Lando Norris won in Miami. So did Mclaren and Andrea Stella, who has been head of the Woking team since December 2022. Their success is good for F1, like that of Ferrari in Australia. Another team has emerged as a legitimate challenger to Red Bull.
After six events, non-Red Bull teams have won two races. Assuming this rate continues, Ferrari and McLaren should have more than a handful of wins in 2024.
“I speak as Team Principal. This victory is not mine or Lando’s, but that of an entire team,” said Andrea Stella.
“My role is simply to represent the team of 850 people. That’s where my thoughts, my heart and my mind go.
“Because I know what kind of work they did, trying to change the situation 14 months ago now.”
The Stella era technically began in last year’s Baku GP, on April 30. Almost exactly a year ago, McLaren’s first updates arrived that changed the concept of the then MCL60.
At last year’s Miami GP, McLaren finished 17th and 19th. They were 88 seconds (one lap) behind Max Verstappen’s Red Bull.
STELLA: “THE VICTORY CAME WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM THE SAFETY CAR BUT TODAY WE WERE STILL VERY STRONG”
Lando Norris’s first career victory also came thanks to the introduction of the Safety Car for the accident between Magnussen and Sergeant, which allowed him to gain many seconds in the only stop made.
However, the MCL38 was clearly very competitive in Miami. Only Norris has McLaren’s full upgrade package, which proved very effective.
“The victory came thanks to a little help from the Safety Car. But I think the pace of our car was very strong today,” Andrea Stella explained post-race.
The English driver’s vision of the race was also determined. Once he understood the important difficulties in overtaking Checo Perez, he saved his tyres from being able to go on the attack once the Mexican had returned to the pits.
This also allowed him to extend the first stint, drawing the winning wildcard with the entry of the Safety Car.
“There was no plan to bring Lando back as long as he managed to set times that were always faster and, above all, better than the other riders who were on the track with the Hard tyres,” said Andrea Stella.
There are two important advantages of adopting this strategy. Ultimately, the most critical was that it put Norris in the best position to capitalise on the Safety Car.
The new package has improved the aerodynamic efficiency of the MCL38
According to McLaren, the layout of the Miami track coupled with the strong heat were not considered favourable factors for an MCL38, which has always suffered, in a certain way, from the high temperatures with overheating, especially of the rear axle.
Also, from here was born the desire to introduce the important aerodynamic package in Miami, which Stella had already admitted in the post-China GP could lead to a notable step forward in a season where the steps forward can certainly be less impactful than the two previous ones.
According to what Formu1a.uno learned, the package on Lando Norris’ MCL38 was worth 4 tenths. Just less than half of this was unlocked for Piastri, who didn’t have the new bottom and the new sidepods.
The Australian thus performed an excellent performance in qualifying, as underlined by Stella himself:
“It’s right to give credit to Oscar because the gap he had from Lando in qualifying is less than the difference in the package we brought.”
However, the package was designed to give its best in the race. On race day, a difference of roughly two-tenths between Norris and Piastri became clearer.
Above all, the new floor and sidepods have made the MCL38 more efficient. One of the most negative factors of last year’s car had already been partially corrected with the Launch Spec of the new car. This widened the setup options for McLaren, which was thus able to use a less loaded rear wing.
“In the second sector, we were quite competitive. One of the reasons is that we decided to go with a relatively flat rear wing.
“We were able to do this because we introduced the new package,” said Andrea Stella, who added further details.
“When you update the car with a new specification of the floor and sidepods, you try to make the car more efficient to avoid increasing the load through the wing rear.”
As already announced by the men of the Woking team, this upgrade was targeted at solving a key area. Low-speed corners have been the biggest weakness for McLaren in 2024.
“We made a conscious decision to set the car up to maximize low-speed performance. So the decent performance we achieved in those areas is not necessarily down to the characteristics of the package.
“But it is also down to some conscious decisions about how to set up the car. To be as strong as possible at low speed.
“If you look at qualifying, we lost a lot of time in the high-speed section.”
Norris’ MCL38 was immediately able to challenge Red Bull.
However, the English team are fully aware that the RB20 in Miami was not in top shape. This was partly due to damage to the diffuser on Verstappen’s RB20.
“I think that in this race, Red Bull underperformed a bit. From my point of view, if we want to constantly fight with them, we will have to bring another package like this one from Miami to the track,” concluded the Italian Team Principal.
