McLaren believes Red Bull can be beaten: 'I'm optimistic'

Dan Fallows, Aston Martin's technical boss, was certain earlier in the week: Red Bull Racing are beatable this season. Whether that will happen by his own team may be the question. McLaren seem a serious candidate to break the dominance. McLaren were on a steady rise throughout 2023 and hopes to continue it in F1 2024.

Still beating Red Bull over a full season? Team boss Andrea Stella questions this: "I think at the start of the season, my expectation is that Red Bull will keep enjoying some advantage," the Italian told the media, including GPblog. "I say this because they didn't develop the car very much last year. I would think it's reasonable to expect that they will have accumulated some knowledge and development last year that will be capitalised onto the 2024 car."

McLaren want to continue the development process

When Stella looks at his own team's development, he states, "If, and I say if, we keep the development rate that we have had in 2023, that will hopefully live on to the 2024 car. If we can keep this development, then I think we can be in a strong position. Whether that's enough to challenge Red Bull and the other top teams, that will have made good improvements, we will find out. But we think that this is a strong development rate."

Lando Norris, who extended his contract at Mclaren mid-season on an interim basis, fully agrees with Stella's words. "If you were to say, are they beatable, you're going to have to say yes. I think we're going to want to believe to say yes, because we were very close at certain times. At certain times, we did beat them. So the question is, can we beat them over a season? Because I think that's going to be the challenging thing. That's going to be very difficult to do with how well they're performing. Optimistic. But possible to beat them at certain times, I want to believe so," says the Briton.

McLaren must not forget Ferrari and Mercedes

Teammate Oscar Piastri adds: "I think we also have to be aware that it's not just Red Bull we're fighting as well. We were in a very intense battle with Mercedes and Ferrari, especially in terms of championship points in the second half of the season. It was incredibly close between us. All teams have had a lot of success at various stages. We have to be aware it's not just Red Bull that we're fighting. I think there'll be other top teams that are making progress as well," said the Australian youngster.