Andrea Stella admits he has ‘doubts’ over key McLaren update package

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McLaren have eight races to turn around one of the biggest championship deficits in Formula 1 history and rewrite their damaged legacy.

The last decade hasn’t done the team many favours, dropping from regular title contenders to the back of the grid, and then back to the front again under the leadership of figures such as Zak Brown, Andreas Seidl and Andrea Stella.

They have the fastest car on the grid right now, and their main rivals Red Bull barely managed to qualify within a second of them at the Italian Grand Prix, so the momentum is very much on their side.

And that’s something that they don’t want to lose, with a third of the season to go, and a lot of racing to unfold – posing questions about their development path.

Andrea Stella admits he has ‘doubts’ over key McLaren upgrade package

The old adage of ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ could be relevant to the Woking-based outfit, however they don’t want to rest on their laurels and risk being caught by Ferrari and Mercedes.

They need to maximise every race weekend to ensure that they get themselves ahead of the game for when Red Bull inevitably find their edge again and challenge Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri more consistently.

But, there’s fears that the improvements they have brought to the car recently may not be helping to make the car quicker, and instead should remain to be held back until they can figure out whether they are useful.

READ MORE: How Liam Lawson’s RB test times compared to Tsunoda and Ricciardo’s qualifying efforts at Monza

“We haven’t brought a significant upgrade since Miami,” he told Autosport. “The next relevant upgrade, not as big as Miami, was in Zandvoort, and it didn’t involve the [whole] floor – it was just a detail. It was some other areas of the car.

“But there’s a reason why we haven’t brought some upgrades – because we see that, had we pressed the go button, we might have had some doubts when these parts were tested full-scale on the real car.

“So we are taking our time to convince ourself that the development is mature to be taken trackside.”

Do the final races of the season suit the McLaren car?

Upcoming races at Azerbaijan and Singapore definitely play to McLaren‘s strengths more than Red Bull’s, especially considering that Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez were some of the slowest drivers in the speed traps at Monza.

The Baku street circuit hosts the longest straight on the calendar, followed by a Marina Bay track that was the only stumbling block in Red Bull’s otherwise perfect 2023 season.

READ MORE: Mercedes engineer explains why Lewis Hamilton’s seat was ‘extremely hot’ during Monza weekend

If McLaren can put both cars on the podium at both races, the odds would firmly be in their favour with a quarter of the season to go.

Fortunately, there will be a month long break after Singapore which comes at the perfect time for Red Bull to regroup and extract some more pace from the RB20.

On the other hand, it might offer McLaren enough time to optimise their Zandvoort package and pull even further away in their quest for a first championship since 2008.