F1 News: McLaren Reveals Huge Upgrade Plan For Upcoming Circuits - "More Top Speed"

Some 'minor' upgrades are also to be expected in Australia and Japan.

Following a sluggish beginning to the 2024 season, McLaren team principal Andrea Stella disclosed plans to implement significant upgrades, slated for either the Miami or Imola races to enhance performance. The team has been methodically approaching the season, focusing on refining a setup that is optimal for various Grand Prix circuits.

Key Takeaways:

• McLaren plans major upgrades for the MCL38 in Miami or Imola to improve performance, with a focus on refining setups for various circuits.
• Despite improved performance in 2024 compared to 2023, McLaren still lags behind Ferrari's development pace, motivating further enhancements.
• Stella emphasizes the need for upgrades and understanding the car's capabilities, identifying vulnerabilities and areas for improvement on the Jeddah Corniche Circuit.

McLaren Press Image

Through the insights gained by the Papaya team over the past year, their beginning to the 2024 season showed marked improvement over the 2023 opener. Nevertheless, it has not been adequate to keep pace with Ferrari's development progress.

Therefore, McLaren's slower pace, compared to the Maranello outfit has spurred them to focus on enhancements. Although minor upgrades are planned for Australia and Japan, a significant performance boost is anticipated to arrive in either Miami or Imola.

Speaking on the plan to enhance the MCL38's performance, Stella explained:

"We have some minor things that will come for Australia and hopefully for Japan, but they will be [delivering] a few milliseconds.

"And then hopefully, within the first third of the season, we will have a major upgrade. It's going to be for around race six or seven [Miami or Imola]."

Emphasizing the need for upgrades and the fact that there remains more room to understand the car, he added:

"I think there is margin to understand the car a little bit more.

"In Jeddah we had a slightly different approach to set-up between the two cars. And I think we see some interesting positives and negatives.

"This optimisation is maybe worth like one tenth, it's not like you can find any magic. We know the car well, apart from this little difference between the two cars that we will review.

"I think it's very much a matter of upgrades, or adaptation to the track in relation to the track characteristics."

Listing the areas of the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, Stella explains the current vulnerabilities of the 2024 car. He said:

"You will have seen that anybody behind the McLaren in sector one [in Jeddah] would lose ground.

"When you have these fast, flowing corners in which it's enough to do a first steer input, the car responds very well.

"When instead the corners are long and you need to really hold the steering wheel for a long time, the car gives up a little bit and we lose a lot of time.

"That is where Ferrari are very strong, and that's why Leclerc was so competitive in the last sector, just that [last] corner.

"And the other limitation was still we would like to have more top speed. On those two features we were very well exposed at this track."

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