McLaren are already working on an upgrades package for their new MCL60 which they hope will be completed in time for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, team principal Andrea Stella says.
McLaren unveiled their car for the 2023 season at their Woking factory today, with Stella stating the team’s target of rejoining the top four in the championship.Stella also told media including RaceFans at the launch of its new car that the team has already begun on developing an upgrades package for the early phase of the championship, hopefully for the fourth round of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
“In terms of developments, we hope [to have some] a couple of months into the season, hopefully less,” Stella said. “So this may coincide with race four [Baku]. We will see how rapidly we can get this project to land.
“There’s good developments already in the pipeline that should land trackside very soon in season. These should allow us to take a decent step forward. But we are not naive. We know that pretty much every team will be saying the same: ‘we have good developments’ and so on.”
McLaren identified significant area for potential gains late in the development phase of their new car, said Stella.
“While we are happy with the development of the car in most of the areas, there’s some areas in which we kind of realised a little late through development some really strong directions,” he said.
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Stella also pointed to ongoing development of their facilities at their team factory, which we believes will benefit McLaren over the second half of the season.
“We also have some more high level developments ongoing overall in the team,” he said.
“I would like to remind the importance of getting the new wind tunnel to come to fruition, which should happen around the mid-year. That should be a step change – for many reasons, not only the fact that it improves your methodologies.
“There’s also the new simulator as well coming. We have a new manufacturing facility, so large investments that should come to fruition mid-year. And these should be an extra boost in this race to become top four over the season.”
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SpaFrancorchamps (@spafrancorchamps)
13th February 2023, 19:53
These kind of reports are big marketing nonsense to keep fans and sponsors happy. It’s a new car ffs. They’re basically saying they know they’ve messed up again, but will fix it in Baku. Ffs.
Proesterchen (@proesterchen)
13th February 2023, 20:36
Exactly. Setting expectations for an apparently rotten start to the season that they now expect.
Proesterchen (@proesterchen)
13th February 2023, 20:34
We are McLaren. Coming to the party not ready to dance is our jam.
This org is rotten to the core.
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
13th February 2023, 20:46
Still in Gulfy-looking colours – but I thought they were off to Williams. Hard to tell who’s supplying the fuel now. Is it Jack Daniel’s?