F1 News
McLaren team boss concerned: 'Otherwise this is completely pointless'
- GPblog.com
McLaren team boss Andrea Stella has entered the summer break somewhat worried. The McLaren drivers' performance was disappointing at the Belgian Grand Prix and the car seemed to have completely lost its good form. Stella sees the reasons for this and tells Speedweek that a lot of tinkering will be done to the MCL60 mainly before the race at Monza.
McLaren with too much downforce
Despite tremendously strong form from Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, the McLaren was disappointing in terms of performance at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit. While the McLaren did perform extremely well at tracks like Silverstone and the Hungaroring, the car seemed to be running with too much downforce at Spa. Team boss Andrea Stella agrees:"We have obviously developed the car intensively in recent weeks, but we didn't have a special rear wing for a fast circuit like Spa. We drove there with too much downforce. That was good on a wet track, but on a dry track it didn't work at all."
Formula 1 resumes the season at Zandvoort at the end of August, but then the Italian Grand Prix awaits at Monza. This track is notoriously fast and without updates to the McLaren, Stella foresees problems. "With the form at Spa, going to Monza is completely pointless. We have known for a while that we are not as strong on tracks with low downforce, but updates are being brought in to better address that."
Updates to the MCL60
According to Stella, McLaren will start at Zandvoort with updates to the floor and bonnet of the McLaren. A week later, the car of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri will feature a new wing package, specially designed for tracks where low downforce is driven.