McLaren boss Andrea Stella has revealed that the team won’t introduce upgrades to respond to Red Bull and Max Verstappen’s growing Formula 1 title threat in 2025.
Verstappen’s sensational run continued in the United States Grand Prix as he secured a dominant win to make more inroads on Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri ahead.
Having also prevailed in the Sprint Race as the McLarens were wiped out on the opening lap, Verstappen lies 40 points behind Piastri, with Norris situated in between.
The Dutchman’s unrivalled run to pole position earlier in the weekend had prompted Stella to claim that Red Bull has overhauled McLaren as the pacesetting package.
But while Verstappen remained untroubled in the race, Stella is convinced that Norris retained the pace to challenge had he not lost out to Charles Leclerc at the start.
“Well, first of all, I think in terms of the trend, today is a relatively reassuring race because I think without having to fight with Charles, which was certainly an entertaining fight itself, I think Lando had the pace to win the race today,” Stella told media including Motorsport Week.
“Obviously, he needed to gain the position on track, which is never easy with Max, and with a one-stop strategy, not necessarily we would have had many opportunities from a strategic point of view, but performance-wise, I think we are reassured that the pace was sufficient to fight for the victory.
“Like I have explained to some of your colleagues as well, I think not having done the Sprint Race left us a little bit on the back foot from a set-up point of view.
“And in hindsight, we can see already that there was more performance that we could have extracted from the car.”
McLaren not tempted to replicate Red Bull upgrade push
Alongside a revised approach since Laurent Mekies took charge, Red Bull’s resurgence has also been attributed to new parts that have eased the RB21’s weaknesses.
But with the Constructors’ Championship in the bag and a huge rule change on the horizon, McLaren is not tempted to develop the MCL39 to get the title over the line.
“When it comes to new upgrades, new parts, then this will not happen for the rest of the season,” Stella concluded.
READ MORE – Why McLaren opted against Soft tyre strategy in F1 US GP
Discussion about this post