McLaren arrives at the Canadian Grand Prix of Formula 1 next weekend, boosted by the team’s best result of the season so far. After achieving a double podium in Miami, the British team believes that recent updates can further increase the pressure on competitors in the upcoming races.
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The team principal, Andrea Stella, said he is excited about the performance of the new features introduced on the car in Miami. According to the director, McLaren will still bring new components to Montreal, trying to take advantage of the current balance among the main teams on the grid.
In Miami, Lando Norris finished in second place, while Oscar Piastri completed the podium right behind his teammate. The result marked a clear improvement compared to previous rounds, especially after the April break caused by the cancellations of the Bahrain and Saudi Arabia GPs, a period that allowed more development time for all teams.
Stella highlighted that the gap between McLaren, Mercedes, Ferrari, and Red Bull Racing is getting smaller: “If we look at the competitive scenario, we now have four teams separated by a very small lap time difference. Mercedes probably still has some advantage, but anyone could have taken pole in the Sprint race, (Kimi) Antonelli, (Charles) Leclerc, one of our drivers or (Max) Verstappen,” he said.
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The director believes that operational details can define results at this point in the season: “The four teams are very close now. The difference may lie more in execution, optimization, and adaptation to conditions than in a dominant team,” he said. Stella also praised the performance of the new parts brought to Miami and emphasized that McLaren will have more updates for Canada.
“It was a positive day for McLaren because it means the updates worked well. Ferrari brought a more consistent package in terms of the number of parts than Red Bull and McLaren, so we are happy to have extracted all the car’s performance. We never hid that. We will have more updates for Canada, so we are quite encouraged,” concluded the McLaren team principal.
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