McLaren team principal Andrea Stella says the 2027-spec front wing concept introduced on the MCL40 at Formula 1’s Brazilian Grand Prix has improved the car’s driveability and predictability.
The Woking-based outfit launched an upgrade package at Interlagos – featuring not just this front wing but also a rear wing, a beam wing and new floor furniture – after McLaren lost ground to Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull in the last couple of months.
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Lando Norris took pole at Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace, with team-mate Oscar Piastri down in 12th, but heavy rain meant this wasn’t representative of the updates’ impact. The practice sessions, however, took place on a dry track, allowing for a deeper understanding of the new parts.
“Normally, the upgrades that we have taken trackside did not affect the driveability of the car, they were just aimed at increasing the load,” Stella said. “But in this case, let me say that especially for the front wing, we were also aiming to start addressing the fact that the car needs to be just more drivable, not only more loaded.
“We are relatively happy that the wing behaves as expected. Based on the comments of the drivers and the data that we measure, we see that this seems to have made the driveability a little bit easier.
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“Between the driveability of the car being a bit easier and having an easy car to drive, there’s still quite a lot to bridge; we are looking at that for next year’s car. And it’s encouraging that the upgrades that we are bringing – they are precursor to what will be next year’s car – have worked as expected.”
Further updates are expected at the next grand prix in two weeks’ time: “There will be some new parts in Vegas,” Stella announced.
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“All the components kind of want to talk to each other, and these additional components that we have in Vegas will obviously be adapted to the flow generated by the front wing. But the front wing, in terms of improving the driveability, the predictability of the car, was the major component.
“So we are going to add some more aerodynamic efficiency, but I don’t expect a significant change in the behaviour of the car; to have that, we need to look more into next year.”
As far as Sunday’s Sao Paulo race is concerned, Stella is unsure whether polesitter Norris can hold on to his advantage. The Italian did describe his driver as a ‘rainmaster’ following his qualifying feat, but admitted that Russell probably was intrinsically quicker in Q3 – and if conditions turned out to be dry after all, that wouldn’t favour McLaren.
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“If it was in dry conditions, based on practice, Mercedes seemed to be a step ahead,” he said. “[Kimi] Antonelli was very quick in practice. Difficult to say for Russell because he started his run very fast and then he degraded. But despite the improvements we have made to the car, at the moment we are not yet in condition to say that we entered the race with the best race pace.”
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