Ferrari will not be the only team developing its car in Miami: from Woking come the first confirmations about the McLaren updates installed on the new MCL40 “2.0”, also developed with the support of Mercedes.
While Ferrari continues its on-track work between Fiorano and Monza, McLaren is not standing still and has developed a new package of updates to introduce in Miami. Andrea Stella also indicated both the area that has undergone the most revision and the solution to the puzzle related to the software management of electrical energy.
That McLaren has worked intensively throughout this month of April, away from the track, is nothing new. In Woking, the aerodynamic department has pushed to the limit to allow Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri to reduce the gap to Ferrari and, above all, to Mercedes, which so far has appeared difficult to match. Aerodynamics seems to be the area where the MCL40 suffers the most compared to the other two top teams, and in Florida this gap will have to be closed.
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In recent weeks, in Italy, attention has been focused almost exclusively on Ferrari and the updates planned for Miami, including the so-called “macarena wing”, following yesterday’s positive filming day, whose aim was to verify whether this component could provide benefits greater than its drawbacks under braking. However, across the Channel the work has never stopped, and among the most active teams there is precisely McLaren.
During the media day in Woking, Stella clearly outlined the plan for the upcoming races, starting with the one on May 3 in the United States. On the updates he stated:
“I can say that, overall, between Miami and Canada we will see a completely new MCL40. We also have some performance to recover if we look at Mercedes, and partly Ferrari as well, but we are quite satisfied with the development we have been able to carry out behind the scenes.“
“We hope to see a slightly more competitive MCL40 in Miami and then in Canada, considering that the last race in Japan was already a fairly competitive performance. We therefore look to the next races with confidence,” he continued.
Un supporto importante è arrivato anche dalla Mercedes sul fronte power unit, un’area in cui il team principal italiano riconosce un divario fisiologico tra costruttore e cliente: “Per quanto riguarda il lavoro insieme a Mercedes e anche lo sviluppo degli strumenti di simulazione con loro, abbiamo fatto un passo avanti significativo rispetto a dove eravamo in Australia, quindi penso che come squadra siamo ora molto più preparati.”
“At the beginning of the season there could have been a disadvantage as a natural consequence of being a customer team, when the schedule was so intense, also from the power unit point of view, and it was something acceptable, something we were ready to accept and that we managed in a very constructive way together with Mercedes. But now, later in the season, I think we have closed this gap and we should have all the tools necessary to extract the maximum from the power unit,” he concluded.
Cover and photos: McLaren.com
