McLaren wants to stay grounded ahead of the 2024 season, with the front-running teams yet to reveal their true pace. Despite an encouraging three days of pre-season testing, team principal Andrea Stella is aware of the threats his team faces.
The MCL38 showed relatively strong performance during the three days of Bahrain running.
Tyre degradation was well controlled in their race simulations, and low-fuel runs were also indicative of strong pace. Still, this does not guarantee they will continue where they left off in Abu Dhabi last year.
Ferrari are perhaps the biggest threat to McLaren, as identified by Lando Norris very early in the tests. Their fellow Mercedes-powered teams are also in at least reasonable shape to start the year.
With this in mind, Andrea Stella will reserve any judgements for the action this weekend:
“Going into the Bahrain Grand Prix, we have to be prudent.
“Because some teams seem to have made a good step over the winter, and Bahrain is not the ideal track layout for our car.
“We will find out where we are in qualifying next Saturday…
“It’s been a long few days, but we now take the time to rest, reset and review everything ahead of the first race next week.”
Such language is very typical from senior personnel of F1 teams during pre-season. There is little to gain and plenty to lose from raising expectations before the first round.
McLaren, in particular, is known for playing down their chances, although in both 2022 and 2023, their cautious outlook was informed by a genuine lack of pace.
It was mid-season development that transformed the Woking-based team’s 2023 campaign. As it stands, they are in a far better position heading into the upcoming campaign.
Unfortunately for Andrea Stella and his personnel, it seems all their rivals have been relatively successful over winter.
Unlike last year, Mercedes and Ferrari made clear steps forward. Moreover, they understand their aerodynamic foundations. This means the British outfit must be more efficient than last season since they cannot rely on rivals stagnating mid-season
In any case, the Championship-winning teams seem to have cemented themselves at the front of the field.
Author: Jaden Diaz-Ndisang
