McLaren’s new front wing was shelved after a disappointing debut in Canada, but revisions made behind the scenes helped turn it into a success in Spain.
Lando Norris secured the team’s first podium result since the Miami Grand Prix with a third place at the Barcelona race, while Oscar Piastri made it a double points haul in fifth place.
McLaren front wing upgrade delivers after Barcelona return
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McLaren made the call to divide its first big upgrade of the season over two race weekends, Miami and Montreal.
In Miami, the team brought new front and rear corner structures, modified bodywork and sidepod inlets, extra cooling louvers, a new floor, bargeboard and rear wing.
Later that month in Montreal, the team introduced a new front wing for the MCL40 that was designed to improve flow conditioning across the car’s operating range and deliver stronger aerodynamic load.
It was central to the revised package as the front wing sets up airflow for much of the rest of the car.
But with the best-placed McLaren of Norris almost 1.4 seconds off the pace, McLaren reverted to its old front wing.
After further refinement, which included revising the front wing’s end plates, McLaren bolted the wing back onto the MCL40 in Barcelona where the team recorded a double points-haul, with Norris on the podium.
“The front wing is a project that took a couple of races to understand exactly how to use it, what it was delivering,” Stella told PlanetF1.com and other media.
“We took a couple of modifications since the first time we introduced it, and these modifications were effective.
“We are happy now with the performance and the correlation of the data compared to the development tools.
“We used it on both cars, and we think that this has handed lap time.
“I would like to praise the effort of the team, who have been extremely responsive. Once we saw that there were a few things that needed to be made and needed to be designed and produced, and we did it for Monaco, and then there were a few more, and we did them for Spain.
“So I would say this completes the first round of upgrades of the car.
“We are obviously working on some more upgrades, but more than large packages, we will see a continuous development in the various areas of the car.
“The design itself, and this is true for everyone – We saw Ferrari having upgrades in Miami, and upgrades here – the design of the car for all teams is still so immature. And in a way so responsive to the basic development that you want to take these developments as soon as possible.”
Asked if McLaren, who in the previous two seasons didn’t put a foot wrong with its upgrades, could again find itself in a position where the new parts are tested on a Friday but not raced on the Sunday, Stella said the front wing was unique.
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“No, I think what we saw with the front wing is that there were some aspects which were not only aerodynamic, but there were some other, from a mechanical point of view, that needed to be evolved, so we remain quite happy with the overall consistency of the aerodynamic development,” he said.
“This is the main source through which all teams will have lap time this year.
“I think this keeps being a point of strength. I see continuation with what we were doing last years.
“I think last years we were simply just clearer as to the direction as to what kind of geometries you need to pursue, and we have been very good in out developing everyone, all the other teams in pursuing this concept.
“At this stage instead, and I think again this is true for all teams, the rules are so new that you are still exploring various directions. You are seeing it on the front wing, I think we will see, or we have seen it already, from a bodywork point of view, if you see the area of the floor ahead of the rear tyres, you still see the things have not converged.
“So I think we will see convergence, but this may take another one year, possibly.”
McLaren is third in the constructors’ championship after seven race weekends with 141 points, 121 behind leaders Mercedes and 49 behind second-placed Ferrari.
In the drivers’ standings, reigning world champion Norris has 73 points to championship leader Kimi Antonelli’s 156. Oscar Piastri is five points behind his teammate.
Additional reporting by Thomas Maher
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