McLaren confirm 'B-spec' plan

Sam Hall
Thursday 30 March 2023 05:22

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has confirmed the outfit is working on a 'B-spec' car after a woeful start to the season.

McLaren is one of two teams to have failed to score a point in the opening two races of the year.

The team's struggles were put in sharp focus last week with McLaren announcing a significant restructuring of its technical leadership, something that saw technical director James Key depart the outfit.

This change had been in the planning since late last year, and although long-term improvements are the ultimate goal, Stella is hopeful of a short-term gain in the latter half of the current campaign.

“The improvement in Baku should affect an area of the car that has been clear I think from the presentation of the car we weren’t entirely happy with,” said Stella.

“In terms of development, it’s just the first step.

“We would expect definitely another major upgrade which will interest more areas of the car and will be more apparent.

“That is what somebody may call like kind of a B-spec car."

McLaren upgrades to continue

Despite McLaren enduring a pair of disappointing weekends, both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri have shown strong pace at times, with the pair's results in Saudi Arabia hindered by front wing damage on both cars sustained on the opening lap.

Refusing to put a date on when each of the planned upgrades will appear, Stella added: “And then we have a further round of upgrades in the second part of the season after the shutdown.

“So we have three main steps; Baku, later on – I don’t want to commit to any date, but before shutdown – and then after shutdown.

“We hope that each of them will be able to provide a few tenths of a second.”

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