McLaren “resisted the temptation” to cater towards the wet conditions with its set-up choice as its two cars qualified fifth and sixth at Formula 1’s Belgian Grand Prix.
The Woking-based squad entered the round having dominated at the Hungaroring and striving to capitalise on Red Bull’s Max Verstappen taking a 10-place grid drop.
However, McLaren’s encouraging practice times dissipated on a damp track as Lando Norris wound up fifth, while Oscar Piastri trailed less than a tenth down in sixth.
But although one Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes will cover the top three, Verstappen has tipped McLaren to be the favourites when the conditions are drier in the race.
The Dutchman has acknowledged that McLaren was the pacesetter in two practice hours and reckons its lower-downforce rear wing configuration will aid overtaking.
Stella has admitted McLaren made a conscious choice to avoid repeating what it did 12 months ago and piling on more downforce to be more competitive in the wet.
“We wanted to resist the temptation to prepare a car for wet, because we know that all forecast models at the moment are predicting a dry race,” Stella said.
“And here in Spa, you need to have the right wing level when you race in dry conditions because if you are short of top speed, it can be pretty challenging.
“So we stayed on the same wing we had yesterday in practice, where the car proved to be quite competitive in dry conditions.”
But Stella has expressed surprise that McLaren didn’t hold a clear advantage in a straight line and suspects that its rivals have tailored their cars towards a drier track.
“When I looked at the GPS overlays with some of our direct competitors – like Red Bull and Mercedes, Ferrari – I thought we would have a bit more top speed advantage.
“They are not on a wet set-up. I think they were just decently competitive today.
“They seem to be also, at the same time, on a good rear wing-level for tomorrow so I don’t think McLaren can say that today we left some things off the table.
“Just because we were on a dry set-up, because we see that our direct competitors seem to be on a similar level of rear wing-level.”
Meanwhile, Norris also stated that he harbours optimism that McLaren’s decision to not end up vulnerable in a racing situation will be advantageous come the race.
“The slightly lower downforce that we have potentially hurt just a little bit today and hopefully pays us back tomorrow,” the Briton added.
However, Norris has argued that Red Bull’s RB20 has been a step above McLaren’s MCL38 all weekend long, with the under-pressure Sergio Perez seizing a front row.
“The whole weekend Red Bull has been a step above us, even though we were a little bit quicker yesterday,” he claimed.
“I just don’t think Red Bull showed their cards at all and we did.
“From my side I was always one step behind and just always a little bit on the back foot, so to kind of still some way with a P5 I was actually surprised and happy with.
“We still have to overtake some quick cars tomorrow, like the Red Bull of Perez.
