Course correction: What McLaren team principal Stella says about the Hungary upgrade

The success came just before the Formula 1 summer break: Lando Norris first secured pole position at the Hungaroring and then crossed the finish line first the following day. The reigning champion thus celebrated his first Grand Prix victory with the number 1 on his car. And the world champion team, McLaren, were also able to celebrate their first Grand Prix victory of the year.

This was due in no small part to the update, which included, amongst other things, a new underbody and resulted in a performance boost for the Papaya-coloured cars in Hungary. Team principal Andrea Stella commented: “I think our improvement in competitiveness can be entirely attributed to the upgrades we brought to the track in Hungary.”

The Briton’s success came as a pleasant surprise to the Italian and his team. “We didn’t think our improvement in lap times would necessarily be enough to take pole, and we certainly didn’t expect to have such a strong race pace,” the team principal admitted proudly after the chequered flag fell.

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella warns: the development race continues

At the same time, the engineer warned: “To be perfectly honest, if we want to consistently be in the running for victory in the future, we’ll need to bring even more upgrades to the car. That’s the plan. And we’re under no illusions about that. We know that all the teams are following this plan, so it will all come down to who wins the development race. And the good news is that McLaren has now re-established itself at the front of this race and can fight for race wins.”

Stella also expects further significant progress – both from McLaren and from the competition. “I expect that the car which is the best at the end of the season will continue to find whole tenths of a second in the coming races, perhaps even half a second. That’s why there’s still a lot of work ahead of us all, and that doesn’t just apply to McLaren,” warned the head of the Woking-based team.