Andrea Stella, McLaren Formula 1 team principal, has no fallacy of big advantage over its competitor. He believes the team needs to put more effort take the reign of the championship from title-contending Red Bull.
Recently, Lando Norris at Dutch Grand Prix turned the tables on his competitor Max Verstappen. He dominated the race with a clear advantage of 20 seconds over the Dutch driver.
Currently, Verstappen and Red Bull lead the F1 standings. The team leads the constructors championship chart with 30 points while the former leads the driver standings with 70 points.
The great form at Dutch GP shows how much the British team has succeeded in finding an optimal solution. It now holds a clear edge over its rival with great margins.
Some venues like Baku and Singapore suit McLaren well, where it might show its real form to beat Red Bull. However, Stell thinks venues like Austin and Qatar would more likely favour the rival team.
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“I think if we go to tracks [like Zandvoort], then we can, I think, be confident that we will perform strongly, with high-downforce long corners,” said Stella.
“If we go to tracks where you have very high-speed corners, like in Silverstone, then we know Red Bull are very strong in this kind of layout.
“And still, if you go back to Austria, they will be faster. because in Austria they pulled off like a four-tenth advantage in qualifying.
“But I think thanks to the upgrades now. We will be more competitive even where Red Bull were faster than us potentially.”
Stella believes some venues suit McLaren and it shall exploit the opportunity wherever available. However, it must introduce more developments to keep that edge on every avenue. It shall focus on reducing the strategic gap with its competitors.
“We missed the opportunity to see in Belgium who would have been the fastest car in dry condition because of the qualifying and intermediate tyres,” he said.
“But we think that the car in the current configuration is possibly not enough in terms of the performance required to be the best car at every single event. That’s why we plan to deliver more upgrades before the end of the season.”
