McLaren group principal Andrea Stella desires his group to concentrate on changing into Formulation 1’s dominant group moderately than celebrating overtaking Crimson Bull on the high of the constructors’ championship desk.
Oscar Piastri’s victory within the Azerbaijan Grand Prix helped McLaren outscore Crimson Bull by 28 factors, taking it to a 20-point lead on the high of the standings.
It’s the primary time in additional than a decade that McLaren has led championship, a streak relationship again to the 2014 Australian Grand Prix, when Kevin Magnussen and Jenson Button opened the season with second and third in Melbourne.
The end result additionally closes Crimson Bull’s 55-race run on the high of the desk, having taken management of the standings on the 2022 Spanish Grand Prix.
The reigning constructors’ champions wouldn’t have been in a position to hold on to the lead, even when Sergio Perez had completed third moderately than within the obstacles after his penultimate-lap crash with Carlos Sainz.
The change in place alerts the top of McLaren’s long term within the F1 wilderness and a outstanding turnaround in simply the final 18 months, with the group having began 2023 behind the grid earlier than bringing a sequence of fortune-changing upgrades to the automobile that might result in this yr’s title problem.
“As a milestone it’s positively large as a result of we now have to not neglect at the beginning of 2023 we had been final after we began the season, and now we lead the classification,” Stella mentioned.
“That’s an enormous milestone that has been attainable due to the good work, the arduous work and the standard of the work of your complete group, the assist from our shareholders the assist from our companions, the followers.
“You obtain this since you obtain it collectively.”
However Stella isn’t happy to have McLaren relaxation on its laurels, imploring his group to focus on domination of the game moderately than easy success.
“My means of going racing and for the best way I would love the group to go racing, this second is already over,” he mentioned. “We don’t take a look at the classification; we simply concentrate on executing at each single occasion, delivering the upgrades that we nonetheless plan to take to a number of the future races, as a result of the automobile as a matter of reality remains to be not quick sufficient to create some boring races, which isn’t within the pursuits of Formulation 1 however is within the positively the best way wherein we need to go racing.”
Stella additionally denied the accuracy of the rising paddock consensus that McLaren has the quickest automobile within the sport, insisting that the frontrunning pack was too finely balanced to select a standout chief.
“In the case of McLaren I typically hear, ‘McLaren greatest automobile, McLaren greatest automobile’. I believe this isn’t within the numbers. I believe within the numbers McLaren is one of the best automobile in some sort of circuits, like Barcelona, Hungary and Zandvoort for good technical causes, however right here I don’t assume McLaren loved any benefit over Ferrari and I believe not even over Crimson Bull.
“We have now work to do when it comes to making the automobile quicker, and we have to stay humble and we have to maintain the toes on the bottom, as a result of we see that in equity there’s not a lot to select in any respect between the 4 high groups.
“It’s simply very, very balanced and right here I believe the execution by the drivers and the execution by the group is simply what makes the distinction.”
