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McLaren heads to this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix at the famed Spa-Francorchamps circuit wary of its chances despite three promising performances on the trot.
That included a second podium in as many races for Lando Norris in Hungary last weekend in a performance confirming McLaren’s place towards the front of the grid.
The Hungaroring offered a different test of the revised MCL60 after the comparatively highspeed venues at the Red Bull Ring at Silverstone which preceded it.
With a greater emphasis on medium-speed content, it highlighted the gains the operation has made as, prior to the Austrian Grand Prix, the car would have struggled.
Hence it has seen lifted expectations heading into the Belgian event this weekend, a venue famed for highspeed corners like Eau Rouge, Raidillon, Pouhon, and Blanchimont.
“Even if Spa is normally mentioned as one of the high-speed tracks, and so in reality, the highest speed corner, which is corner 10 is flat in qualifying.
“And there’s a lot of lap time in corner one (La Source) which is 80 kph in corner eight (Rivage), which is 100, and in the last chicane, which is 90 kph.
“I don’t want to repeat myself, but I go with some care because in these three corners, at the moment, we see that we lose time.”
The Belgian Grand Prix is also a Sprint event, meaning just an hour of practice greets teams before qualifying for Sunday’s race on Friday afternoon.
Saturday is then given over to the F1 Sprint, with the Shootout up first before the 100km competitive session later in the day.
It leaves little time to perfect set-up, especially on a lap that takes 1:44 in qualifying trim.
“So in addition to the outright performance, it will be important how rapidly you adapt your car to the demand of the track,” Stella noted.
“Spa is also a very demanding track in terms of understanding, for instance, you’re ride heights.
“Because, for example, in Eau Rouge, you can’t run too low because otherwise you would have problems under the car.
“How rapidly you can set up your car can make a difference for the entire week’s performance.”
