McLaren boss delivers ‘best car’ appraisal ahead of Austrian GP

McLaren boss Andrea Stella has warned that Ferrari and Mercedes will be the teams to beat at this weekend’s Austrian GP.

After a difficult Barcelona Grand Prix for McLaren, Stella suggests the Red Bull Ring is unlikely to see his team’s fortunes improve sharply.

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Lewis Hamilton’s win in Barcelona highlighted the gains Ferrari has made in recent races and established it as Mercedes’ closest challenger.

From early season potential, the Scuderia looked to have been usurped by McLaren as Oscar Piastri challenged for victory in the Japanese Grand Prix.

However, strong pace in Monaco and a race win in Barcelona have given rise to suggests that Hamilton may even be able to mount a challenge for an eighth world title.

The Ferrari has proved a well-rounded car and took a clear step forward with the upgrade package deployed two weeks ago.

However, Stella suggests its comparative power unit deficiency to Mercedes will see it play second fiddle in Austria.

“Austria is a slightly different circuit,” he said, comparing the Red Bull Ring to Barcelona.

“The stability and the braking and turning is so essential here in Barcelona.

“There, there’s more like straight line braking, and then you go in some corners into low speed.”

While McLaren was unable to match the pace of the Ferrari or Mercedes in Spain, Monaco also highlighted a slow-speed cornering weakness in the MCL40.

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“I would expect that Ferrari remains the faster car in the corners, probably Mercedes over a single lap the best car overall, when the chassis and the power unit are both considered,” Stella ventured.

“We aim, for the coming races, to develop our car farther by bringing some upgrades, but at the same time we are certain that our competitors will also have some upgrades.

“Honestly, we want to look at our own trajectory.

“We want to make sure that race by race, we improve our car, and then we kind of let the results take care of themselves.

“So maximum focus at the moment is I would say is internal; what we need to do to improve the car.

“And then once we are racing, we will see what we need to do.

“It could be another hot and high degradation weekend, so it’s important also that we improve from a tyre exploitation point of view.”

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