McLaren F1 team principal Andrea Stella has admitted that some issues the team found towards the end of 2023 may not be rectified by the start of this season.
Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri found themselves languishing at the back of the pack at the start of last year in a car that proved to be remarkably uncompetitive.
Yet a mid-season upgrade on Norris's MCL60 at the Austrian Grand Prix proved to be the catalyst for the team's charge up the grid, eventually finishing P4 in the constructors' standings.
However, it was not always smooth sailing for McLaren. As the season drew to a close it became apparent that, when pushed to the limit, the MCL60 had a tendency to become erratic – particularly in qualifying.
The MCL60 improved remarkably as the 2023 season progressedYet some qualifying performances raised concerns over the car's reliability when on the edge
And Stella has now revealed that the team were looking at the trade-off in race pace versus qualifying performance, something that McLaren are not certain has been entirely ironed out heading into 2024.
Stella: McLaren launch car may still need work
"We definitely questioned ourselves – whether we had made the car quicker, but somehow slightly more difficult to be exploited when you go to the limit in qualifying," he told Motorsport.com.
“We have looked at, first of all, confirming whether this question was fair or if it was just kind of random episodes but not actually correlated from a technical point of view.
“We think that definitely there’s some areas that we could have looked into, and they affect the aerodynamics side.”
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella will be eager to get on top of the issue as quickly as possible
And Stella went on to admit that not all the fruits of their labour will be felt when the car rolls down the garage for the first time in 2024.
“Some of the benefits may be embedded onto the launch car," he added. "But actually some of the projects belong to a workstream that may land trackside with some other developments.
“Some things require a few months to be addressed, let’s say.”
GP BAHRAIN
29 Feb - 2 Mar
GP SAUDI ARABIA
7 - 9 Mar
GP AUSTRALIA
22 - 24 Mar
GP JAPAN
5 - 7 Apr
GP CHINA
19 - 21 Apr
GP USA
3 - 5 May
GP ITALY
17 - 19 May
GP MONACO
24 - 26 May
GP CANADA
7 - 9 Jun
GP SPAIN
21 - 23 Jun
GP AUSTRIA
28 - 30 Jun
GP GREAT BRITAIN
5 - 7 Jul
GP HUNGARY
19 - 21 Jul
GP BELGIUM
26 - 28 Jul
GP NETHERLANDS
23 - 25 Aug
GP AZERBAIJAN
13 - 15 Sep
GP SINGAPORE
20 - 22 Sep
Gulf Air Grand Prix of Bahrain 2024
Gran Premio de la Ciudad de Mexico 2024 
Grande Prêmio de São Paulo 2024 
Qatar Grand Prix 2024 
Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi 2024 
Innovatieweg 20C