McLaren confirm early-season F1 upgrade plan
McLaren confirm early-season F1 upgrade plan
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.
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.
READ MORE: Hamilton concedes Mercedes 'miles away' from F1 podium
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
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F1 Standings
Drivers
- Oliver Bearman
- Charles Leclerc
- Carlos Sainz
- Lando Norris
- Oscar Piastri
- Pierre Gasly
- Esteban Ocon
- Sergio Pérez
- Max Verstappen
- Alexander Albon
- Logan Sargeant
- Lewis Hamilton
- George Russell
- Nico Hülkenberg
- Kevin Magnussen
- Fernando Alonso
- Lance Stroll
- Valtteri Bottas
- Zhou Guanyu
- Daniel Ricciardo
- Yuki Tsunoda
Races
- Gulf Air Grand Prix of Bahrain 2024
- Saudi Arabian Grand Prix 2024
- Grand Prix of Australia 2024
- MSC Cruises Grand Prix of Japan 2024
- Grand Prix of China 2024
- Miami Grand Prix 2024
- Gran Premio dell'Emilia Romagna 2024
- Grand Prix of Monaco 2024
- Grand Prix du Canada 2024
- Gran Premio de España 2024
- Grand Prix of Austria 2024
- Grand Prix of Great Britain 2024
- Grand Prix of Hungary 2024
- Grand Prix of Belgium 2024
- Heineken Dutch Grand Prix 2024
- Grand Prix of Italy 2024
- Grand Prix of Azerbaijan 2024
- Grand Prix of Singapore 2024
- Grand Prix of the United States 2024
- Gran Premio de la Ciudad de Mexico 2024
- Grande Prêmio de São Paulo 2024
- Heineken Silver Las Vegas Grand Prix 2024
- Qatar Grand Prix 2024
- Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi 2024
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