McLaren F1 limited the damage against Ferrari in Las Vegas, during a weekend where the MCL38 was not to its advantage. Andrea Stella, the manager of the English team, explains that he expected worse, and he admits that the double of Mercedes greatly helped his troops to lose only 12 points against the Scuderia.
“It’s disappointing to lose 12 points in the championship” Stella said. “But at the same time, given the difficulties we had this weekend, we really have to thank Mercedes for performing so well and securing the double. Otherwise, Ferrari would have been an even bigger threat to the championship builders.”
In theory, Las Vegas was the only race that actually went against McLaren against Ferrari in the last hat-trick of races. The Italian hopes to regain his colors in Qatar but does not want to think that his rivals will not try to beat him.
“It is true, and I said it myself, that Qatar and Abu Dhabi should be tracks more suited to the way we have designed our car. But, at the same time, I think we have to be careful to the fact that the level of the best teams in Formula 1 in 2024 is unprecedented.”
“I really can't remember a Formula 1 season where four teams were operating at such a high level, not only because they are in condition to win, but also because they are in condition to dominate – like Mercedes did it here – with flawless weekends.”
“That means, for me, we go to Qatar thinking the car can perform well, but if we think it's an easy race we'll be hit with reality.”
McLaren should be able to allow its MCL38 to perform well, on a track with many fast turns which should suit the orange and black car: “We go into it knowing that we have to maximize the potential of the car.”
“If we can do that, certainly from a layout point of view the car should spend a lot of time in a window where it's performing well. But I expect Ferrari, and even Red Bull and Mercedes, have taken a lot of information from this weekend, in order to be able to win in Qatar.”
With the Ferrari team down to 24 points, Stella admits he is more worried than he would have liked to be: “So it's a very interesting end to the season, more than I would have liked. I always try to make things boring, but it's not.”
