McLaren’s Andrea Stella: “We’re on the right trajectory as a team”

The McLaren F1 Team head to the Canadian Grand Prix this weekend having endured a disappointing result last time out at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, where neither Lando Norris nor Oscar Piastri could score a point.

Piastri finished thirteenth whilst Norris crossed the line at the Spanish Grand Prix in seventeenth, following an opening lap collision. Norris started the race in third but was forced to pit for a new front wing immediately, following an opening lap collision with Lewis Hamilton. Despite having shown great one lap pace in Spain, the Briton struggled for strong race pace, resulting in a point-less Spanish GP.

Team Principal Andrea Stella admits the result was far from “satisfactory”, with race pace certainly being a big issue for the Woking-based team.

“We come away from Spain with a less than satisfactory result. We were of course very happy to start the race with both cars in the top 10 after a positive qualifying session. The race proved to be more difficult in terms of pace and due to Lando’s incident at Turn 1. We take the learning onboard and we go again.”

After having a week to reflect on the MCL60’s issues, McLaren head to the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve this weekend targeting a good result. With the car being how it currently is, a big points haul is very unlikely, something Stella is aware of. However, the team boss recognises that the outfit are “on the right trajectory” to meet their “long-term” goals, which will start to be achieved, presumably, once they introduce their huge upgrade packages (expected around the next couple of races).

Until then, the team have to simply “extract the most” from the MCL60, in a bid to score points and catch the top five in the Constructors’ Championship.

“Canada is a track that many drivers enjoy,” said Stella.

“It’s another challenging circuit, fast-flowing but with low-speed corners and loads of braking and traction. We’re on the right trajectory as a team for the long-term foundation and we know results will start to come to us once we improve the car. In the meantime, we’ll try and extract the most from the next GP in Canada.”