McLaren’s Andrea Stella: “The season is long and there will be plenty of opportunities”

Andrea Stella insists the McLaren F1 Team remain determined to unlock as much performance from their MCL60 as possible as they bid to secure their first top ten finish of the season this weekend in Australia.

It has been a very disappointing start to the 2023 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season for the Woking-based team, with Oscar Piastri retiring from the Bahrain Grand Prix and finishing only fifteenth in Saudi Arabia, while Lando Norris ended seventeenth in both events after troubled Sundays.

At least one high for the team last time out was Piastri making it into Q3 during Saturday’s Qualifying session, the first time the former FIA Formula 3 and FIA Formula 2 champion made it into the top ten shootout.

For Piastri, it will be his first home Formula 1 Grand Prix this weekend at Albert Park, and Stella, the Team Principal of McLaren, hopes that he and Norris can be top ten contenders as they look to pull themselves off the bottom of the Constructors’ Championship.

“We are pleased to be returning to Melbourne and the Australian Grand Prix,” said Stella.  “This will be Oscar’s first home race in his Formula 1 career, and we look forward to getting back to the passionate Australian fans and scoring the first points of this 2023 season.

“It was a bittersweet experience last time out. We were pleased to see Oscar make Q3 in Jeddah, and we could have been again competitive in the race. However, we had to change the front wings on both cars after one lap, which put us in a difficult position.

“We’re determined to improve the car and unlock as much performance as possible throughout the season. The season is long and there will be plenty of opportunities, starting from the next round at Albert Park.”