Stella downplays talk of McLaren dominance claiming F1 rivals are close

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella believes talk of his squad being Formula 1's dominant force is "out of place" claiming the competition is very close.

The reigning constructors' champions sit top of the standings by 36 points after three race weekends making McLaren the favourite to defend its crown. 

But Stella believes McLaren is not as dominant as people think, despite winning the opening two grands prix.

The Italian referenced Red Bull's Max Verstappen winning from pole at Suzuka last weekend, while suggesting that rival teams are exaggerating McLaren’s superiority for their own purposes.

“I think the margins are very small, they keep being small,” said Stella ahead of this weekend's Bahrain Grand Prix. “If we look in China in qualifying it was a bit of a mixed bag, Japan in qualifying we got beaten – and in the race we got beaten.

“So I think we have to be quite realistic as to the situation in terms of performance. I hear [people] sometimes talking about ‘dominance’, which I think is out of place.

Lando Norris, McLaren, Oscar Piastri, McLaren

Photo by: Hector Retamal - AFP - Getty Images

“I hear the talk about dominance sometimes pronounced by our competitors. Clearly everyone knows their game, knows how to put pressure or how to attempt to put pressure on their rivals, but we’re very grounded people, we’re very calm.

“We’re not going to [take] this kind of bait. We know we have to work hard to exploit the potential of the MCL39 and we have to work hard to keep improving the car.”

Although Lewis Hamilton won the sprint race in China, McLaren’s Oscar Piastri won the grand prix from pole – a week after Lando Norris won from pole at the Melbourne opener.

Talk of McLaren exploiting aero-elasticity to boost straightline performance has been rife since the middle of last season, and prompted the FIA to introduce more stringent new static-load tests.

Wings cannot be completely rigid: a degree of flex under load is inevitable. But it is also possible to exploit the properties of the composite materials to deliberately engineer a certain degree of flex under particular conditions to achieve an aerodynamic benefit.

The governing body announced a further tightening up of the permitted tolerances after the Australian Grand Prix but, even though McLaren passed these, the innuendo has continued.

Lando Norris, McLaren

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

An amateur sleuth’s comparison of footage from the McLaren and Red Bull rear-facing cameras in Suzuka gained traction when it was boosted on social media by Verstappen’s father Jos.

Although Verstappen won in Japan, this was principally the result of a scintillating qualifying lap on a day neither McLaren driver quite delivered when it counted. In the race, the track layout militated against overtaking and the tyres proved too durable to provide strategic opportunities.

Stella denied that McLaren had become complacent and been caught out on the day.

“We didn’t need any wake-up call because we weren’t sleeping,” he said. “And we weren’t dreaming.

“We know if we don’t capitalise on the full performance of the car then we will be beaten – and if we capitalise then we may win by a very small margin. These are the conversations that happen within the team.”