McLaren boss Andrea Stella has admitted that how competitive the team’s 2025 Formula 1 car proved to be at the Australian Grand Prix emerged as a “little surprise”.
The Woking-based squad started the campaign on the ideal note as Lando Norris secured pole position and then prevailed amid changeable conditions in Melbourne.
Norris crossed the line with a mere eight-tenths between him and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, but it was McLaren’s pace earlier in the weekend that has rivals worried.
The Briton held over three-tenths in hand on Verstappen – the closest non-McLaren car – in qualifying and, as anticipated, that advantage grew as the race progressed.
Verstappen managed to match the McLaren drivers until excessive trouble with tyre degradation on the Intermediates saw him slip 14 seconds behind within 10 laps.
Red Bull boss Christian Horner labelled McLaren’s limited tyre wear as “strange”, but Stella has attributed it to the attention the team paid to that area with the MCL39.
But although his optimism in the radical changes McLaren has made was unwavering, Stella expressed that the initial advantage it has retained has been unexpected.
“I think I’ve said already that last year, when it was about deciding what kind of approach we should have had for the 2025 car, considering that the 2024 [car] after the Miami upgrade looked pretty competitive, we wanted to be ambitious because we saw that the level of competitiveness we were receiving from Ferrari, Mercedes, Red Bull was so strong that I think there was no room for complacency,” Stella told media including Motorsport Week.
“So we gave ourselves some technical targets, which had to do, like always, with aerodynamic efficiency, but also we wanted to improve from a mechanical point of view and the interaction with the tyres.
“And I think today, once again, we saw that the car interacts with the tyres very well because in the first stint we were able to open a gap to the other cars, which I don’t think it’s the car itself only, it’s also how gentle the car is on the tyres.
“So I think, in a way, this is a little bit of a surprise for us as to how competitive the car is, but let’s say it’s a surprise in terms of the extent, it’s not a surprise in terms of the objectives.
“The car seems to have achieved some of the objectives that we gave ourselves.”
McLaren remaining grounded
However, Stella remains grounded as he acknowledged the upcoming races on more conventional circuits will provide a more representative picture than Albert Park.
“The extent, in fairness, we will see more over the next races and this will give us a better understanding of the competitiveness order,” he continued.
“But also still I think this weekend, for instance, we have not seen Ferrari. I think they are actually not far from us, so we will see more.”
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