McLaren Upgrades Revealed for Miami Grand Prix

McLaren prepares to introduce significant upgrades at the upcoming Miami Grand Prix as they continue in their objective of dethroning the current 2024 season leaders, Red Bull. The sixth round of this year will see yet another sprint weekend, and McLaren are keen to make it a week to remember as they tease upcoming changes after a successful campaign in China.

With Lando Norris’ second-place finish at the Chinese Grand Prix, the Woking outfit is hoping to maintain its optimistic outlook and maintain its development trajectory.

The team has seen significant progress since mid-way through 2023, indicated by a robust upward trend initiated by several impactful upgrades. Despite these advances, the gap with front-runners Red Bull and Ferrari remains, with both teams showcasing formidable pace this season. However, McLaren is not resting on laurels; further enhancements are on the horizon, meticulously scheduled to debut in Miami, raising both hopes and stakes within the Papaya camp.

Andrea Stella, McLaren’s team principal, expressed a keen focus on the technological and strategic aspects necessary to bridge the gap to the top teams.

“I’ve never thought about it. My focus is not on if Max would not be there. My focus is on how we can close the gap to Max,” explained Stella. The acknowledgment of Red Bull’s consistency and success serves as a beacon for McLaren’s aspirations. “I have a lot of admiration for what Red Bull are achieving, and I think, like, winning so consistently is not easy. There’s so many reasons why things can go wrong, even if they make it look simple to some extent,” Stella added.

“Hats off to Red Bull who are achieving technically, operationally, sporting wise. Because even if it looks like almost ordinary. It’s not. So we take it as an extra motivation. We take it as, to some extent, we do look at how they do things, but my thoughts are, how do we get there?”

This era of regulations has seen several teams see sudden jumps in performance. McLaren saw this last year, while Ferrari has been able to start this season chasing behind the Red Bulls. Aston Martin saw a similar scenario at the start of 2023, although they made a wrong move later in the season which saw the Silverstone team drop back in performance. Stella attributes this to consistent upgrades.

“If we keep this trajectory of development for the next twelve months, then why not? We may reach Red Bull. We’re gonna have some upgrades in Miami. Let’s see how they perform.

“There are a lot of people at the factory who are all focused on generating developments, and it’s always a battle of development. We have seen already cars like Stake had updates, Haas, have been upgraded, and now they are consistently Q3 cars. That’s the real job in Formula 1, just constantly improve cars, and that’s what we have to do.”

The nature of these upgrades haven’t yet been revealed, but it’s likely that they revolve around the floor, which generates the largest proportion of downforce. As usual, it would be wise to measure your expectations. With it being a sprint weekend, there is limited time to learn from and dial in these upgrades. But with McLaren showing a good understanding of their developments in the past, fans of the team should be feeling optimistic.