{"id":19654,"date":"2025-04-14T16:36:10","date_gmt":"2025-04-14T16:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/19654\/"},"modified":"2025-04-14T16:36:10","modified_gmt":"2025-04-14T16:36:10","slug":"mclaren-cant-sleep-quietly-with-current-f1-advantage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/19654\/","title":{"rendered":"McLaren can\u2019t \u2018sleep quietly\u2019 with current F1 advantage"},"content":{"rendered":"

McLaren<\/a> boss Andrea Stella has dampened claims regarding the extent of the team\u2019s advantage in Formula 1<\/a> as he insisted the \u201cgap is nothing that makes us sleep quietly\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Woking-based squad rebounded from losing out to Max Verstappen in Japan as Oscar Piastri capped a dominant weekend with the team\u2019s maiden race win in Bahrain<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Piastri\u2019s second visit to the top step in 2025 has ensured he and Lando Norris lie 1-2 in the standings, while McLaren harbours a sizeable 58-point lead in the championship.<\/p>\n

But while Piastri opened up a 15-second margin over Mercedes\u2019 George Russell in 24 laps, Stella has denied McLaren\u2019s upper hand is vast enough to rest on its laurels.<\/p>\n

Indeed, Stella believes that Mercedes opting to run the last stint on the Soft compound compared to Piastri on Mediums distorted the genuine edge that McLaren possesses.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIn relation to the fact that we exploited a point of strength of the car, like a gentle interaction with the rear tyres, in fairness, hearing from our competitors, it looks like we have a completely different category, which is not the case,\u201d Stella told media including Motorsport Week<\/strong> post-race.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause as long as we were on the same tyres, Russell was keeping the pressure on and it\u2019s not like Oscar was managing very much. Oscar was trying to open a gap.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, last year [with Max] Verstappen, if you look at the race trace of last year, it just opened one second a lap, basically. That\u2019s dominance, that\u2019s good interaction with tyres. Our gap is nothing that makes us sleep very quietly, in fairness.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think if the race was hotter, we could have seen this a little bit more, but at this temperature, it was small margins.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"McLarenMcLaren is not resting on its laurels despite a dominant start to 2025<\/p>\n

Where McLaren\u2019s gap could be less pronounced<\/p>\n

Stella suspects that McLaren\u2019s advantage will be less pronounced at venues where the conditions aren\u2019t as punishing on the tyres compared to what was existent in Bahrain.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this factor will not be as important at some other circuits as it was here, because this is one of the highest degradation of the season,\u201d the Italian elaborated. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I think we saw this in Japan, when as soon as\u00a0you had the low degradation, basically,\u00a0we didn\u2019t have any kind of advantage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Stella divulged that McLaren\u2019s strength when it comes to preserving the rubber is not exclusive to the superior downforce the side\u2019s MCL39 car generates.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think this is only related to downforce, we made some technical investments in improving the design of the car in relation to the interaction with tyres, so I really want to pay credit to the technical group that worked around this area of car development, because clearly they\u2019ve done a good job,\u201d he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n

READ MORE \u2013<\/strong> Lando Norris admits feeling with McLaren 2025 F1 car couldn\u2019t be \u2018more opposite\u2019 to 2024<\/a><\/p>\n

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