McLaren Chief Saddens Fans: "We Are A Midfield Team"
New McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has shed some light on how the team is doing during a press conference at the Bahrain Grand Prix, and fans won't be impressed as he admits they're a "midfield team".
It was revealed after the 2022 season that Andreas Seidl was leaving the McLaren team to move to Sauber/Alfa Romeo. The team are also going into the 2023 season with a new driver line-up of Lando Norris and rookie Oscar Piastri.
Stella was asked how he was settling into his role as team principal, to which he responded:
"So far, I've had a couple of interesting months, intense long days at work, many conversations and ultimately I would say even enjoyable.
"I think for me my main action so far has been to understand and to know the place as accurately as possible so that my action is as effective and as accurate as possible.
The interviewer asked:
"We've got this funny mixed messaging around McLaren at the moment, some people saying off the pace, Lando yesterday saying that pace isn't as terrible as people are saying and people and everyone. What's the real story as the team principle?"
Stella responded:
"I think we are a midfield team, at the moment. The midfield is very compact and in the midfield a couple of tenths can move you to the top or to the bottom.
"So we are realistic, but it's important we saw the test is that the car responds as we anticipated, we know we have work to do there.
"But at the same time, the development plan is ambitious and we see in development that there's quite a lot of time coming for the season."
Stella was then asked how Oscar Piastri is doing with the team ahead of his rookie season, he replied:
"We have been very impressed with the integration and we've been very impressed with the talent we have seen. So we see him improving day by day during testing. I think today was a positive free practice one test."