McLaren ‘optimistic’ of taking the fight to Red Bull

After rising from the back of the grid to the front last year, McLaren is optimistic its new MCL38 could challenge Red Bull if it continues its promising rate of development.

Oscar Piastri’s second Formula 1 car was revealed and unlike his first, McLaren is a lot more confident with what its new challenger can produce.

When the MCL60 was revealed both Team Principal Andrea Stella and CEO Zak Brown admitted the launch spec was below expectations and the pace proved it with Piastri and Lando Norris having retired and finishing two laps down respectively in the Bahrain opener.

But things turned around as the upgrades rolled in and after scoring 17 points in the first eight Grands Prix, McLaren scored 285 points from the remaining 14 as both Norris and Piastri were regularly fighting for podiums.

This rate of development is why Stella is hopeful McLaren can challenge current dominators Red Bull if the famous British team stays on its current trajectory.

“I think at the start of the season my expectation is that Red Bull will keep enjoying some advantage,” Stella opened. 

“I say this because they didn’t develop the car very much last year, and I would think it’s reasonable to expect that they will have accumulated some knowledge and development last year that will be capitalised on to the 2024 car. That’s my expectation. 

“That said, I think that looking at ourselves, looking at McLaren, if – and I say if – we keep the development rate that we had in 2023 that we will hopefully have on the 2024 car, if we can keep this development rate then I think we can be in a strong position. 

“Whether that’s enough to challenge Red Bull and the other top teams, who certainly will have made good improvements, we will find out.
“But we think this is a strong development rate, but as I said now it’s up to us to try and consolidate over time.”

Leading the charge will be Australian young gun Piastri, who produced the best rookie campaign since Lewis Hamilton almost won the title in 2007, and is aiming to take a further leap in 2024 after taking a Sprint win in Qatar.

Like Stella, the 22-year-old is very “optimistic” of McLaren threatening Red Bull and is excited by the potential of the mCL38.

“I think you have to have the optimism that we can beat them,” Piastri said.

“We got very close at certain times, with some success in certain sessions. I think like Andrea was saying, if we can keep the same rate of development I think we can be very optimistic. 

“I think we also have to be aware it’s not just Red Bull we are fighting as well, we were in a very intense battle with Mercedes and Ferrari especially in the second half of the year. 

“In terms of championship points in the second half of the season it was incredibly close between us, and we’re all teams that have had a lot of success at various stages. 

“So I think we have to be wary, it’s not just Red Bull that we’re fighting and I think there will be other top teams that are making progress as well.”

Ahead of last year’s Austrian Grand Prix, McLaren thoroughly reworked the front side pod section with a large undercut and it proved to be a masterstroke with Norris and Piastri soon scoring seven and two podiums respectively.

The new MCL38 is mostly an evolution of last year’s final spec MCL60 but there have been some tweaks.

Most notable is around the floor with a far more notable scroll edge designed to better utilise airflow around the sidepod and floor area than last year.

“There are a number of innovations on the car, but not all the areas we want to address have been completed for our launch-spec car,” Stella said.

“Those areas now become the focus of our in-season development, which is already in progress.”

If McLaren can carry on its 2023 form, Piastri could be collecting a lot more trophies in 2024.

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