Andrea Stella has confirmed McLaren is targeting a two-race assault on the delivery of its next major upgrades.
McLaren delivered a new floor to its MCL60s for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, which at least provided a step forward in terms of pace and performance around the Baku Street Circuit.
In Miami, however, the team was forced to take what Stella described as “a reality check” as the car was shown to struggle when off throttle and off brake, leading to the fact that “some development directions need to be pursued”.
Whilst it was known McLaren would always deliver what has been suggested in some quarters to be a B-spec car before the summer break, Stella has now outlined the plans
“It will definitely be before the summer break, and we are distributing these upgrades across Canada and Britain,” said Stella.
“We will be avoiding Austria because it’s a sprint event, and given the size of the package, we are not confident of doing it there.
“Yes, we did it in Baku because it was just the floor, but now there’s more redesign involved, and the (second) floor we will delay until Britain.”
McLaren still “pushing 100%”
From the start of the season, McLaren was unafraid to state it was behind in its development, since when it has been playing catch up, even more so after opting to make changes to the make-up of its technical department.
What happened in Miami may have been eye-opening but it “does not change the rate of development” according to Stella.
He added: “It just helps us in focusing on some conditions in which to develop our car with CFD and in the wind tunnel, like you have to give more weight and more emphasis to these conditions.
“So the rate is always pushing 100% but redirected.”
With the first triple-header of the season approaching next weekend as F1 heads into Europe with races in Imola, Monaco, and Barcelona, Stella knows little can be achieved before then on the back of what transpired in Miami.
“In reality, what happens in Imola is what was signed off and sent to production, either one or two months ago, depending on the lead time,” said Stella.
“If you have a set-up issue, then you can react in the space between now and Imola.
“But at the moment, we have more issues to do with the specification of the car, with the package, and these take time which you have to design, build and produce, and so on.
“So what happens in Imola is what we decided one month ago. There are little developments coming for Imola actually, but they are minor compared to the step that we need to be consistently in the points, which is what we want to do.”
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