McLaren’s Andrea Stella: “We aim to start the second half of the season on a positive note”

Andrea Stella says it was important for everyone within the McLaren F1 Team to have a break ahead of the final ten races of the 2023 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season.

The McLaren team enjoyed a productive last few races of the first half of the campaign, with Lando Norris taking consecutive second place finishes in the British and Hungarian Grand Prix while Oscar Piastri took a second place finish of his own in the Sprint race in Belgium.

All this came after the team brought significant updates to the MCL60 ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix that turned them from a team struggling to score points to one fighting for podiums.

Stella, the Team Principal at McLaren, says the results in the past four events have given them both hope and confidence that they are on the right track with updates, but there is still work to be done in order to be truly competitive.

“Summer break is over and it’s time to go racing again,” said Stella.  “It’s been good for the Team to take some time off and reset ahead of the final 10 races of the season, after the efforts in the first half of the season.

“The last four races saw us achieving strong results, but also highlighted some areas where we need to improve.”

Stella says they hope to start the second half of the year on a high with a strong performance at Circuit Zandvoort as they bid to close the gap in the Constructors’ Championship to the four teams ahead of them.

“Zandvoort is one of the shorter tracks of the year but dense of interesting corners,” he said.  “The circuit features a unique, undulating nature through the sand dunes and is a challenging course.

“Thanks to the relentless work of the team, we have made significant improvements since the start of the season, and we aim to start the second half of the season on a positive note.”