McLaren is bracing for a challenging weekend in Las Vegas later this season. McLaren team principal Andrea Stella anticipates similar challenges to those faced in Baku, where the MCL39 struggled with the circuit’s characteristics earlier this year. Despite the progress made since then, according to Stella, the street circuit continues to be ill-suited to McLaren’s strengths.
“If you had asked me beforehand what our toughest weekend of the year would be, I would have said Baku or Las Vegas,” team principal Andrea Stella told the media in Baku. According to the Italian, the problem lies primarily in the nature of the circuit. The MCL39 performs best in long and medium-speed corners, such as those found on circuits like Spain or Silverstone – but that type of corner is absent in both Baku and Las Vegas. “We know very well that our car excels in long and medium-speed corners – and they simply do not exist in Baku or Las Vegas.”
Adding to this, the McLaren is not at its best in hard braking zones, especially when a lot of speed needs to be shed in a straight line. And that is exactly what street circuits like Baku and Las Vegas frequently require. “The car is not particularly strong in braking in a straight line, and there are many of those in Baku and Las Vegas,” Stella continues. Additionally, most corners in Las Vegas are tight, technical, and bound to a fixed ideal line – conditions in which the McLaren feels less comfortable.
Minimizing Damage
Despite the challenges, McLaren initially managed to strongly compete for the pole position in Baku – until things went awry in the final phase of the qualification. “The fact that we were still fast enough to fight for the pole is truly a testament to our engineers. They’ve built a remarkably versatile car, even if it doesn’t perform optimally on its ideal type of circuit,” says Stella. This experience provides cautious optimism for Las Vegas, although Stella remains reserved. “It wouldn’t be a surprise if there are cars in Las Vegas that are as competitive as we are.” Therefore, McLaren will primarily view the weekend in Vegas as a matter of minimizing damage – and hoping for a scenario in which the team, just like in Baku, performs above expectations.
