“We didn’t develop fast enough”

McLaren gave the first hints at a lack of satisfaction with their MCL60 when presenting the new car at their headquarters last week.

The team revealed it had identified potential improvements it wanted to bring to the car as soon as possible after the season began – perhaps as early as round four at the end of April.

Their cautiousness appeared to be borne out in testing. While the usual caveats apply, the MCL60 seldom troubled the top of the times sheets over three days in Bahrain.

The new car was confined to the garage at times as the team remedied niggling problems with the mandatory bodywork fins which extend over the inside of the front wheels. But while McLaren expect to have a fix in place for that in time for this weekend’s season-opening race, the deeper problems are going to take longer to solve.

Andrea Stella, who took over from Andreas Seidl as team principal at the end of last season, has the first headache of his new job. He offered no excuses for the team’s disappointing start to the season when he spoke to media including RaceFans at the Bahrain International Circuit last week. “It’s not an effect of the changes of regulations and we didn’t take a step backwards,” he admitted. “We just didn’t develop fast enough.”

The team’s sub-par start to testing did not come as a shock, Stella admitted. “Our performance is pretty much where I expected it to be. No surprises. The data correlates with what we were expecting from an aerodynamic point of view.”

Stella said there are also “no surprises” about their likely situation “performance-wise” and position in the pecking order, despite the difficulty of assessing times from testing.

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Among the teams who are resigned to starting the season at a disadvantage there is a common refrain that the later stages of the championship will offer good opportunities for them to catch up.

“We know we have work to do, but if we think about this season of the season is long, there can be variations in the competitive order,” said Stella. “Like I said already at the car launch we know there’s good development rate, that’s where we are focusing.

“I think the start, we have to be realistic, but in terms of looking ahead to the season, we remain optimistic.”

McLaren plans to bring performance upgrades for its car in areas it believes some of…