McLaren team principal Andrea Stella explained that the MCL38 has improved its predecessor’s rear grip issues, a key area for the team.
Stella admitted that the new car doesn’t have some of the problems that last year’s challenger had. He is very happy that McLaren found more grip on the rear axle, but there is still work to do to improve the performance even more.
The main focus is to create more grip in general by improving the aerodynamic performance. He also added that the team knows there is room to improve.
“I think some of the weaknesses have been improved,” he said. “For instance, we are happier with the grip at the rear axle, which was one of the aspects that we wanted to work on. Overall, there is more grip in the car.
“There are some aspects that we still have some work to improve, save the fact that the major performance opportunity remains overall grip.
“It’s not like you need to correct features, you just have to put more grip on the car, which mainly comes from aerodynamic performance.
“But we have some more margin to improve, also from a mechanical point of view. And also in terms of interaction with the tires. So in all these three aspects, we plan to bring developments over the course of the season.”
Stella continued by saying that the MCL38 is performing as expected, which is a good starting point for a new, different car compared to the MCL60.
“I would say that starting from a performance point of view, the car delivers what we expected,” he said. “So no big surprises, which in itself is some good news, because there are some elements of innovation in the car.
“I think the car is a good foundation for development and is a step forward compared to last year’s car.”
The Italian also admitted that other teams improved as well, especially Red Bull.
“But, overall, I can see that many cars have made the step forward, which is normal. Everyone finds performance in every week of development.
“There’s one car that seemed to have found a big step. Unfortunately, the car that was already the quickest last year.”
Ultimately, he said that McLaren is “confident” about the future development.
“We are confident in our development. We are confident in the concepts that we have in the car, but if anything, it’s a matter of how far you are in the journey.
“And clearly they have been ahead in this journey. And they sort of keep this margin in terms of where they are positioned in their development journey.”