McLaren has admitted its dominance in the Singapore Grand Prix has added to the dilemma the team is experiencing over bringing updates to its 2024 Formula 1 car.
The Woking-based squad has been regarded as the benchmark team since introducing upgrades in Miami which elevated Lando Norris to his maiden win in the sport.
McLaren has recorded three victories in four races since implementing more parts onto the MCL38 when the season resumed at the Dutch Grand Prix late last month.
Norris capitalised on McLaren’s bolstered competitiveness to dominate proceedings in Singapore as he converted pole position into a comprehensive 20-second win.
But while his triumph has placed it 42 points clear in the Constructors’ Championship, McLaren boss Andrea Stella has conceded it has granted the team a headache.
McLaren’s main competitors have all encountered problems this season with developments instigating negative characteristics on the circuit that weren’t anticipated.
Despite proclaiming that there was a reluctance to rush upgrades to avoid those setbacks, Stella is optimistic that McLaren won’t have to deviate from its initial plans.
“In fairness, that was one of my thoughts after the race,” Stella told media including Motorsport Week regarding the conundrum with upgrades that McLaren is facing.
“Because we do have some stuff in the pipeline and obviously when you have this kind of performance on track you always may approach things from a cautious point of view in terms of development. At the same time, we need to trust the process, we need to trust the way we’ve been working so far.
“I’ve said already that we have taken our time to make sure that once we deliver trackside we have done the due diligence. So I don’t think this will change our plans.”
McLaren’s margin in Singapore was exaggerated
But Stella has pointed to Max Verstappen bagging an unexpected second place on a circuit where Red Bull was tipped to struggle as evidence McLaren can’t ease up.
“In Formula 1 I’m not sure you can back off too much because backing off means that the others may catch and we don’t know what the plans of the others are,” he added.
“In Red Bull we see that in a track in which they thought they would have not been very competitive, ultimately they were potentially second best.”
The Italian also contended that both Ferrari drivers ending up in unrepresentative starting places exaggerated the margin that McLaren had over the rest in Singapore.
“I think we haven’t seen Ferrari today very well but even Ferrari, P1, P2, they seem to be as fast as us and the final stint of [Charles] Leclerc is very competitive,” Stella warned.
“So I think the race may give us a little bit of a flattering, I think you say it like this.
“The situation from a competitiveness point of view, I would say we need to keep being aggressive in terms of development.”
