McLaren team boss: 'Now are where we would have liked to be at end of year'

McLaren has made huge progression since the start of the season. In Bahrain, the British team had one of the slowest, if not THE slowest, cars in the field but in the final races before the summer break, McLaren was very competitive. Team boss Andrea Stella says his team has exceeded its own expectations with the upgrades.

Prior to the season, the Woking-based team already indicated they were not satisfied with the car at the time. The first major upgrade came in Azerbaijan, which still did not yield huge time gains. In Austria, Lando Norris received the next major update package and at the Red Bull Ring it did show that McLaren had made huge progress, this update package would be further extended a race later. In Britain, teammate Oscar Piastri also received the McLaren upgrade. Here, then, was the highlight of the season so far for the British stable with a second and third place in qualifying and a second and fourth place in the race.

"The upgrades ultimately involved the entirety of the car’s aerodynamics. In this sense, I have referred to it as almost a B-Spec version of the MCL60. It involved some redesign of what is under the bodywork too, such as some of the mechanical layout, which needed to be adjusted to accommodate the new shapes of the car," Stella told McLaren's website.

Even the team itself did not expect the 'new' MCL60 to be so much better. "The first round of upgrades has delivered beyond our expectations. In our internal comms and debriefings, we've always said: ‘Towards the end of 2023, we would like to compete with some of the cars that are quicker at the moment.’ It’s mid-season, and we have already been able to score two podiums and a second place in a sprint race on merit."

The McLaren team boss is proud of his team for turning the F1 season around quickly. "This over-achievement is thanks to the people at McLaren that have been able to identify the concepts to evolve the car, plan it, design it, produce it, quality-check it, and bring it trackside, overcoming important logistical challenges. And to think, some of the upgrades were brought one race early, in Austria. We have proven that when we have clear, simple objectives, we get everyone aligned behind these objectives, and we work collaboratively, we can do exceptional things at McLaren," ends Stella.