McLaren is staying vigilant after the difficulties faced in Baku. Andrea Stella, the team principal, has pointed to another circuit as a potential weakness for the MCL39, highlighting long straights and slow corners that are not favorable for the car.
Learning from Baku
Despite Max Verstappen’s two consecutive victories causing some concern, McLaren had anticipated at the start of the season that certain races would be more challenging. It would be inaccurate to call these weekends “failures” because both at Monza and Baku, the McLaren cars showed pace capable of competing for pole position, even if the results ultimately did not materialize for various reasons.
The Baku weekend was especially difficult, where McLaren hoped to secure their tenth Constructors’ title. Oscar Piastri retired after only a few hundred meters, while Lando Norris chose to manage his race carefully, avoiding unnecessary risks in light of his teammate scoring zero points.
Stella emphasizes the car’s characteristics
Andrea Stella worked to calm expectations, acknowledging the threat from Red Bull and Max Verstappen, while explaining that the MCL39 has specific strengths and weaknesses. Certain tracks, as seen recently, are simply not favorable. Technical analyses of McLaren’s performance have shown that the team struggles on circuits with few medium-to-high-speed corners.
Las Vegas: McLaren’s upcoming challenge
Looking ahead, McLaren is expected to return to strong form starting in Singapore. However, among the remaining races, one circuit resembles Baku in its characteristics: Las Vegas. The Nevada track features four long straights, including the iconic 2-kilometer stretch along the Strip where speeds exceed 340 km/h, combined with slow corners similar to those seen at Monza and Baku. Andrea Stella believes Las Vegas could be a particularly tricky weekend for the McLaren cars. At the start of the season, he even considered it one of the worst circuits for performance.
“If you had asked me which weekend I expected to be the toughest for the team, I would have said either Baku or Las Vegas,” Stella explained, highlighting the detailed understanding of the car’s characteristics. “We know we are competitive on tracks with medium-to-high-speed corners, but Baku and Las Vegas lack those features. The engineers have done incredible work on the aerodynamics, but the car struggles with braking on long straights and following prescribed trajectories. The car performs best when it can rotate through corners, like Turn 1 at Zandvoort, which I consider a true McLaren corner.”
Praise for McLaren engineers
Andrea Stella also praised the team for designing a versatile car. “Ultimately, the car had enough pace to fight for pole position at Baku. I want to give credit to the engineers for creating such a versatile machine. However, I wouldn’t be surprised to see other cars perform as well or better than us in Las Vegas,” he concluded, underlining that the challenges ahead are known but manageable with careful preparation.
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