McLaren team principal Andrea Stella commented on the results of the first practice session at Monza, which saw Lando Norris take third place and Oscar Piastri sixth.
Q: Can you summarise the results of the first free practice?
Andrea Stella: It was an interesting session, but Monza is always interesting, because you also have to decide on the amount of downforce and understand which rear wing to use. So we gathered information about the functioning of the aerodynamic bodykit of the car, in which both racers participated.
Another interesting point is related to the new asphalt surface, because you have to evaluate what effect it has. We already realized that new asphalt has a very big effect on the behavior of the tires, so everyone acted with some caution. We also noticed a more intense degradation of the tires than what happened before in Monza.
In addition, the rear of the car behaves nervously and shows a tendency to unexpectedly lose traction of the rear wheels, and this must be addressed by adjusting the settings, and it is also important to take into account the comments of the drivers. In general, we had a lot to do during the session.
Q: Lap times have improved by about a second compared to last year, which is made possible by both the new tarmac and the new kerbs, which have become flatter. Does this mean you can set cars to minimum ground clearance?
Andrea Stella: Cars have become faster, partly because the new asphalt provides quite good traction, but this traction can disappear very quickly and then the car suddenly goes into a U-turn. But the track has indeed become very smooth, which allows the ride height to be lowered.
As is known, cars of this generation generate more downforce as the ground clearance decreases. That. It is precisely the characteristics of the updated circuit that contribute to an increase in speed, because we can fully exploit the capabilities of the car.
But on the other hand, when the riders ride several laps in a row, the rubber starts to overheat and behave strangely, but this is not due to the properties of the asphalt, but simply due to high temperatures.
Q: Do you think Red Bull will be the fastest on this circuit?
Andrea Stella: Red Bull is RedBull. We always expect them to be as competitive as possible, because even in Belgium we saw that they worked confidently and efficiently. Their car stands out for both high speed and good efficiency, although to be honest for us there is not much difference. We expect four teams to fight for the victory. In addition, it cannot be ruled out that one of the teams in the middle group excels and comes quite close to the leaders.
But so far we don’t see any particular surprises, and the MCL38 works quite well, at the level of expectations, although in terms of characteristics, with its short corners and long straights, this circuit is not the most suitable for our car. . That’s why we prefer not to make any predictions for the moment…
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
