McLaren realistic: 'This way we can never match Red Bull'

Many Formula 1 teams have developed their cars for 2024 in the direction of Red Bull Racing, Adrian Newey also noted. McLaren, according to some, initially seemed to be heading in that direction too, but team boss Andrea Stella insists that is not the case.

Margin to Red Bull

The ultimate goal, of course, is to stay ahead of the competition and close the gap to Red Bull, but that looks set to be a tough task. "What we have seen in our own development is that we seem to be able to keep the gradient of development that we started last year and that led us to Austria Singapore and the launch car development," Stella replied when asked by GPblog whether the gap can be closed.

"If we keep this development, I can't say we're going to get there but I become more optimistic that we can be in a competitive position. Obviously if Red Bull keep developing at the same level we're never going to meet them. The important thing is that you can actually keep this development over time. he adds.

"After the technical reassessment reorganisation of the team, we are not even 12 months in so it's a relatively young journey from this point of view but I'm encouraged with what I see coming from a development point of view. Hopefully we can have it on the MCL38 in the early races of the season."

McLaren not going after Red Bull

Asked if McLaren wants to develop the MCL38 in the direction of Red Bull or totally differently, Stella replied: "Completely different." He does not want to reveal much more about it yet, although he does say that some parts are an evolution from last year and that incremental improvements have been made in other areas.

"We see in the background in development that there's actually quite a lot of potential which we didn't exploit in time to make it for the launch car but it's nothing to do with major redesign like it would be required to achieve what Red Bull have done," he explained to several media outlets, including GPblog.

"We are confident in our development, we are confident in the concept that we have in the car but if anything it's a matter of how far you are in the journey. Clearly they have been ahead in this journey and they sort of keep this margin in terms of where they are positioned in their development journey."