McLaren boss Andrea Stella is cautious as to whether the team’s success at last month’s Hungarian Grand Prix is the signal of a full return to Formula 1 form.
The Woking-based squad‘s 2025 has been underwhelming, given its status as both defending Drivers’ and Constructors’ Champions.
Struggles with the Mercedes power unit and overall performance gains from its rivals have largely seen the team languish away from the podium.
But Lando Norris’ commanding victory in Budapest was the perfect tonic for the team to take into the summer break, with an upgrades suite showing vast improvement for its MCL40 car.
For Stella, there is an attitude of level-headedness, rather than extreme confidence, acknowledging that other teams’ upgrades are also showing improvements in their cars, too.
“The upgrades we took [in Hungary], they are part of a round of upgrades that is distributed over a few rounds,” he said. “So, this was the first part of these upgrades. There will be a few things coming for the next races.”
“I have to say, this year, pretty much the top teams have always been successful in introducing upgrades from what I can see, and I think this is because the rules are still relatively immature, and the opportunities in terms of developing the car are almost low-hanging fruit to cash in.
“So, I don’t think McLaren has any particular advantage in like, ‘oh, everything we take is successful’. I think everyone is now doing a good job in terms of bringing successful upgrades.
“I think it will be more about how many upgrades the top teams will be in condition to deliver so far and for what’s left of the season, because we are only midway in this season. So I think it’s far too early to say whether this is a turning point for McLaren or not.”
‘We just look at the facts’
Stella, a man of engineering experience, is well aware of every spec of data that is viewed will give a clear picture. And whilst he conveyed pleasure in the results the upgrades in Hungary brought, there is a ‘wait and see’ attitude to what comes next.
“We just look at the facts,” he said. “The fact is that the upgrades delivered as we intended but, like I said, I think the pole position [in Hungary] is a little bit of an overachievement, thanks to execution and maximising the potential that was available.”
McLaren has the opportunity to send a real wake-up call to its rivals this weekend in Zandvoort, a place where it took victory last year, courtesy of Oscar Piastri.
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