McLaren has more ambitions than new engine: 'Need to take care of'

McLaren has a lot to do this winter, because with the arrival of the Mercedes engines, the car has to be rebuilt. Besides the new engine, James Key also hopes that his team can make a step forward with the car.

New Mercedes engine

McLaren finished third in the constructors' world championship in 2020, so the step towards the top seems to be getting smaller and smaller. McLaren did not have the fastest car in the midfield, however, as the team of Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris had problems, especially in slow corners. That should be fixed in 2021.

''If you talk about the weak spots, we still need to improve ourselves in the less fast corners. This did go better than in 2019, but then it was also one of our main goals to improve the balance in certain types of slow corners and get this more consistent,'' Key revealed to Motorsport.com.

Problems with the wind

''In addition, in certain weather and grip conditions, the car was not performing as well as we would have liked. We have to find out why, it's not something you can just fix. These are things we really need to work on. If we can smooth these things out, we will have a car that performs more consistently throughout the season.''

The wind, in particular, was a major jammer for McLaren. ''This has been a problem for us though. Our car was probably affected by it a bit more than competitors' cars, both negatively and positively, depending on the wind direction. We have been able to trace it back to one cause. It's one feature of the car that we need to take care of,'' concludes McLaren's chief technical officer.