Ferrari's Madrid advantage played down: 'Not a big deal'

Ferrari was the first team ever to complete laps of the full Madring circuit with its 2026 Formula 1 cars. The Scuderia held a filming day back in July with Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, during which they were able to drive up to 200 kilometers in total.

Previously, McLaren team principal Stella was asked whether this would give the Italian outfit an advantage heading into the Spanish Grand Prix weekend. He believes it could give Ferrari a slight advantage, but downplayed its overall effect.

He told GPblog, among others: "We were not informed that Ferrari would have had this session in Madrid. Actually, I think some images of filming were anyhow shared with the other teams, independently of the tyres, which are not really representative, and the track conditions that would have been horribly slippery, because it's just a construction site. There's always a little bit that you can learn.

"And I think after a few laps in Madrid, we will have forgotten about that and we will just get along with just focusing on the race week. So not a big deal," he concluded.

The British driver finished sixth at the Italian Grand Prix. He said: "I think from today, we just lost so much ground to them on points, and it's far too late for those decisions to come. It's many, many weeks too late."