The Woking-based staff has emerged as Purple Bull’s most constant challenger in latest races, with the squad having completed on the rostrum 5 instances within the final six races.
Having made spectacular progress this 12 months, it’s conscious that it nonetheless has extra work to do earlier than it could possibly take into consideration difficult the dominant Purple Bull squad in pure tempo phrases.
Talking on the Brazilian Grand Prix, McLaren staff principal Andrea Stella reckoned that the one factor now separating the 2 groups was tyre administration – with Purple Bull nonetheless having the sting in coping with degradation.
Because the staff pushes on with its 2024 design, Stella mentioned the progress it wanted to make to shut down the deficit will transcend simply downforce.
“We’ve set some targets, as an instance, however I can not say through which space and the way,” he mentioned. “However what I can say is that it is not solely aero.”
Requested by Autosport how a lot of the tyre degradation concern was all the way down to aerodynamics, and the way a lot mechanical, Stella mentioned: “It is a mixture of each. I can not say far more than that.”
McLaren is aware of that rivals like Mercedes and Ferrari, which have underperformed this 12 months, are set to embark on radical revamps for his or her 2024 challengers – which signifies that the combat on the entrance of F1 may very well be very completely different subsequent 12 months.
Picture by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
Andrea Stella, Group Principal, McLaren, Lando Norris, McLaren, third place, Oscar Piastri, McLaren, the McLaren staff rejoice after the race
However he does suppose his staff is well-placed to push ahead this winter as a result of it’s ranging from a way more aggressive platform.
“In equity, the place you might be with subsequent 12 months’s automotive partly is determined by the place you might be this 12 months, as a result of that is the place to begin just about for everybody,” he mentioned.
“Nevertheless it is determined by the gradient of growth. This gradient [at McLaren] began in July, just about, and there’s such an extended interval which is simply concerning the work you do on subsequent 12 months’s automotive.”
One essential facet about McLaren’s present kind is that it was achieved with a automotive that, in its launch-spec, was not what the staff wished.
Stella mentioned some points of the MCL60 have been retained, however the staff has needed to convey by means of numerous overhauled parts all through the marketing campaign.
“The automotive we launched in March, there are some parts which were developed with continuity, however most of it has been developed in discontinuity,” he mentioned.
“Particularly when it got here to the ground, bodywork, rear wing, and to some extent the entrance wing.
“We simply wanted to sort of go into completely different ideas and begin to get them to work. It wasn’t only a linear iterative growth of the beginning idea of the launch automotive.”