After McLaren upgraded their vehicles for the Austrian Grand Prix in July, Lando Norris eclipsed all drivers with the exception of Max Verstappen in terms of the number of points he accumulated during the previous season.
According to Andrea Stella, the leader of the McLaren team, the company has “not seen diminishing returns” in the process of building their new car.
Nevertheless, he is concerned that Red Bull, the current champions, may experience the same thing in the future.
“Red Bull should be extremely competitive and we will see where we are and what kind of challenge we will be able to set on track,” said Stella in her commentary.
During the previous year, Red Bull and Verstappen enjoyed the most dominant season in the history of Formula One.
The Dutchman won 19 of the 22 races that he competed in, while Sergio Perez finished in second and third place, respectively.
After beginning the 2023 season with one of the slowest cars in the field, McLaren’s development efforts paid off, as the team became a strong contender in the second half of the season, coming in barely behind Red Bull.
In addition, McLaren is of the belief that Red Bull will reach the same level of success with their new design, despite the fact that their own new car seems to have a lot of potential.
Stella said that the team had maintained the development they had gained since Austria and the subsequent major improvement in September in Singapore. This statement was made at a ceremony that McLaren held in order to showcase its 2024 livery.
“The gradient we established last year that led to the Austria and Singapore development, it seems like we can maintain it,” said Stella in conclusion.
Additional innovations, which we want to offer very soon in the season, are already in the process of being developed in the background, and they seem to be rather exciting with regard to their functionality.
“In terms of the regulations themselves and the development at McLaren, we seem like a linear gradient of development can be maintained.”
Having said that, he did add that Red Bull had stopped the development of their car for the event that took place the year before very early on in the season, which may be a sign about how well they would do in 2024.
“Competitiveness on track depends on what the opposition has done,” said Stella in her remarks. Taking into consideration Red Bull in particular, the fact that the corporation has not put a significant amount of money into the development of their car is one of the factors that raises questions about what will occur in the year 2024.
Have they generated a profit, have they saved enough money for upgrades, and do they intend to utilize those advantages for the model that will be used the following year? I am of the opinion that…
My belief is that Red Bull was unquestionably in a position to enhance the performance of their car. If this is the case, then it would suggest that their [development] gradient persisted even if they decided not to give upgrades.
Having difficulty ensuring that Norris will continue to
Bringing together Norris and Oscar Piastri, an Australian, McLaren will have one of the most formidable driver lineups on the grid moving into the year 2024.
In addition to signing a contract deal with McLaren that would keep him with the team until 2026, Piastri won the sprint race at the Qatar Grand Prix, making him the first driver to win an F1 race before Norris. This victory came after Piastri had an exceptional rookie season.
In spite of the fact that Norris’s current contract would expire a year before to that date, McLaren is still adamant on convincing the British driver to sign an extension.
According to Zak Brown, the Chief Executive Officer of McLaren Racing, “My primary responsibility is to assemble the appropriate team and provide him with the necessary tools and backing.” That describes each and every member of the team, including Andrea.
In order to achieve another victory in the World Championship, it is absolutely necessary to possess the appropriate leadership, the appropriate infrastructure, and, of course, the appropriate two grand prix drivers. That is all taken care of at this point.
Our employment agreement with Lando is set to continue for at least a few more years. Naturally, we are engaged in a dialog with him on a continuous basis.
“He is starting to think through [his future], as we are – 2026 is not far away and we recognise that being able to retain Lando and Oscar is a key element and something that is a high priority for us.”
Having problems with Red Bull’s reserve personnel
Brown reinforced a point that he has made on several times over the course of the last few months, which is that he is concerned about the relationship that Red Bull has with its junior group.
The squad Alpha Tauri is going to be revealing their new identity within the next few weeks, since they are changing their name for this season in order to make things more interesting. In addition to this, they are developing the regular practice of stealing as many automotive components as the regulations permit.
Brown is afraid that this might accidentally help their second team given Red Bull’s supremacy and the financial constraint that restricts investment by all teams. This is despite the fact that this is akin to the arrangement that Haas has enjoyed with Ferrari since 2016.
“I’m concerned over the Alpha Tauri-Red Bull alliance,” Brown noted in his statement. From what I can see, the fact that Alpha Tauri is moving to the United Kingdom is a positive development for both of the teams. Regarding this A/B squad and the co-ownership, we are very worried about the health of the sport as well as the fairness of the competition.
At the time that these restrictions were put into effect, the sport was existing in a separate state. There was a significant gap between the teams with lesser spending and those with bigger expenditures, such as our department. As a direct consequence of this, everyone is close or at the limit.
Therefore, to borrow a baseball metaphor, “everyone is using the same size bat,” which indicates that “sharing parts” is not required. On the other hand, it might possibly provide someone an unfair advantage, and this is a problem that our sport has to solve as soon as possible.
“I would like to see us focus on that as an industry before it gets to where F1 once was, which is very out of balance because people are playing by the rules but a different set of rules.”
