McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has been keen to play down excitement around his team’s performance during pre-season testing this year.
After winning the constructors’ championship last year, McLaren were one of the teams that fans were most keen to see during three days of running in Bahrain last week.
McLaren unveiled some bold decision choices during their shakedown at Silverstone ahead of the F1 75 livery launch.
It spoke volumes about their confidence in the car that they were happy for every other team to see it before arriving in Bahrain, as opposed to the cleverly shaded photos of Red Bull’s new cars released just ahead of its first public outing.
Everybody in the paddock was impressed with McLaren after testing concluded even if drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri weren’t at the front of the pack.
Both drivers looked very quick during their race simulations and it was evident that they never quite hooked up their strongest sectors into one lap to take the fastest time of the event off Williams driver Carlos Sainz.
Karun Chandhok thinks Oscar Piastri could win the Australian Grand Prix which would be a first in F1 as fans in Melbourne have never seen one of their drivers stand on the top step of the podium.
Technical expert and journalist Craig Scarborough was speaking on the Inside Line Podcast and shared the confidence in McLaren that’s been discussed right now.
So much so, that their performance in Bahrain reminded him of how dominant Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost were during their time with McLaren.
McLaren F1 testing reminiscent of Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost
Scarborough was asked about McLaren’s testing performance in Bahrain and said: “The differences between last year’s cars and this year’s cars for most teams is in very subtle areas.
“In fact, for Williams, it’s exactly the same monocoque. I think it’s unfair to say that it’s a B-version because there is some significant change around the front suspension.
“The aerodynamics are subtly different as well, and again this is the testing specification that we’ve seen, there will be updates over the first few updates and then obviously they’ll get into the big things.
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“I think what’s interesting is that McLaren have produced some performance in testing that we’ve not seen from them since almost as long as I can remember.
“It’s probably going back to the old days when they would turn up with Alain Prost and [Ayrton] Senna three days into the final test with their new car and just blitz everyone.
“McLaren have almost a tradition ever since of having a car that doesn’t perform well initially, adding a big update to it throughout the season and getting their performance midway through the year and that has certainly been the case over the past few years.”
McLaren ‘true innovation’ that could win them both F1 championships in 2025
After winning the constructors’ championship last season, McLaren had two options when it came to developing this year’s car.
Given it’s the final year of the current set of regulations, it would have been easy to only make a few small tweaks and hope that none of their rivals found a way to leapfrog them in the standings.
However, Scarborough believes McLaren made the only true innovation to their car over the winter and it may have paid off based on the limited amount of data from testing.
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The first few races of the season take place at tracks which are very different to Bahrain and McLaren’s advantage could quickly disappear in Australia or China.
However, the Woking-based team typically don’t perform well in Sakhir and if they’re already at the front of the pack in Bahrain, then it’s an ominous sign for the rest of the season.
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