McLaren expects most ‘difficult situation’ at the Chinese GP so far in 2024

Originally posted on FirstSportz | By Aditya Pandya | Last updated 4/15/24

McLaren started the 2024 season in decent form as compared to the early-season struggles in the previous season. Woking currently has a comfortable lead over Mercedes and occupies the third spot in the constructors’ championship. However, the low-speed sectors have been a weak spot for the MCL38 in the 2024 season. As a result, McLaren team principal Andrea Stella expects some difficulties at the Chinese GP.

The Chinese GP returns after five years due to the country’s covid restrictions. Hence, the ground-effect era cars would be run for the first time. Additionally, the new sprint format would allow only one practice session for the teams to get the setup right. Hence, Andrea Stella claimed that the Shanghai circuit ‘worried’ him the most in terms of competitiveness among the other races. Stella also pointed out the unfavorable track conditions for the MCL38 which is the low-speed long corners.

I have to say that of these first part of the season, China is the track that worries me the most from a competitiveness point of view, You have so much low-speed, hairpins. Even in corner two, corner three, you spend so long in long corners. Andrea Stella said, as reported by motorsport.com.

Stella didn’t hesitate to accept that this issue was repetitive among the previous McLaren cars. The British team has failed to address this issue so far. Hence, the team principal asserted that the Chinese GP will produce a ‘difficult situation’ than the other races so far.

And I think it's been a theme I've been repeating. So far, we haven't been able to improve the car enough in these low-speed, medium-speed long corners... I would expect a more difficult situation than here in Suzuka, Australia and the first part of the season. Andrea Stella noted.

Andrea Stella expects ‘more’ performance in the second half of the season

Andrea Stella mentioned that the Chinese GP would be a race for ‘damage limitation.’ This means that McLaren would try to salvage some points during a tough outing. However, Stella explained that there was more to come during the second part of the season in terms of performance. Hence, the team will take great learnings from the Shanghai race.

China may be a bit of damage limitation for us. And then from Miami onwards, hopefully we start kind of a better stage of this 2024 season and more to come in the second part of the season. Andrea Stella explained.

Apart from this, Stella reckoned that the new sprint weekend would ‘definitely’ be a challenging event for the team. Additionally, the 53-year-old pointed towards the high tire degradation in China during the previous races there. Hence, the entire weekend could be a shift of pace for all the teams on the grid and it would be exciting to see how different teams cope with this.

Definitely it's going to be a challenging event... What is the tarmac situation will we find? At the same time, let's not forget that China was one of the most severe tracks for graining. So how will the tires be able to cope with this? Andrea Stella announced.

McLaren hasn’t put forth any major development issues just yet. According to Stella, McLaren would aim to do a ‘little better job’ compared to its rivals. However, it seems that Woking will face trouble during its first outing in Shanghai in half a decade.

This article first appeared on FirstSportz and was syndicated with permission.

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