McLaren boss Andrea Stella responded to Lewis Hamilton’s statements after the Miami Formula 1 GP. Stella dismissed the idea that the British team had a gain above expectations with their updates.
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This position from the team boss reinforces that the team’s progress is within the plan, without surprises. It also puts into perspective the view that McLaren had made a bigger leap than its direct competitors.
Hamilton had suggested that the package introduced on the MCL40 delivered a gain higher than expected, also indicating that Ferrari did not have the same progress. Stella, however, was straightforward in rebutting this assessment: “I would like to say yes, but the answer is no. What we measure in the data is consistent with what we expected from the development tools,” he said.
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The executive also highlighted that the number of updates brought by McLaren was smaller compared to other teams, and that new components will still be introduced in the upcoming races. According to him, the performance achieved so far corresponds exactly to what was projected internally.
Stella added that the weekend in Miami brought subtle changes in the balance of power, with McLaren, Ferrari, and Red Bull Racing reducing the gap to Mercedes. Still, he emphasized that performance depends a lot on execution and adaptation throughout the weekend, citing variations between the Sprint qualifying and the qualifying session for Sunday’s GP. For him, Mercedes still holds an advantage of a few tenths and did not extract all its potential at the start of the Sprint, which may have distorted the perception about the progress of the competitors.
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