McLaren boss Andrea Stella has revealed the team will introduce upgrades past the summer break as it strives to beat Red Bull to the 2024 Formula 1 championship.
The Woking-based squad’s progress and Sergio Perez’s struggles have seen the gap in the Constructors’ standings be reduced to 42 points with 10 rounds remaining.
McLaren has outscored Red Bull in each round since bringing a comprehensive development package to Miami which inspired Lando Norris to attain his maiden win.
That trend continued despite Red Bull accelerating updates to the Hungarian Grand Prix prior to the shutdown earlier this month, which saw McLaren bag a 1-2 result.
But with McLaren having added minimal new parts since that Miami bundle, Stella has expressed surprise that the side has remained competitive relative to its rivals.
Asked whether having 10 per cent more wind tunnel testing time versus Red Bull will improve McLaren’s chances, Stella responded: “In terms of the ATR, I’m not sure.
“Effectively, Red Bull have taken trackside more developments so far, in terms of physical parts delivered, when you look at the submission, than what we have done.
“But definitely, I can talk for McLaren. We seem to be now in condition to cash in some of these developments that we have accrued in the ground.
“I would expect that for the second part of the season we will have, at multiple times, some new parts.
“In a way, I’m surprised that we’ve been so competitive, considering that from Miami onwards we haven’t actually brought trackside many new parts.
“So it means that obviously the Miami upgrade was big, but there’s some upgrades that will come in the second part of the season, yes.”
McLaren has the equal least victories among the leading quartet in the championship, as the team has lamented wasting multiple opportunities over recent months.
Despite Max Verstappen incurring a 10-place grid drop at Spa-Francorchamps, it was Mercedes who capitalised as Norris lamented an error at the start costing him.
However, with Oscar Piastri extending McLaren’s podium run to 10 in a row, Stella viewed McLaren’s Belgium weekend in a positive light as it cut into Red Bull’s lead.
“You can identify cases in which if we had a perfect weekend, then I would say potentially yesterday we could have qualified one or two positions ahead,” he added.
“I don’t think we could beat Red Bull yesterday [in qualifying], we didn’t have enough grip to do so.
“Then today with the little issue with Lando, the little issue at the pit stop [with Piastri], the reality is that nobody has a perfect event, it’s just impossible.
“I think we are actually quite satisfied with the level of consistency and robustness we have as a team.
“The only team where the drivers have scored points at every single event, mega reliability so far, I’ve lost the counting of how many points in a row.
“10 podiums in a row, so many opportunities to do better, but the big picture is of a very strong and consistent team. And this should be remarked.
“Today, I think it’s still important that we gain points of Red Bull, because if you had told me before the race, are you going to gain points of Red Bull, I’m not so sure.
“Because I was expecting Verstappen to come through, and if you see last year’s race, Perez finished something like 10 seconds, 15 seconds from Verstappen for a 1-2.
“So, we gained 8 points, 43 [sic, 42] now behind, I take the positive, and we keep working on the opportunities.”
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