McLaren confirms another upgrade package for Norris and Piastri

It wasn’t a flawless weekend in Barcelona, but McLaren at least didn’t encounter major issues during the Grand Prix. Unlike in a few other races this year, the Mercedes HPP power unit held up, allowing Norris to drive to third place in Spain. McLaren was able to take a step forward in terms of reliability in part because improved internal processes have been developed with HPP in recent weeks.

Even so, McLaren had to watch as Ferrari and Mercedes proved out of reach during the Grand Prix won by Lewis Hamilton. The former brought a series of sweeping upgrades to the race in Catalonia, which certainly had an effect. “Ferrari at the moment is the car with the best chassis,” analysed McLaren team principal Andrea Stella. “We see in the middle sector, especially in the medium-speed corners, that Ferrari is the fastest in the corners, not necessarily the fastest in the straights."

The Italian praises Ferrari’s chassis, but the best F1 car in his view is the Mercedes of Andrea Kimi Antonelli and George Russell.“Probably Mercedes over a single lap, the best car overall. When the chassis and the power unit are both considered."

If Stella has his way, that won’t be the case for long. The McLaren team boss is announcing upgrades for the MCL40. “We aim for the coming races to develop our car further by bringing some upgrades, but at the same time, we are certain that our competitors will also have some upgrades."

Indeed, for example, Red Bull Racing will have a major package of changes in Austria. That’s why Stella is mainly looking at himself. “Honestly, we want to look at our own trajectory, we want to make sure that race by race we improve our car, and then we kind of let the results take care of themselves. So, maximum focus at the moment is, I would say, internal, what we need to do to improve the car, and then once we are racing, we will see what we need to do."