Andrea Stella reveals what McLaren ‘keep seeing’ with 2024 F1 car amid rallying call

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McLaren boss Andrea Stella has revealed what the Formula 1 team ‘keep seeing’ in the early data from their 2024 car, ahead of pre-season testing in Bahrain later this month.

Sakhir welcomes F1 back for the only winter test between February 21 and 23 before racing resumes at the circuit on March 2. It was a bleak period for McLaren this time last year with the Woking team identifying early problems with the MCL60 after they flew over to Bahrain.

McLaren CEO Zak Brown admitted following the pre-season test that his outfit failed to meet their performance targets. It was not until they got upgrades at the Azerbaijan GP at the end of April that Lando Norris felt McLaren found their baseline they should have had in Bahrain.

McLaren failed to meet their pre-season car targets in 2023

The Bahrain GP last year further showed McLaren had huge teething issues with the MCL60. Oscar Piastri only drove 13 laps on his Grand Prix debut owing to an electronics issue. Norris also visited the pit lane six times for regular top-ups to his air tank due to a pneumatic leak.

McLaren improved enough for Norris to register points in Australia, Azerbaijan and Monaco. Piastri also scored points in Australia and Monaco. But McLaren’s upgrades for the Austrian GP saw Norris finish in fourth before taking to the podium in Britain and Hungary in second.

Norris further took the early lead of the British GP from P2 on the grid. Piastri also qualified third at Silverstone but a late safety car period denied him a debut podium. The 22-year-old would also finish the Belgian GP Sprint in second before McLaren brought further upgrades.

Andrea Stella is ‘very encouraged’ by McLaren’s 2024 F1 car data

McLaren’s second major set of upgrades at the Singapore GP did the trick as Norris returned to the podium in second. The 24-year-old even made the rostrum over five of the final eight rounds. While Piastri took his debut podium at the Japanese GP before securing P2 in Qatar.

Piastri also won the Sprint at the Qatar GP, before his runners-up finish made the Australian the first rookie since Lewis Hamilton in 2007 with McLaren to seal multiple podiums in their first season. Norris is still yet to win a Grand Prix or a Sprint after five seasons in Formula 1.

McLaren will hope to afford Norris and Piastri a race-winning car in 2024, and the early data from their simulators in Woking encourages team principal Stella. But the Italian engineer is eager for his Papaya squad to stick together and continue the progress they made in 2023.

Stella has outlined to Speedcafe: “We are very encouraged by the gradient. We keep seeing, even in this period of the winter, we are encouraged by the development of the car that we see in the background. [It is] like we saw before Austria or before Singapore.

“We need to keep momentum behind this gradient. But we also need to keep good work. We need also to keep our good culture to make sure that everyone keeps sticking together, collaborating in the way that we have been able to do in 2023.”