McLaren’s season could start to turn around as a result of the upgrades that will be introduced from the Austrian Grand Prix onwards, according to team principal Andrea Stella.
This weekend’s race at the Red Bull Ring is a Sprint weekend so there is only one free practice session for any teams to get a handle on new parts, but much like in Azerbaijan, McLaren is targeting the introduction of a major package. While the Baku update was designed to put the car where the team felt it should have been at launch specification, the latest developments come with even higher expectations.
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“Austria is a track in which we’ve done well in the past,” Stella said. “There’s six or seven corners, four of them are high-speed which we should be competitive on, and Austria is also our first step of bringing upgrades. I think this can be more important than how suitable the track is to the characteristics of our car.
“Ultimately for us it’s a milestone in terms of possibly turning around the season. Not only thanks to what we bring to Austria but also thanks to what will follow in the next races. So our focus – more than the characteristics of the track – is now on the car itself.
“So even if we only have one session, hopefully we will be able to validate the new package and from there move on to a more competitive situation.”
As the lead driver in the championship, Lando Norris will be receiving the first developments in Austria, and McLaren won’t be bringing the entire update to the Red Bull Ring but instead spreading its introduction out across three consecutive race weekends. Roughly half is expected to be ready for this weekend, then Stella estimating 25% further at Silverstone before the rest in Hungary.
“I’m banking on this package, but across pretty much three races in which we will introduce it. This should be a few tenths of a second, it should be noticeable from a lap time point of view.”
After eight rounds so far this season, McLaren has scored just 17 points and sits sixth in the constructors’ championship, 27 points adrift of Alpine in fifth having failed to pick up a point in each of the last two races.