McLaren Formula 1 boss Andrea Stella has cautioned against setting “false expectations” in 2024 to prevent reality from hitting the team in “a violent way” if it falls short.
After struggling in the nascent stages with an underdeveloped car, the addition of an extensive mid-season upgrade package elevated McLaren into a front-running side.
Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri capitalised on the improved MCL60 challenger to collect a combined nine podiums, securing McLaren fourth place in the Constructors’ standings.
The Woking-based squad has therefore been widely touted as one of the teams that could make the progress needed to close the substantial deficit to a dominant Red Bull.
Along with the arrival of technical recruits in the form of David Sanchez from Ferrari and Rob Marshall from Red Bull in January, McLaren’s 2024 car will be the first to utilise the team’s brand-new wind tunnel facility.
Despite the remarkable headway made under his leadership, Stella has avoided placing added pressure on the team by heightening targets in advance of next year.
“Ultimately in Formula 1, we have the luxury of it being quite quantitative,” the Italian said.
“You see what kind of progress you are making in the wind tunnel and the computer simulations and you kind of know that a certain rate will mean two-tenths, half a second, seven-tenths better at the start of the season.
“Realistically, we know that if you want to retain your competitiveness going into next season, you need to have half a second in hand. Otherwise, it’s like what we have seen at the end of a season, it looks like you’re moving backwards. It’s just because you are steady and everyone is catching up.
“So, we will first of all look at the data. We already know pretty much this data, which I won’t comment on. And then based on that, we will position the entire team internally and externally.
“We don’t have to create false expectations because then reality comes to you in a violent way and we don’t want to find ourselves in this position.”
However, Stella is wary that downplaying McLaren’s hopes could prove counterproductive if its 2024 car is capable of mixing it at the front from the outset.
“At the same time, we don’t want to downplay too much and then find we weren’t ready to fight at the front and we didn’t make good decisions because of that,” he added.
“So just to stick with the data, be realistic, be honest. That’s our philosophy.”
Following its huge development push over the summer, McLaren bolstered its competitiveness further with more upgrades in Singapore, culminating in the team landing a double podium in both Japan and Qatar.
Stella believes that the British outfit’s decision to abandon bringing new parts beyond that point contributed to other teams, notably Ferrari and Mercedes, clawing back the edge over McLaren in the closing rounds.
“The way I structure the season is we started uncompetitive, took a step in Austria, another step in Singapore. But there’s a final phase of the season in which we have been steady from a development point of view,” he explained.
“Many cars have brought upgrades, some of which have been quite successful. So, it’s a phase in which it’s not like we have degraded our performance, simply some other cars have closed the gap on us or have even overtaken us.
“Definitely, if we want to enjoy some of the results we have enjoyed in this third phase after Singapore, we do have to make a further step forward going on to next season.”
