Stella highlights 'important' factor in McLaren F1 revival

McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella has highlighted that thesquad's development cycle is more important than its starting pointat the beginning of a season as it looks to return to being aconsistent front-running outfit. The Woking-based squad commencedthis year's campaign competing towards the rear of the field withan MCL60 challenger that missed development targets. However, itsuccessfully upgraded the car throughout the year and managed tosecure nine podiums. McLaren ended the season fourth in theConstructors' Championship and is hopeful that it will start nextyear's campaign on a strong note as it carries over its end-of-yearpackage to its 2024 challenger. “In fairness, where you are withnext year's car partly depends on where you are this year, becausethat's the starting point pretty much for everyone,” he told mediaincluding RacingNews365 . “But it depends on the gradient ofdevelopment. This gradient [at McLaren] started in July, prettymuch, and there is such a long period which is just about the workyou do on next year’s car. “So the starting point is important. Butit's much more important, the gradient of development that you’regetting for six, seven months. “It’s much more important the workthat we are currently doing in terms of aerodynamic and mechanicaldevelopment than the starting point.” McLaren substantialturnaround McLaren made a major improvement at the Austrian GrandPrix earlier this year, which was the first considerable upgrade itintroduced. Stella highlighted that many elements were completelyoverhauled as it developed the car in order to boost itself up thepecking order. “The car we launched in March, there are someelements that have been developed with continuity, but most of ithas been developed in discontinuity,” he said. “Especially when itcame to the floor, bodywork, rear wing, and to some extent thefront wing. “We just needed to kind of go into different conceptsand start to get them to work. It wasn't just a linear iterativedevelopment of the starting concept of the launch car.”