MAKE ME A WINNER

Mclaren heads into the new F1

season cautiously optimistic that it can continue the upward trajectory it launched with the Austrian GP upgrade, but anxious about what Red Bull might have done over the winter.

Team principal Andrea Stella said the team had not “seen diminishing returns” in its development path. “In the wind tunnel development, the CFD development, the gradient we established last year that led to the Austria and Singapore development,” he says, “it seems like we can maintain it.”

Mclaren is confident, too, that development can continue in season. “We’re already starting to work on further developments which we hope to bring relatively soon in the season and they also seem to be quite interesting,” Stella says.

Stella’s changes to the team – particularly bringing Peter Prodromou back to the front line of design as technical director in charge of aerodynamics – have already proved a massive hit.

Over the winter, the final two pieces of the reshuffle were concluded – David Sanchez, formerly of Ferrari, joined as technical director in charge of performance, and Rob Marshall, ex-red Bull, as technical director in charge of engineering. In short, it is Sanchez’s job to come up with concepts, Prodromou’s to lead aerodynamics, and Marshall’s to translate those ideas into a working F1 car.

Success, though, is relative. Mclaren already had a performance gap to Red Bull to close, and its nervousness stems from the fact that Red Bull stopped developing its car relatively early in 2023. Stella’s assumption is that the champion team made a calculation that its advantage was so great that it could afford to switch to 2024 design early. And it’s what Red Bull might have achieved in doing so that is causing concern.

“The question is: ‘Have they cashed in, accumulated developments, and capitalised on that with this year’s car?’ This is my theory,” Stella says.

“I can’t think that Red Bull were not in condition to develop their car. They might have decided not to deliver upgrades, but certainly this may mean their gradient kept going.

“Red Bull should be extremely competitive and we’ll see where we are and what kind of challenge we’ll be able to set on track.”