McLaren team boss sees Red Bull struggling: 'No idea what's going on there'

"I think the picture of competitiveness for Red Bull, it's not entirely clear to me," Stella told media in Monaco, including GPblog. "Clearly, Imola and Monaco are two tracks in which riding kerbs and riding bumps is important for performance, to some extent in Miami as well, but not that much. So I think, for instance, our progress, I don't think it's just because we are competitive or more competitive on these kinds of characteristics. I think that's more genuine. It's just we have added good downforce onto the car. And like I said at the start, if anything, our two drivers are not happy with the behaviour on kerbs and bumps here in Monaco. That's potentially the main limitation we still face."

Despite this, the McLarens are ahead of both Red Bull drivers, the team that is very much struggling on circuits where the tarmac is not level. Stella continued, "Exactly what is going on with Red Bull, I'm not so sure. I think we need a few more races to find out because obviously, we go to the next one in Canada, which is another one which is very demanding on kerbs and bumps. And then I think some tracks after Canada will tell us more about the competitiveness situation."

McLaren surprised by own performance

Stella also admitted that the second and fourth places after qualifying - given Friday's performance - were not expected: "And in fairness, we thought we had a little bit less performance than some of these guys," he referred to Max Verstappen, and also Lewis Hamilton. "So the first two rows for us on the grid come as a bit of a surprise."

This article was written in collaboration with Olly Darcy