McLaren boss Andrea Stella has admitted the team is still not in a position to win Formula 1 races on pure pace as he revealed upgrades will come in the next rounds.
The Woking-based squad has built on a positive end to last term that comprised a remarkable mid-season turnaround from Q1 eliminations to regular podium results.
Norris capitalised on the initial upgrades to the MCL38 to seize his elusive maiden win in Miami, while he also pursued Max Verstappen’s Red Bull to the end at Imola.
The Briton has logged five podiums from the opening nine races this season, with team-mate Oscar Piastri splitting the Ferrari cars to come home second in Monaco.
Norris insisted that he should’ve triumphed in Canada as his lead in mixed conditions was squandered when McLaren was indecisive when pitting under a Safety Car.
However, Stella, who claimed Norris’ advantage wouldn’t have delivered a guaranteed win, contends holding regrets over a second place validates McLaren’s progress.
Asked whether it was a positive sign there was disappointment at missing out on a win given where it was 12 months ago, Stella told Autosport: “This sort of little disappointment for a victory that was possible is actually a testament to the fact that the team has come a long way and we are now regular podium contenders or at times even victory contenders.
“At the same time, I look at the positives, and there are many.
“Certainly the team has been consistent in being competitive, despite the variation of track, conditions and so on, which is something that you never can take for granted.
“You don’t gain any credit because you’ve been like this in the past, you know, every race weekend, you have to gain your money.
“So ultimately, we ideally should make the car a little bit faster, and then be in condition to chase the victory independent of the conditions on track or the track characteristics because we have to say that when we were in dry conditions, Mercedes was faster than us.
“So we’re still not in a position where we can gain the victory out of outright performance.”
McLaren capitalised on Ferrari’s disastrous weekend to close the gap in the championship, but that came amid the backdrop of Mercedes being a renewed contender.
The German marque has adopted an aggressive development process to make inroads into the top three and has warned that pattern will continue into the next races.
However, Stella has divulged that McLaren might have new parts on the car as soon as the Spanish Grand Prix, though he ruled out seismic packages like last season.
“For the coming races, we will have some upgrades, but they won’t be a single kind of big upgrade like we have seen over the last 12 months,” he revealed.
“This is more some individual components where we found a little bit of performance and rather than waiting to deploy everything together once ready we take it track side.
“So I won’t say what but we will see some new stuff coming over the few coming races.”
Stella contends that the renewed confidence that has derived from McLaren’s return to being a consistent competitor at the top can inspire the team to greater heights.
Asked about the mood within the camp as it continues to be competitive on each circuit configuration, the Italian responded: “Confidence growing in team?
“Well, the confidence grows, but you don’t do very much with the confidence. Ultimately, the confidence needs to help design new parts.
“If anything, because you’re confident, because you are more energised, you kind of work even harder, because you enjoy these results and you want to see more.
“So it’s more than a motivational element. But ultimately, you can be competitive and you can be consistently competitive if you do work of good quality – the quality of the parts we design, the robustness of the operations, the consistency of the driving.
“The confidence element helps in gaining the energy that you need to put behind these success factors and honestly, especially I would say, if we think of the pitstop crew, the drivers… every athlete that’s in a confident space performs better.
“But like I say, you don’t rely on confidence – you will rely on the good work and that’s the kind of mindset that we need to keep at McLaren.”
