McLaren believe their recent gains at low speeds don’t automatically mean they will struggle more in Barcelona
McLaren have managed to improve at low speeds with their updates. However, the team from Woking does not believe that they have sacrificed their strength in the high-speed range and that the MCL38 will perform worse on fast tracks like Barcelona
So Oscar Piastri says that while there is no doubt that other teams have closed the gap in the high-speed sector, McLaren has every reason to believe that it can continue to compete at the top.
“I think we can still be confident,” he says. “I wouldn’t say we’re weak in the high-speed area, it’s just that the others have probably caught up a bit. I think I’m pretty confident that we’ll be somewhere near the top as well.”
“Red Bull will probably be a bit stronger than before,” admits the McLaren driver with a view to Spain, “but I think we’ll be in the fight. “
Secret answers
The last cars from Woking have generally excelled in high-speed corners. But the characteristics of the Formula 1 2024 challenger have changed following the upgrades introduced in Miami.
The team found that while performance was improved across the board, the biggest step was made in low-speed corners – for reasons that were initially unclear to them. However, Team Principal Andrea Stella now says that they have understood the dynamics at play.
“We are starting to understand that some of the things we have been working on have unlocked some important behaviors of the car that become relevant for slow corners,” he says. “But that’s information that we don’t necessarily want to share because we don’t want the competition to look at it. “
“It’s important for us internally that the work we’ve done over the last few months has delivered something, because we’re not yet at the end of this line of development. There are still a few things we can do and that’s what we’re focusing on for further updates this season and of course for the 2025 car. “
Challenge title
McLaren is the team that has scored the most points in the last three races – with 116 points ahead of Red Bull (106) and Ferrari (101). And it is this run of form that gives Piastri the feeling that the team can be considered a potential title contender.
“It’s definitely going to be tough, but I think we’re in the fight,” says the Australian. “I think we scored the most points as a team in Canada, not as many (as Mercedes), but it’s definitely a good result for us.”
“We’ve both been very consistent over the last few weekends. And I think we were strong on all the very different tracks. There are still a few things we need to improve and we are talking about small things here, but when you are fighting for the championship, small things are very important.”
“So it’s going to be very tough and obviously Red Bull have a small lead. I don’t know how far behind Ferrari we are, but we’ve taken some points off them, so I think we’re definitely in the race. But it’s going to be a big second half of the year to do that. “