F1 News
McLaren won't get too comfortable as 'pecking order' could change regularly
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has stated that he is pleased with his team's package for the Australian Grand Prix. Max Verstappen was clear after the test days: McLaren appears to have built the fastest car, at least at the start of this season. However, he doesn't believe that it will be an easy ride. Stella is expecting an exciting season with many challengers for the Papaya team.
Stella is happy with the new McLaren
First, the McLaren team boss addressed rumours that his team had built the fastest car after looking strong at pre-season testing in Bahrain: "Well, in terms of the winter testing itself, after which I've read many headlines about the competitiveness of McLaren. In fairness, what we looked at and what we are happy with is the fact that the car behaves as we expected, from an engineering technical point of view."
McLaren remains wary of the competition
Stella then addressed the competition. Last season, seven different drivers won Grands Prix, and this variety is expected once again. "Because when it comes to the competitiveness and even if we looked at the end of the season last year, it's enough we look back at Las Vegas to see that we were not definitely the fastest car there. Mercedes were dominant. I think, in, Qatar as well, Russell works pretty fast in qualifying. Verstappen pretty fast in the race. We were chasing Verstappen. And then in Abu Dhabi, where we were able to score a pole position and then win the race, it was just by a few milliseconds once again.
"So I think even if we are constructors more champions, this doesn't mean that we necessarily are always at any single event in condition to have the fastest car. It's very, very tight. This is also the reason why we thought that from an engineering point of view and from a car development point of view, we needed to be relatively aggressive.
On Thursday, Verstappen emphasised that he believes McLaren is extremely fast. Just a week earlier, at the Viaplay event to kick off the 2025 season, he stated that there is really only one title contender at the moment, referring to the British team. As a result, Stella expects race conditions and circuit characteristics to play a key role in determining who has the fastest car on race weekends, as three other teams, Mercedes, Ferrari, and Red Bull, will be in the fight at any given circuit.
"And, I go back to where I started my answer. For us, at the test, it was important to see that some of the approaches we took from an engineering point of view to the car actually were materialising as we expected. The competitiveness itself, I think, is gonna be another season in which, depending on the conditions and the circuit, we'll see some change in the pecking order. So I think we have a very exciting and levelled Formula One season ahead."
This article was written in collaboration with Cas van de Kleut
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