McLaren chief reveals key upgrade change and debates title chances

Andrea Stella said McLaren’s upgrades have ‘corrected the calls’ made going into the season as he praised the factory team for its quick progress.

McLaren finished the opening race 51 seconds off the pace but a win for Lando Norris in the final grand prix before the summer break suggests they are back in contention.

McLaren chief reflects on upgrade package

McLaren brought a significant upgrade package to the MCL40 in Hungary, focusing on aerodynamics and a new floor, and it immediately brought performance.

Norris qualified on pole and went on to win the race while Oscar Piastri looked quick before a tangle with Carlos Sainz and a mechanical DNF.

Speaking after, team principal Stella said the reigning Constructor Champion realised there was a need to “correct the calls” made when designing the car over the winter.

“I think the main aspect of these upgrades is that they introduce some parts that follow a slightly different concept in some areas of the car,” he told media including PlanetF1.com.

“We realised after we delivered the MCL40, and also to some extent looking at the concepts that were present in some cars that were faster than us, we realised that we needed to correct the calls.

“And from this point of view, I can just say a big thank you and a shout out to our first of all our aerodynamic department that understood what was needed in terms of conceptual development, and we know that when McLaren understands which direction to take, then I think we are in a position to develop quite effectively.

“And having mentioned the aerodynamic department, then obviously I need to mention also our design and delivery departments, manufacturing and logistics, because here we were pretty short of time in the delivery of the parts.

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“Some parts arrived Friday night to be installed on Oscar’s car on Saturday morning. So it was a race against time, and I want to praise the team for having been successful in delivering all these upgrades.”

Stella was asked if a pole and victory was a fair reflection of where McLaren now is in the hierarchy but the 55-year-old Italian was hesitant to say the result would be the same at every circuit.

“Today, honestly, we need to reflect a little bit on what we saw on track, because at first glance, it looks like McLaren had a pace advantage,” he stated. “I think, especially when Lando took the lead, this became more apparent.

“But at the same time, here it depends very much on which tyre you are on, what stage of the tyres, how old the tyres are. So I don’t want to draw conclusions too quickly.

“But it looks like, if anything, in the race we had a little more advantage than we had in qualifying, because effectively in qualifying, it was 12 milliseconds, and the Ferraris didn’t do the second attempt in Q3.

“In the race, I would hope that some of the work we have done in terms of upgrades has also helped with interaction with the tyres, which is something that we focused on in previous years, and definitely we started to focus on from the start of the season on the MCL40 this year.

“Hopefully, we are starting to see some of the improvements rewarding us even in terms of race space. But I think there’s more to come in this space.”

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