Andrea Stella says McLaren anticipated no impact from the new technical directive introduced at the 2025 Formula 1 Spanish Grand Prix.
The Woking-based outfit have been dominant throughout the free practice sessions and qualifying, Oscar Piastri securing a 1-2 for Sunday’s race.
A technical directive from the FIA was implemented this weekend to further police how much a front wing can flex under load.
However, on Thursday, Piastri revealed how the team had already tested a new front wing at Imola that complied with the new regulations.
Many of the teams up and down the grid didn’t expect the TD to influence the pecking order, with McLaren seemingly going in the other direction, extending its dominance over the field.
After the qualifying session, Stella stated how the British squad were always confident the TD would have minimal impact:
“In terms of the impact of the front wing modifications, I think it unfolded pretty much like we at McLaren were expecting,” he told media including Motorsport Week.
“We always thought that the impact would be relatively negligible because when we saw the numbers associated to this change of aeroelastic effect, they were small numbers in terms of downforce, and in terms of the variation of the downforce with speed.
“When we tested this wing in Imola, if we hadn’t told Lando that it was a different wing, he wouldn’t have spotted it.
“And when we simulated in the simulator or in the offline simulation, numerically, it was almost at zero.
“So we were not expecting a change of the pecking order, a function of the technical directive that was released for this race.”
Stella: TD an upgrade chance, not a financial burden
After qualifying fifth for the Grand Prix, Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton was asked about the technical directive, dismissing it as a “waste of money”.
When that view was put to the McLaren Team Principal, he disagreed with the suggestion.
“In terms of wasting the money or not, this is not a point of view that we reflected on,” he added.
“As the TD has been there for a long time, so this was long planned, we could find efficiency as well in terms of how you plan to introduce this modification.
“I saw some teams actually took advantage to change the geometry of the wing itself.
“I think Ferrari is actually one of those that changed the geometry itself, so in itself it must have been an opportunity to introduce an upgrade, coincidental with the change of aeroelastic properties.
“Through the season, anyhow, you produce wings as wings get used.
“So I’m not sure what the economics behind this is.
“Possibly it would have been slightly inefficient to do this, but I don’t think it’s a major factor.
“If anything, I was interested to see if things unfolded as we anticipated and they did.”
READ MORE – McLaren tested front wing for revised F1 flexing rules prior to Spanish GP
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