After two weekends, thanks also to the break between the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix and the Australian Grand Prix, it’s time for F1 teams to examine the data and start drawing some initial conclusions. If we put ourselves in McLaren’s shoes, we can say that the start of the season is not bad at all, especially compared to the 2023 championship.
The car is showing good signs now, and being in third position with a two-point lead over Mercedes is certainly a great motivational boost for the upcoming events.
Fast corners are not all the same
However, looking more at the performance, team principal Andrea Stella has taken the lead in assessing the strengths and weaknesses of this MCL38 single-seater: “If we take the Jeddah appointment as an example, in the fast corners present in the first sector (S1), where only a steering input is required to corner, no one could keep up with us. Anyone behind us could only lose ground.” – he pointed out.
“Our problems arise in the long and fast corners like those in the third sector (S3). In that case, the drivers have to hold the correct steering angle for a long time, the car gives way, and we lose some time. However, Ferrari has shown to be very fast in this type of corners, so much so that Charles Leclerc was really competitive in that particular sector, especially in the last corner,” he continued as reported by ‘Motorsportweek.com’.
Andrea Stella: “In Melbourne, upgrades of a few milliseconds, the real upgrade within the first third of the season”
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However, the differences are not too pronounced. At the moment, it is true that Red Bull has a little more than the others, and the historic Italian team seemed to have a certain margin over the trailing teams, but it is also true that we are only at the beginning of the 2024 Formula 1 season, and teams still have to learn about their cars.
Red Bull will most likely continue to lead even after the first half of the season, but fighting with Ferrari could be possible for the trailing competitors, and McLaren is among the teams that believe in it the most: “It will be a great fight in terms of development. I’m not just talking about visible updates in terms of aerodynamics, but also from a mechanical point of view, a significant step forward can be made. We are working on both,” Andrea Stella concluded. “Some small things will arrive already in Australia and will follow, hopefully, also in Japan. However, it will be an improvement of a few milliseconds. Our goal is to bring the first major upgrade within the first third of the season.”
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