McLaren confirm early-season F1 upgrade plan

McLaren

McLaren confirm early-season F1 upgrade plan

McLaren endured a torrid opening weekend of the new season

Sam Hall

Monday 13 March 2023 11:30

Andrea Stella has confirmed McLaren's upgrade plans for the coming races after a difficult start to the season in Bahrain.

McLaren ended the opening race of the season with both cars in the garage after Oscar Piastri suffered an electrical failure and Lando Norris required six pit stops to negate a pneumatic leak.

Between stops, Norris showed promising pace, something that caused team principal Stella to suggest the weekend was not as bad as McLaren had expected.

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Asked if the team had any immediate plans to bring developments to the track, Stella said: “There are some minor upgrades that will come already in Saudi and in Australia.

"There are little things that are coming for the next couple of races – not necessarily very noticeable but they should add some performance here and there.

“Then, there will be the first of the major upgrades in Baku.”

The Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku comes after a three-week spring break, a period that opened up after the cancellation of the Chinese Grand Prix.

McLaren predict 'enjoyable' future

Testing and the opening weekend highlighted that McLaren appears to have slipped further down the order from its fifth-place constructors' placing last term.

Suggesting this is not expected to remain the case for too long, Stella added: “The other element that we have to acknowledge is that not only the midfield is even tighter than last year, but even racing close to Mercedes, Aston (Martin) and even Ferrari - without a safety car, I’m not sure there would have been people one lap down without issues.

“I think if you race well (and) if we can improve the car by a few tenths like we plan to do, we can have some enjoyable races soon.”

READ MORE: March's key F1 diary dates