McLaren boss Andrea Stella has revealed that the team’s competitiveness in slow-speed in Miami signalled that it would be strong at Formula 1‘s Monaco Grand Prix.
The Woking-based squad rebounded from losing out to Red Bull the previous weekend at Imola as Lando Norris bagged the side’s first win in Monte Carlo since 2008.
Ferrari harboured the edge over McLaren throughout practice as Charles Leclerc headed all three sessions, but Norris pipped the home hero to a crucial pole position.
And having resisted pressure as Max Verstappen backed him up into Leclerc, Norris showcased his pace in hand as he opened up a three-second gap on the final lap.
But despite Norris’ success representing McLaren’s sixth in eight races, Monaco’s unique track characteristics have tended to catch out even the most dominant cars.
However, Stella has divulged how McLaren’s pace through the slow-speed sections during a dominant outing in Miami indicated that it would remain at the sharp end.
“I think the changes that we have made onto the MCL39 from last year’s car, they did help with our competitiveness in Monaco,” Stella told media including Motorsport Week.
“I was already relatively optimistic after having seen in Miami that in the section where you have the chicane in Miami and the tight corners, we were always the fastest. And I think that section is quite relevant for Monaco.
“In terms of car development, we did optimise, or we, let’s say, set this as a target in terms of trying to improve in low speed and being less reliant on the fact that you need to run just simply very low and very stiff, because then you may be good at some circuits, you may not be good at some other circuits.
“We wanted a car that is good across the board, even if in some circuits like Imola, Suzuka, Jeddah not necessarily we are the peak of our performance in terms of where the car is optimised.
“So the car works well where we designed it, which is an important factor, and well done to the engineering team that made this possible.”
How Monaco practice vindicated McLaren optimism
Stella recalled how his confidence that McLaren could thwart a resurgent Ferrari in Monte Carlo was vindicated as soon as the opening practice session commenced.
“I think we were also quite fast pretty much straight away, like Lando in particular, as soon as he started running in P1, gradually Oscar as well, that they could score several pink sectors,” he added. “So we were actually quite encouraged straight away by witnessing that the car was performing well.
“I think Ferrari they have a tradition of being very competitive in Monaco so definitely they will have had good references coming from the past.
“Like we said just one minute ago, for us this is a pretty decent step forward in terms of being able to compete in Monaco, and, if anything, we needed to experiment the envelope of set-up options to see where we needed to put the needle in terms of the various compromises that you need to make at this circuit.”
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