Champions find ally in McLaren boss: Stella keeps hardware changes on the table

During the final pre-season testing session, Stella spoke at length about new issues regarding race starts and closing speeds, which could create dangerous situations. Since then, world champions have also expressed strong criticism of the new cars. Max Verstappen said he is thinking about his future in Formula 1, and Lando Norris did not mince his words either.

Following the latest changes introduced for the upcoming Miami Grand Prix, GPblog asked Stella about his previous comments and whether he is satisfied with the adjustments for next weekend. The Italian began: "Yes, I think the changes that are implemented for Miami are a positive step in the right direction.

In Bahrain, Stella already asked for collaboration from all parties for the better of the sport. He continued: "I think Formula 1 as a community should remain quite open, that once we observe the outcome and the effect of this package of changes, we may have learned more about the new regulation and further tuning may be required, and we should have the openness and the proactivity to study this further improvement and put them in place."

The team boss also addressed making further changes to the hardware itself, voicing support for Verstappen and Norris' previous criticism. "Finally again, as I said before, there should be a consideration for some hardware changes, more for the longer term such that we can place the operating point of the power unit somewhere where less compromises are required from a chassis point of view, or from a driving point of view. We think this is possible and we think that all stakeholders should approach this conversation with the willingness to contribute," Stella concluded.