McLaren boss Andrea Stella has explained how the team has managed to build upon its 2024 strengths amid its current dominance of this year’s Formula 1 championship.
The Woking-based squad stormed to another victory in Spain via Oscar Piastri, and with Lando Norris coming home in second, secured its third 1-2 of the year.
Its MCL39 has been the class of the field so far, and the team has been able to take a further step forward from the MCL38, which improved across 2024 to take the Constructors’ title.
After qualifying, in which Piastri and Norris were around three tenths faster than Max Verstappen and George Russell’s third and fourth-place times, something which surprised Stella.
“In a way, I’m a little surprised that we had such a clear advantage,” he told media including Motorsport Week.
“Especially, I would have expected Red Bull to be a little closer based on some of the similar circuit characteristics that we found in Suzuka or in Imola.
“I think in hindsight, looking at the temperatures, which were very high, the kind of limitations, which, at least for us, were mainly associated with the rear axle.
“If that’s the same for everyone, I think it’s where our car performs very well. If we want to be slightly more technical, one characteristic of Spain is that the corners are very long. Unlike Imola, where the corners are relatively shorter.”
Stella went on to explain that one of last year’s cars’ biggest strengths was its ability to perform well on tracks with corners of a greater length, something it has managed to retain despite putting focus on other areas of the car.
“I think in these long corners, the MCL39 seemed to be able to carry over some of the qualities of the predecessor, whereby last year, for instance, in Zandvoort, another track with long corners, Lando dominated the weekend,” he said.
“I think we retained some of the strengths from an aerodynamic point of view, despite having improved the car. And I think overall, they were rewarding in this kind of track, that even if the speed range is similar to some others, the length of the corner, I think, helped us today.”
Will the MCL39 continue its dominant streak?
The next race at Montreal is a stern test of car and driver, with its corners a healthy mix of low-gear corners – such as Turns 2 and 10 – with chicanes in both the middle and final sectors.
After Canada, it is Austria, which sees longer, sweeping corners in the middle sector, and with high-speed right-handers at the end of the lap, Red Bull’s RB21 may be able to extract better performance on it.
But with McLaren now having surprised Stella in Spain, and with the technical directive on front flexi-wings having appeared to have made little or no difference to the field’s competitiveness, the team could surely be confident of extending its leads in both championships.
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