Andrea Stella, McLaren’s team principal in Woking, acknowledged that the Milton Keynes squad has resolved several aerodynamic issues on the RB21 and recognizes Max Verstappen as a real threat, aware of how even minor adjustments to ground-effect cars can shift the performance balance.
It’s in Formula 1’s DNA: stopping development means falling behind, even for a team that celebrated the Constructors’ Championship just two weeks ago. The performance landscape in 2025 seemed set after six months of near-total dominance from McLaren’s MCL39. Confident in their technical superiority over the summer, Woking decided to pause upgrades, trusting the package was sufficient to secure both the Constructors’ and Drivers’ objectives.
Then, quite surprisingly, McLaren saw its technical leadership challenged by Red Bull’s rapid progress in just a few weeks. Coming off celebrations that began in Singapore and continued in Woking, the team arrived in Austin hoping to reclaim the edge they lost after the Italian Grand Prix in early September.
Monza is an atypical track, Baku as well, and Marina Bay is a stop-and-go circuit that doesn’t fully showcase a car’s potential. That’s why the Austin weekend was eagerly awaited by the Papaya team, keen to return to the form McLaren showed from Melbourne to Zandvoort over six intense months.
The US Grand Prix has yet to take place, but the weekend so far—Sprint, qualifying, and Grand Prix qualifying—has provided a clear verdict: the Red Bull-Verstappen combination has made a move and is ready to overtake. Not yet in the overall standings, where Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris still hold a strong position, but in the technical hierarchy. Andrea Stella commented on the situation, giving a detailed assessment of the technical landscape.
“We’ve seen that our gap to Max Verstappen is a couple of tenths, which forces us to acknowledge that, for now, Red Bull and Max Verstappen have the most competitive package. In previous weekends, we noted the impact of very specific circuits, and that was true in Baku, Singapore, and to some extent here in Austin. But the gap we are seeing cannot be attributed solely to the track—Red Bull has clearly made a significant step forward.”
It might seem like a strategic compliment to a rival, but Stella supports his view with specifics. “I believe they’ve resolved some aerodynamic issues. They introduced a new floor in Monza, a new front wing in Singapore, and their drivers are very clear about the car’s behavior in terms of grounding. It’s possible they simply realized how to manage their car, like all cars of this generation, by adjusting ride height. If I had to bet, that’s where the improvement came from.”
Many in the paddock are hesitant to adjust the hierarchy. McLaren’s dominance in the first half of the season was so strong that it’s difficult to accept such a rapid shift. Some believe the Austin weekend results were partially influenced by factors beyond pure car competitiveness.
McLaren faced a very challenging Saturday due to an incident at the Sprint start, which forced engineers into a demanding repair session on both cars’ rear ends and floors. Additionally, the team lacked Sprint data, crucial since the weekend format doesn’t allow full-fuel long runs. With these ground-effect cars, losing even minor data can make it harder to adjust precisely, and a single millimeter can equate to significant milliseconds, which already impacted qualifying performance.
The key question now is how this will affect race pace. Norris and Piastri’s full-fuel performance remains uncertain. Some argue McLaren will struggle with the performance/tire management balance, while others believe they could surprise, even challenging Red Bull on race day.
The stakes are high. If Verstappen pulls away to victory, it would deal a blow to McLaren’s morale, especially with no particularly favorable tracks remaining. If Norris can pull off a surprise, team principal Andrea Stella will have to reconsider some beliefs, but he will do so with a smile on his face.
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