McLaren workforce principal Andrea Stella desires his workforce to concentrate on changing into Components 1’s dominant workforce slightly 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 consequence 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 capable of cling on to the lead, even when Sergio Perez had completed third slightly than within the boundaries after his penultimate-lap crash with Carlos Sainz.
The change in place indicators the top of McLaren’s future within the F1 wilderness and a outstanding turnaround in simply the final 18 months, with the workforce having began 2023 in the back of the grid earlier than bringing a collection of fortune-changing upgrades to the automobile that may result in this yr’s title problem.
“As a milestone it’s undoubtedly large as a result of we’ve to not overlook in the beginning of 2023 we had been final after we began the season, and now we lead the classification,” Stella stated.
“That’s an enormous milestone that has been potential due to the good work, the arduous work and the standard of the work of the whole workforce, the help from our shareholders the help from our companions, the followers.
“You obtain this since you obtain it collectively.”
However Stella isn’t glad to have McLaren relaxation on its laurels, imploring his workforce to focus on domination of the game slightly than easy success.
“My means of going racing and for the best way I would really like the workforce to go racing, this second is already over,” he stated. “We don’t have a look at the classification; we simply concentrate on executing at each single occasion, delivering the upgrades that we nonetheless plan to take to among the future races, as a result of the automobile as a matter of truth remains to be not quick sufficient to create some boring races, which isn’t within the pursuits of Components 1 however is within the undoubtedly the best way wherein we wish 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 choose a standout chief.
“In terms 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 the very best automobile in some sort of circuits, like Barcelona, Hungary and Zandvoort for good technical causes, however right here I don’t suppose McLaren loved any benefit over Ferrari and I believe not even over Crimson Bull.
“We now have work to do by way of making the automobile quicker, and we have to stay humble and we have to preserve the toes on the bottom, as a result of we see that in equity there’s not a lot to choose 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 workforce is simply what makes the distinction.”
