Photo Credit: McLaren Racing
McLaren left Baku with renewed hope for their car performance this season. We heard recently from the team that their latest upgrade was the car they should have started their season with and now is a platform to build on. A sense of optimism was brewing form the Woking-based team.
However, fast forward to post Miami Grand Prix and McLaren are once again left red faced with McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella speaking how the team we given a “reality check” by its very disappointing performance on US soil. Given McLaren’s lust to build their brand in America, this result will have done nothing to build their reputation.
Team principal Stella said: “The main takeaway is that after a decent weekend in Baku from a performance point of view, we had a reality check.”
The Italian added the teams only hope of a better result Stateside would have been if there was a safety car or red flag incident. However there wasn’t a mere yellow flag occurrence, which was unusual in the street circuit layout of Miami.
“We would have needed today some events in the race, a safety car or so, but nothing happened. So, the limitations for a performance point of view could not be overcome thanks to some situational elements. We go away with no points.”
While it must be noted that Lando Norris lost an estimated 0.2 seconds per lap time in performance in Miami from a Turn 1 tag with Nyck de Vries, his P17 finish left him very downbeat.
He said: “The track doesn’t suit us, longer corners don’t suit us, the temperature doesn’t suit us, track surface doesn’t suit us. There are many different aspects of it all.
“No one was slow either this weekend. Maybe the AlphaTauris’ were the only other slow car. Everyone else was pretty quick.
“The Alfa Romeos were mega fast, Haas were mega fast. The Alpines were way quicker.
“I wouldn’t say we were that much different to where we have been, it’s just everything else was a big step forward and a lot of this is just down to car characteristic, in my opinion,” added Norris.
With many of teams now planning on bringing major upgrades to the beginning of the European season in Imola on 21st May, McLaren cannot afford to stand still and need to keep development coming to their MCL60.
