McLaren Does the Math on Red Bull’s Upgrades With a Warning to Reigning Champions

McLaren have arguably been the best team in terms of car development since mid-2023. They are reaping the benefits of a three-pronged technical structure that is working like clockwork to deliver effective upgrades. Moreover, team principal Andrea Stella says that there is more to come from the Woking outfit, as they have brought fewer parts trackside so far relative to their championship rivals Red Bull.

Per Adam Cooper’s report on Formu1a.uno, Stella said, “Effectively, Red Bull have taken track side more developments so far in terms of physical parts delivered, when you look at the [FIA] submissions, than what we have done.”

The McLaren boss also mentioned, “We seem to be now in condition to cash in some of this development that we have accrued, and I would expect that for the second part of the season, we will have, at multiple times, some new parts.”

Stella‘s comments about McLaren having upgrades in the pipeline seem like an indirect warning to Red Bull. The Milton Keynes outfit have struggled to deliver good upgrades to iron out the weaknesses of the RB20. At the Hungarian GP, they brought a major package but it did not deliver the gains they expected.

Meanwhile, the Woking team mainly have relied on the performance boost after their major upgrade package at the Miami GP. Since then, they have brought minor updates like a different spec front wing in Austria for low-speed corners.

So, they would be looking to unleash an array of new parts from Zandvoort onwards after the summer break. However, Stella also highlighted that they need to figure out a solution for their under-par performance at high-speed tracks like Spa-Francorchamps.

McLaren needs to figure out its high-speed track performance

While Red Bull have struggled at tracks with many bumps and kerbs, Stella’s assessment points towards a low-drag performance deficit for McLaren. The Italian stated they hadn’t developed much on their low drag configuration. That is why their performances were probably a bit underwhelming in Belgium and Britain.

While the rain in Silverstone helped the Woking team to stay in contention for the win, the McLaren drivers were not at their outright best at the Belgian GP. On the contrary, the MCL38 worked quite well on the high downforce track in Hungary as they were a cut above the competition.

Hence, if McLaren can mitigate this issue in the second half of the season, it would benefit them in the title fight. However, Stella mentioned that they are aiming to bridge this high-speed track performance deficit by next year’s Belgian GP.

This means McLaren may have to make do with its current low-drag configuration with minor tweaks on upcoming high-speed tracks like Monza, Baku, and Las Vegas.