WOKING — McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has conceded the team cannot improve its Formula 1 car handling characteristics without fundamental changes that will not be possible until 2027. The issue has hamstrung McLaren all season as Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri have tried to adapt to the new generation of V6 turbo hybrids with increased electrical power elements, with Piastri hit harder due to his different natural driving style.
Stella said upcoming development will not solve the underlying problem, which requires more than additional downforce. "I don't expect that what's coming to the car will improve this characteristic. I think we need something more fundamental than simply adding some downforce to the car like it's happening in the coming races," Stella said. "Without fundamentally changing some further aspect which we are addressing longer term and at the earliest I would say with the MCL41 for 2027."
After the Singapore Grand Prix, Norris detailed how the current car forces an unnatural approach on every corner. "It's [the car] just on a knife edge on every single corner," Norris said. "You've just got to drive it within an exact percent, and you have to force the car in every single way. You can't let the car do any work. You can't just let the front do the work, or the rear do the work. You have to force the front; you've got to force the rear. You've got to drive it in a way that takes so much concentration and so much ability. It's just full-on and mentally draining because of how hard you have to work behind the wheels."
Stella described that intensity as a season-long feature that has demanded far greater driver input than last year. "The fact that the car needs quite a lot of effort to deliver lap time, and it requires a level of intensity in the driving input, which is much superior to last year, this is something that took some time for the drivers to understand," he said, adding that Piastri at one stage lost competitiveness to Norris for technical reasons. Stella noted Piastri's signature has been clean, repeatable driving, but said with this car "all these things together they don't seem to happen very often so it's a lot of work for the drivers."