The second day of testing is in the books. McLaren team boss Andrea Stella has sounded the alarm bells about Red Bull’s new car the RB20.
After winning 21 of the race 22 races in 2023, the Milton Keynes-based squad led on the technical side by the genius that is Adrian Newey went bold and brave as they made a number of changes to their design for the 2024 season.
McLaren produced a remarkable turnaround in 2023 as they went from struggling to make Q3 and score points in the first third of the season to a team regularly on the podium and fighting for best of the rest behind Max Verstappen in the closing part of the campaign.
The Woking-based squad brought a series of updates to the car that gave them a significant performance boost and allowed to finish a superb P4 in the standings.
In regard to the MCL38, Stella is pleased that the car is performing as hoped and a step has been made. McLaren should start this year much stronger compared to the nightmare of 2023.
“In terms of report from the two days, I would say that starting from a performance point of view, the car delivers what we expected. No big surprises — which in itself is some good news, because there are some elements of innovation in the car. So we wanted to see how they would have worked trackside, and they seem in line with expectations.
“I think the car is a good foundation for development — it’s a step forward compared to last year’s car. But overall, I can see that many cars have made a step forward, which is normal. Everyone finds performance in every week of development.”
However, Stella went on to explain in his media session that Red Bull Racing has made the biggest gains out of all the teams on the 2024 grid and should hold an even bigger advantage heading into next weekend.
Behind them, it seems as close as it was last year, according to the McLaren team principal.
“There’s one car that seems to have found a big step — unfortunately, the car that was already the quickest last year. Some cars, I would say the group was already quite compact last year and, to me, it looks even more compact this year. That’s what we have learned from a competitiveness point of view.”
When he saw the RB20 for the first time, the Italian admitted it took his breath away due to the radically different look it had in so many areas.
“I have to say when I saw the car, I was like, ‘Wow, they certainly were brave in changing some of the shapes that made that car so successful last year’.
“I think they could enjoy such an advantage last year that it gave them confidence from a timeline point of view to take some risks, because you can take these risks early on to actually see whether it works.
“What I would say, though, is that while there is innovation, that we can see macroscopically, like I’ve said already, in these regulations a lot is in millimetres. And a lot happens in work we don’t see between the underneath of the car and the ground.”
Speaking about where in particular Red Bull has gained superiority, Stella talked about the aerodynamic side of things, hinting at things we cannot see as to why the car is so good once again.
“First of all, car design, there’s some element of significant evolution on that car that certainly required time to be developed.
“And this is the time that we were referring to in terms of Red Bull not having developed last year parts that were not introduced on the 2023 car.
“The second element is performance itself. It looks like they are very strong.
“It looks like what they wanted to achieve from a design point of view also delivered what predominantly seems to be aerodynamic performance.
“What I would say, though, is that while there is innovation that we can see macroscopically, in these regulations a lot is in the millimetres, and a lot happens in work we don’t see between the underneath of the car and the ground.
“So, while what we can actually see could be the most visible [changes], not necessarily it’s the most impactful in terms of this step forward they made.”
