McLaren boss Andrea Stella has denied that the huge qualifying margin Lando Norris held at Formula 1’s Dutch Grand Prix was all down to the team’s latest upgrades.
Norris stormed to his third pole position this season with a stellar closing lap in Q3 to wind up 0.356 seconds quicker than home hero Max Verstappen in the Red Bull.
McLaren has taken over Red Bull’s mantle as the recognised quickest side on the grid since implementing upgrades in Miami which inspired Norris to his maiden win.
The Woking-based squad has retained that edge over the competition despite deciding to bring minimal new components in recent months as its rivals have updated.
However, Stella has insisted that it would be wrong to attribute Norris’ dominant advantage over Verstappen at Zandvoort to the newest developments on the MCL38.
Instead, the Italian has highlighted how the track characteristics, cooler temperatures and Norris producing a stellar lap were also aspects that contributed to the gap.
“I think we cannot read into the gap from pole position to second as being a reflection of the upgrades that we took trackside,” he told media including Motorsport Week.
“The upgrades do not deliver this amount of performance.
“I think what we are seeing today is the combination of several conditions that help our car deliver a strong performance.
“First of all, I would classify this circuit in the category of Hungary, Barcelona, in which we have long corners in the medium speed range, which do suit our car characteristics very well.
“And, in fact, we have pole position in Barcelona and in Hungary as well.
“Then the second factor is certainly the upgrades.
“Numerically, they seem like they have confirmed the expectations, so they did add some lap time compared to what was already a competitive baseline.
“Then we were in conditions today, if we want to mention a third factor.
“There was no sunshine, those relatively coldish track and ambient temperature conditions, which again seem to suit our car.
“And then I would say today we have seen also a bit of the Lando Norris factor, because I am not surprised at all, that Lando can put together this kind of performance.
“He has done it in the past. And here it seems like, in fairness, it seems like he has been in great shape throughout the entire weekend.
“So I think all these factors compounded may give this kind of result, which obviously is very encouraging.
“But I would take it with a pinch of salt, because all these factors may vary once we go to the next event.”
Stella has expressed that converting pole position would take on more significance due to Verstappen’s unbeaten run at Zandvoort and McLaren’s previous struggles.
“Even if I’m an engineer, I do recognise that beating Red Bull and Max here would have a special kind of flavour,” he admitted.
“Even if numerically it may give the same amount of points, but definitely this would have a special meaning.
“I would add to the special meaning the fact that Zandvoort has been a bit of a struggle for McLaren in terms of track layout, it’s been a place where we haven’t performed very well.
“So if we can confirm a strong performance tomorrow in the race, then this would be extremely encouraging in terms of the strides forward that we’ve been able to make.
“And it’s interesting that actually the points of strength now, in a circuit like this, is what in the past, when I say the past, no more than 12 months ago, was our main weakness.
“So I think our technical team have been in condition to turn the characteristics of the car around and make it more competitive in the areas where we were weak.
“And these are also areas that you find very frequently in most of the circuits,
“So it’s where you really want to be competitive, rather than being competitive in high speed and straight lines, like we used to be a couple of seasons ago.”
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