Speaking after the Chinese Grand Prix, McLaren team principal Andrea Stella gives Kudos to Max Verstappen and Red Bull for their record breaking achievements in recent years, while setting McLaren’s targets on closing the gap to the dominant champions.
Following Lando Norris’ impressive performance to take the chequered flag in P2 during the Chinese Grand Prix, team principal Andrea Stella praises Red Bull’s near untouchable performances in recent seasons. The Italian man said Red Bull’s dominance of the sport motivates his team as they work to close the gap and fight for victories.
When asked following the Grand Prix, if results such as Norris’ P2 finish make him think “What if there was no Max [Verstappen],” Stella replied by plainly stating McLaren’s goals going forward.
“You know what?” Stella following the Grand Prix. “Now that you say it, I think I never thought about it. Because my focus is not about if there was no Max. My focus is how do we close the gap to Max.
“I have a lot of admiration for what Red Bull are achieving. And I think, you know, like winning so consistently is not easy.”
Continuing on, he explained that McLaren watch how Red Bull as a team operate in an attempt to emulate their success as they aim to move closer to the champions on track.
“There’s so many reasons why things can go wrong,” he explained. “Even if they make it look simple to some extent, really hats off to what Max, and Red Bull are achieving, technically, operationally, sporting-wise. Because even if it looks like almost ordinary, it’s not.
“So we take it as an extra motivation. We take it as, you know, to some extent we do look at how they do things. But my thoughts are ‘how do we get there?’”
When asked about McLaren’s apparent loss of ground to Red Bull since late in the 2023 season, Stella explained he suspects Red Bull developed the RB19 very little, instead focussing resources on this year’s RB20. He suggests this has allowed the team to pull away from McLaren, who famously made huge strides in development throughout 2023.
“I think overall, if we take the 12-month period, we have developed more than anybody else, obviously,” Stella explained, drawing attention to McLaren’s near meteoric rise through the field in 2023.
“I think Red Bull did not develop very much last year. Clearly they were working quite a lot in the ground, because they innovated the car dramatically. And to innovate the car like they did, it takes months of redesign. So I think they were doing all this work, and then when they came with the new car, it was a big step.”
Looking on the bright side, Stella suggests McLaren’s current rate of development could see them catch Red Bull over the course of 2024 and into the 2025 season.
“Even if apparently we kind of have lost some ground, I think we lost some ground because we gained so much ground before and while they were not developing,” he said. “So that’s why I think we need to look at things over the long period. Over the long period we are on a strong trajectory.
“For me, this is also what we say internally. If we keep this trajectory of development for the next 12 months, then why not? We may reach Red Bull.”
