F1 News
Red Bull and Ferrari warned: MCL39's strength surprised even McLaren themselves
With the first round of the championship marking McLaren's first good start to an F1 season since early 2010's, team principal, Andrea Stella admits to being surprised, not by the team's MCL39 being competitive, but by the sheer extent of its strength, however he does see in Ferrari's SF-25 a potential threat to the papaya team in 2025.
After the step McLaren made last year, under Stella's leadership, the team had to keep its sights set on the highest possible goals with the 2025 car. "We wanted to be ambitious," says the Italian team principal to media including GPblog in Australia. "Because we saw that the level of competitiveness we were receiving from Ferrari, Mercedes, Red Bull, was so strong that I think there was no room for complacency."
'A surprise how competitive the MCL39 is'
"We gave ourselves some technical targets, which had to do, like always, with aerodynamic efficiency, but also we wanted to improve from a mechanical point of view and the interaction with the tyres." Something they effectively managed seeing as Red Bull team principal, Christian Horner pointed out after the race, that McLaren had a strange and unusual tyre performance strength.
"In a way this is a little bit of a surprise for us as to how competitive the car is, but let's say it's a surprise in terms of the extent, it's not a surprise in terms of the objectives," added Stella.
"The car seems to have achieved some of the objectives that we gave ourselves. The extent, in fairness, we will see more over the next races and this will give us a better understanding of the competitiveness order." Before naming Ferrari as a potential challenger to McLaren this year. "I think this weekend for instance we have not seen Ferrari. I think they are actually not far from us. So we will see more," concluded Stella.
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