McLaren boss Andrea Stella has admitted the team must develop its car to be more competitive on low-drag tracks in order to be the complete package in Formula 1.
The Woking-based squad has emerged as a genuine contender to win the Constructors’ Championship with an MCL38 that is the most consistent car across the grid.
McLaren has built on a remarkable mid-season turnaround last term to register two victories and 10 successive podiums to now be 42 points behind leaders Red Bull.
But like the past campaign, McLaren’s best weekends have tended to come when setting the car up to tackle circuits that place an emphasis on high-speed cornering.
McLaren was head and shoulders above its rivals at the Hungaroring as it clinched a 1-2, but looked to be a step behind Red Bull at a high-speed Spa-Francorchamps.
Stella has conceded McLaren must work on assembling a stronger low-downforce package to avoid making compromises on tracks that require good top-end speed.
Asked to assess McLaren’s progress on low-downforce tracks compared to last season, Stella said: “I think we have gone 50% of the journey.
“I’m more confident that at high downforce we have the car in a good place, like the car does what we want in terms especially of aerodynamic behaviour.
“But we haven’t yet done a lot of development at lower drag level.
“So to me it’s not a surprise that here in Belgium we were not as competitive as Hungary, and it’s not a surprise that for the same or a little bit better top speed.
“Still we were losing quite a bit in the second sector. It means that if we want to gain speed, we’ll give up quite a lot of grip.
“But I hope that in the future, possibly next year in Belgium, we have completed this quest to have the most efficient car even when top speed is important.”
The convergence at the sharp end and McLaren squandering numerous opportunities has opened the door to a resurgent Mercedes to claim three wins in five races.
But despite wasting chances to add to its two victories this term, Stella has denied the suggestion that McLaren possesses the clear quickest package on all circuits.
“I keep receiving observations that McLaren is the best car, I always keep putting some water on the fire and say, ‘there’s four cars that are pretty much at the same level’,” he said.
“There’s a bit of variability which is a function of the track, it’s a function even of the conditions to some extent.
“Like today, in this hot temperature, Mercedes did a good job of making the tyre last that long.
“It’s all to be proven that we would have been in condition to do such a long stint, because we saw different times this year, like for instance, completely different conditions.
“But even in Silverstone, Lando and Hamilton, they both had used soft, but Hamilton somehow managed to keep them alive and win the race in Silverstone, for us, the tyres went off.
“In some other conditions, we actually seemed to be good with tyres, so it looks like everything is so close together, that some small factors and variable circumstances can modify the packing order. Like I always say, this is really good and interesting for Formula 1, and I’m pleased that we could offer today another very entertaining race.”
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