by the development of the car that we see in the background – like we saw before Austria or before Singapore.
“We need to keep momentum behind this gradient, but we also need to keep good work; we need also to keep our good culture to make sure that everyone keeps sticking together, collaborating in the way that we have been able to do in 2023.”
