McLaren was off the pace in Las Vegas and team boss Andrea Stella expressed his thanks to Mercedes for dominating the race with their 60th 1’2 finish of their history. The praise came as had the Silver Arrows not done so well, then the prancing horse of Ferrari could have clawed back even more points in this year’s F1 constructors’ Championship battle.
Stella made clear that his team cannot be happy with the result under the lights in Vegas because they go racing to finish on the podium and to win. This past weekend saw the team have headaches with the car, the tyre performance and has given them much to analyse between now and Qatar.
“It gives us a good objective for next year.” Stella stated post-race. “Next year, we want to come to Vegas and do what Mercedes have done this year. So, definitely this is going to be a very strong message. Internal message to everyone, men and women at McLaren. Because P6, P8 in qualifying, P6, P7 in the race is just not good enough.”
More reasons to be proud than disappointed
The F1 Drivers’ Championship is now out of reach for McLaren’s Lando Norris after Max Verstappen secured his 4th F1 Drivers’ title on Saturday night. However, Stella is clear that there’s not disappointment by that fact because his driver was the only one that could ‘give Verstappen a headache’.
“Since when McLaren gave Lando and Oscar [Piastri] material that can win races, actually Lando kept the same trajectory as Max. So, I think there’s many more reasons to be proud and to be happy and to be somehow encouraged for the future than disappointment. So, I think we go into the future with optimism and with a positive feeling.”
It is clear that Ferrari are chasing down McLaren quickly and the Woking-based manufacturer could certainly have already secured the Constructors’ Championship had they maximised opportunities earlier in the season. Even so, Stella is adamant that the success already seen by his team in 2024 cannot be overlooked.
“If we remove the first few races of the season before we deliver the Miami upgrades then we see that we have a trajectory from a driver’s championship point of view that means that Lando could compete with Max.” Sella declared. “This is one of the unthinkable achievements that we have to positively acknowledge at McLaren and when I say unthinkable, unthinkable thinking of where we were only 18 months ago.”
Lessons learnt from the season so far
The man leading McLaren’s F1 Constructors’ Championship title charge went on to explain that there are many lessons that his team can take from 2024 into the season ahead.
“At the same time, while being part of this quest I think we have learned many things. We have learnt as a team, we have learnt how to win races we have also learned that sometimes competing to win races you need to adjust the way you approach racing and definitely this season we have had some situations like Canada, Silverstone in which we could have won the race, or Monza and we got important learning as a team.
“If we look at Lando’s adaptations of competing even wheel to wheel with Max I think from where he was in Austria to where he was in Austin and just the week after in Mexico, he learned so quickly I am very proud of how rapidly Lando is picking up from the situations that he experiences on track and to some extent even off track to become a better and better driver I think with Lando, I am not sure this is acknowledged enough externally for some reasons there is more acknowledgement towards what are the missed opportunities rather than recognising that Lando is in an extremely strong trajectory and he was in condition once McLaren offered material that can win races to keep the pace of Verstappen.” said the 53-year-old team principal.
He also praised the form of Norris’ teammate Oscar Piastri and explained how obviously the team is working hard with the Australian driver and are even using some of their learning with Norris to transfer on to Piastri. By doing this, they feel it will enable them to be in the best condition next season to battle for both F1 Championships.
Mercedes to the rescue
As for the 2024 Constructors’ Championship, McLaren hold a 24-point lead over Ferrari. However, the situation could have been worse had Mercedes not secured their 60th 1’2 finish of their F1 history. This fact was not lost on Stella in his post-race remarks.
“It’s disappointing that we lost 12 points in the championship but at the same time considering how much we struggled this weekend somehow, we really have to thank Mercedes for having performed so strong and secure the P1 P2 position. Otherwise, Ferrari would have been an even bigger threat in the Constructor Championship.
“It’s true and I’ve said myself that Qatar and Abu Dhabi should be a territory that is more suitable for the way we have designed our car but at the same time I think we need to be careful that the level of the top teams in Formula 1 in 2024, in my view, even this one is unprecedented I really can’t remember a season in Formula 1 where four teams were operating at such a high level not only because they are in condition to win but they are in condition to dominate like Mercedes did here with faultless weekends.”
As a result of this, Stella said that although his team may arrive in Qatar thinking that their car may perform well, if they think that this is an easy ride they ‘will be hit by the reality’.
“So, we go there knowing that we need to maximise the potential of the car if we do that then certainly from a track layout point of view the car should spend quite a lot of time where it’s been designed to perform.”
Stella concluded his post-race press conference explaining how the way the season is drawing to a close is ‘very interesting’ – much more than he would have liked. Instead, the team principal said he would have preferred things to be boring but that’s not the case.
The 2024 F1 Drivers’ Championship may have been decided already but this year’s F1 Constructors’ Championship is by no means a foregone conclusion. With the way that this season has been going – and with only two race weekends remaining – there could still be a further twist to come.
