(Motorsport-Total.com) – The Formula 1 race in Monza brought McLaren back down to earth. After two wins on the high-downforce tracks in Budapest and Zandvoort, the MCL40 could not keep up with Mercedes on the high-speed Monza circuit and clearly exposed the car’s weaknesses.
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That Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri could not compete for the win was by no means a surprise for the team, but it ruthlessly sets the bar for the remainder of the season. A detailed investigation shows: While the operational side is looking for fine-tuning, the aerodynamics department in Woking is struggling with fundamental issues.
McLaren had to uncompromisingly bend the setup window to avoid completely falling behind on the very long straights. This left traces in the braking zones.” On Friday, we focused our setup approach on being competitive in the first two corners,” reveals team principal Andrea Stella.
“We came here with the idea that we had to make sure not to be too weak in these two chicanes. But we saw that we were not very competitive in corners around 180 to 200 km/h,” the Italian explains.
Although the team made adjustments on Saturday, the fundamental deficits could not be concealed: “Overall, slow corners remain our biggest opportunity from a development perspective,” Stella puts it mildly. “When you tweak the setup, you only get a little way. We need more.”
Lando Norris also does not hold back criticism of the MCL40’s independent behavior after finishing fourth on Sunday. When asked if he would have signed for fourth place before the weekend, the Brit made it clear on Sky: “I think so. We have seen in recent races, like at the Red Bull Ring, that Red Bull can be very fast on this type of track with good top speed and such things.”
“That proved true again today; they were better than us. But it was clear that Mercedes is still in a league of their own compared to us.” His bitter conclusion: “That is simply frustrating.”
“We really need to work on the slow and medium-speed corners, on the car’s stability, which is just not good enough, and on some top speed on the straights. If we can solve that, then a lot is settled.”
Reality check in the title fight: Mercedes races in a league of their own
The confidence from previous wins gave way to sober self-awareness in Monza. Instead of sugarcoating the result, Norris speaks plainly about the power dynamics at the top. The late catch-up in the last race stint mattered little to the reigning world champion: “The end doesn’t matter to me at all because the first impression is not good enough,” he makes clear.
“Qualifying is not good enough and neither is the overall pace. It became clear today that Mercedes was very, very strong and clearly raced in a league of their own compared to the rest of us.”
Norris does not want to blame the deficit on tire strategy or pure race pace: “We were probably on a similar level to Red Bull today, I would say. They just had the better strategy and are strong in free air. I think we suffer from our top speed whenever we are at the front of a group.”
“Even though we have won two races, we know very well that we are by far not good enough and need to improve as a team. But I am still very confident that we can fight through this as a team,” says the Brit.
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Monza: Driver ratings by Marc Surer and the editorial team
In the sister car, the insight that damage limitation had to be done in Monza also predominates. However, Oscar Piastri draws cautious pragmatic optimism from the race: “I think we landed about where we expected,” he says.
“Being faster than the Ferraris was a good thing – albeit close. It was a tricky race; it was not necessarily about who was the fastest out there. You had to act smart in a way.”
Asked about the review after his mediocre Zandvoort weekend, the Australian is relieved that they are no longer in the dark: “Pace-wise, it was by no means perfect, but it was damn much better than last time.”
“Operationally, we didn’t do a fantastic job this weekend, but it was nice to at least talk again about the usual details you can fine-tune instead of trying to reinvent the wheel completely. That was the biggest plus.”
The roadmap for the final sprint: Hope for corner-rich tracks
So what does the realistic season goal look like when circuits with extremely low drag pose such problems for the MCL40? Team principal Andrea Stella sets the course and looks pragmatically at the remaining race program.
“I think a good, reasonable, and realistic end of the year is one where we see in the remaining nine or ten races that we consistently fight for wins and can also secure some of those wins,” explains the Italian.
The hope rests on layouts that suit McLaren’s aerodynamic concept again: “Our tracks will be more like Malaysia, Austin, or Brazil. I believe that if we have some long corners, the car seems to unfold its potential well.”
For the upcoming street circuits in Baku and the upcoming debut in Madrid, Stella remains cautious despite announced development stages: “We have some new updates that we will bring after Baku, but we still believe that tracks like Baku and Madrid, where you have to be very precise and there are short corners, may not be optimal for our car.”
Nevertheless, the McLaren boss leaves no doubt that they will not give up the title fight without a fight as long as the math offers hope: “In Zandvoort and Hungary, we were able to win races. Drag will be less important in Madrid; there is a much higher corner density. So we will definitely try.”
“But as far as the championship is concerned, we have to be very realistic: Let’s not be conditioned by looking at the table but focus on one race weekend at a time.”
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