McLaren F1 team principal Andrea Stella has admitted that some issues the team found towards the end of 2023 may not be rectified by the start of this season.
Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri faced a challenging start last year, finding themselves at the back of the pack in a car that lacked competitiveness.
However, a significant upgrade to Norris’s MCL60 during the Austrian Grand Prix turned things around for the team. They made a remarkable charge up the grid and ultimately secured a P4 finish in the constructors’ standings.
Despite their success, McLaren encountered some difficulties. Towards the end of the season, it became evident that the MCL60 could be unpredictable, especially during qualifying sessions when pushed to its limits.
Stella, a member of the team, has now disclosed that McLaren had to consider the trade-off between race pace and qualifying performance. They are still unsure if this issue has been completely resolved as they head into the 2024 season.
Stella: McLaren launch car may still need work
He told Motorsport.com that we definitely had doubts about whether we had made the car faster, but somehow it became slightly more challenging to push to the limit during qualifying.
Firstly, we have examined whether this doubt was valid or if it was just isolated incidents without any technical correlation.
We believe that there are certainly areas that we could have investigated further, particularly in relation to the aerodynamics aspect.
Stella also acknowledged that not all the hard work they put in will be immediately evident when the car hits the track for the first time in 2024.
He mentioned that a few advantages could be integrated into the launch vehicle. However, certain projects are part of a workstream that might end up trackside along with other advancements.
“Let’s say, there are a few things that will take a couple of months to be resolved.”
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