It was a dominant performance from McLaren in the Miami race, showing a pace advantage over rivals that at times exceeded a second per lap. Less convincing, however, were the performances over a single lap, with the world champions failing to secure pole position in either of the weekend’s qualifying sessions. Andrea Stella reveals that the front end is the weak point of the MCL39, depriving the drivers of reference points when pushing to the limit, forcing them to drive blind. In Woking, work is underway on potential solutions that could also help prevent the issue in future cars.
Single-lap vulnerability
“What we observe is that occasionally our car can handle corners very well, but for our drivers it’s difficult to do it consistently.” The Team Principal’s comments, reported by The Race, confirm the driving difficulties also mentioned by Lando Norris, which stem from the poor communication between car and driver regarding available grip at any given moment. “It’s a car that doesn’t give you much warning,” Andrea Stella explains. “When driving, our drivers have to make assessments that are not necessarily based on their real-time perceptions, but more on their experience from the previous lap. That’s not a comfortable position to be in for a Formula 1 driver, who instead wants clear feedback from the car.” This issue also helps explain the difference in pace between McLaren’s performance on Saturdays and Sundays.
In races, McLaren’s superiority in tyre management clearly emerges, partly due to their unique brake cooling ducts, but also thanks to high downforce and good balance—qualities that help reduce tyre sliding. Added to this is a less aggressive driving style compared to qualifying and, above all, the ability to string together consecutive laps. In this scenario, track, tyre, and car conditions change more gradually, allowing drivers to rely more on feedback from previous laps. By contrast, in qualifying, the grip limit changes more drastically from lap to lap, sometimes several minutes apart, making it difficult to judge how far they can push without clear feedback from the car. In Miami, the race pace advantage was enough to secure victory even without starting from pole, but at Imola and Monaco, making up ground won’t be as easy.
The issue lies at the front
The MCL39 is proving to be a car that doesn’t offer drivers a clear sense of grip limits, forcing them to rely almost entirely on instinct in qualifying, effectively driving blind. “The sensations reaching the driver, especially from the front axle, are relatively weak,” Andrea Stella explains. This sheds more light on Lando Norris’s comments ahead of the Miami weekend: “There are some things that don’t allow me to feel what I need to feel, and that’s what would let me drive at the level I’m capable of. We’re talking about small things. It’s not like the car has suddenly become impossible to drive. But when in qualifying we’re talking about differences of hundredths or thousandths of a second, this is the only thing I’m complaining about.”
Lando Norris had previously spoken about something not clicking between him and the MCL39, describing it in China as a car that “doesn’t suit me when it comes to attacking the braking and corner entry.” His comments point to a lack of confidence with the front end, something he again highlighted two weeks later at Suzuka: “The corners where I struggle most are the ones where I don’t have the front, I don’t have the grip I need from the front axle.”
Work in progress
Andrea Stella remains tight-lipped on the root cause of the issue, not specifying whether it’s aerodynamic, mechanical, or a combination of both. It could be a matter of aerodynamic sensitivity, but it’s also fair to question whether the unique suspension setup contributes to the phenomenon. In particular, the front suspension, heavily compromised in its kinematics and mechanics to stabilise ride height and manage airflow, minimises chassis movement—including the cockpit. While this results in excellent floor stability, it filters out the sensory information reaching the driver, making it difficult to perceive when the car is nearing the grip limit.
The Team Principal assures that work is ongoing in Woking to tackle the issue, exploring changes “to see if we can give the drivers a slightly more predictable car, rich in feedback on the available grip when driving at the limit.” One might argue that McLaren doesn’t need to worry about this, given their massive race pace advantage and frequent front-row starts. However, resting on their laurels is not part of a winning mentality—especially as, as Stella reiterates, “this is also useful to understand how to design future cars.”
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