Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris will have a raft of upgrades bolted on to their McLaren’s at this weekend’s Formula 1 Spanish Grand Prix.
According to a list of upgrades provided to the FIA, the team has 10 new parts for Round 6 of the season.
Those including a revised front wing and front suspension, new brake ducts, floor, revised sidepod shape, cooling louvres, and rear wing, among others.
“Obviously, you’re expecting to go a little a little quicker,” said Ricciardo of the package.
“I guess it’s all relative – even if it’s a second [faster], if everyone else finds more than it’s like ‘okay’.
“Well, if it’s a second, I’ll be stoked!
“We’ll see today how much it gives us and then obviously how much it changes the [pecking] order.
“It’ll bunch the field up, because we’ve all learned over the course of the first few races and understood the cars a little better, so I guess everyone’s going to trend in a similar direction.”
Team-mate Norris is optimistic heading into the weekend.
“It’s always good coming into a weekend knowing you’re going to have some things to help you go quicker, it’s always a good feeling,” he said.
“I think it’s also a different story of how well does it all actually work on the racetrack comparing to the wind tunnel and so on.
“So far this year things have stacked up well, so we’ll see.
“It’s not as simple as throwing it on the car and then just going quicker,” he added.
“You have to make some changes here and there to adapt to it, and to maximise the potential of these different parts.
“I’m excited, I think everyone in the team is excited.
“The factory have done an amazing job to get all the parts here for this weekend, we’ve just got to hope that they work well and we can take some steps forward.”
After a slow start to the season, McLaren sits fourth in the constructors’ championship, though well down on third-best Mercedes.
It finds itself at the front of a competitive group that includes Alpine, which has under-delivered in terms of race results in 2022, Alfa Romeo Sauber, Scuderia AlphaTauri, Haas, and Aston Martin the latter of which has a similarly large upgrade package for this weekend.
Running in Spain begins at 22:00 AEST tonight with Free Practice 1.
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