McLaren boss Andrea Stella moved to downplay the team’s impressive long-run pace during the second day of 2025 Formula 1 pre-season testing in Bahrain.
Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris finished 13th and 14th respectively on the timesheets in Bahrain on Thursday, although a late aborted push-lap attempt by the latter would have breached the top five.
But low fuel outright pace wasn’t why McLaren turned heads yesterday; instead, it was an impressive race simulation that looked to thrash rivals Ferrari and Mercedes.
Norris, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Mercedes’ Andrea Kimi Antonelli all conducted race simulations on the C3, C2 and C1 compound of Pirelli tyre.
But while Leclerc and Antonelli completed their final race simulation stint on the C1 compound, Norris did so on the C2, putting in a best lap roughly two seconds faster than the pair.
Does McLaren have a significant advantage?
Was Norris’ final stint pace due to a tyre advantage, or McLaren flexing its impressive long-run pace muscles?
It’s perhaps a bit of both, leaning to the latter but Stella downplayed this when speaking to select media including Motorsport Week on Thursday evening.
“I think in terms of tyre choice, our long run was just aimed at testing the three compounds and see how they behave, and I think everyone, even if they change the order, they wanted to achieve the same, just see what are the right compounds for the race, considering that Pirelli have changed the nature of the compounds compared to what we had last year, and they do seem to be different,” Stella said, explaining McLaren’s offset tyre strategy compared to its rivals.
The McLaren Team Principal went on to highlight the uncharacteristically cool temperatures experienced at the Bahrain International Circuit on Day Two of F1 testing.
“We are testing long runs in conditions which are pretty unique,” Stella said.
“It’s cold tarmac, cold air temperature, Bahrain is unique itself in terms of the [surface] roughness, so I think it’s overall good information, obviously, when you go through long runs and race simulations, but every information we get needs to be taken with some care, we need to be careful, because for all the reasons I just said, it’s very particular.
“When we go to the early races of the season, the kind of stress on the tyres, the requirement in terms of interaction between the car and the tyres will be completely different.
“So the indications here in Bahrain seem to say that the car at the moment interacts well with the tyres, but in a very specific and I would say special regime like we have in these days here in Bahrain.”
Stella anticipates tight competition for F1 2025
When it was pointed out to Stella that the unique conditions McLaren was running in were the same for everyone, he was asked if he had been keeping an eye on the competition.
Stella admitted his focus is within, on McLaren’s progress, but what he gleaned from the timing screens is that F1’s anticipated tight pecking order for 2025 is likely to come to fruition.
“You know, every team will always be looking at the information they have in relation to competitors,” he said.
“But really, in my case, while I do so, the main focus for me and the main focus for the team is to look at the data and compare this data and car behaviour with what we were expecting.
“And this is true from an aerodynamic point of view. We have several tests from a mechanical point of view.
“We have made some innovative changes to car layout and we wanted to check that the car behaves as expected.
“So at the moment, in these first couple of days, this has been our focus.
“And definitely, you know, we talked about not getting distracted by what we see on competitors. You know, like we talked about the long-run pace and it looks encouraging.”
With Williams topping the Day Two timesheet with Carlos Sainz, it’s unsurprising that Stella anticipates some more competition outside of the top four F1 teams in 2025.
“We see that at low fuel there are definitely several cars that are in condition to put together very competitive lap times, which I think are competitive in absolute terms,” he said.
“So if anything my take so far is that I was thinking before coming here that in the past we used to talk about the top three, then thankfully McLaren has kind of added and now we have the top four.
“But perhaps this year we might have to adapt our language again, which will be great for F1 and then maybe the top five or the top six. So we will see.
“Certainly there seem to be a few quick cars out there.”
READ MORE – F1 2025 pre-season testing round-up: McLaren lays down ominously good long-run pace
