Stella downplays McLaren's constructors' points lead

McLaren’s move into the lead of the constructors’ championship is a huge milestone for the team, but Andrea Stella doesn’t want it to receive too much attention. Red Bull’s early-season advantage has been consistently reduced since McLaren upgraded its car at the Miami Grand Prix, and a first and fourth places at Baku lifted the team to the top of the standings for the first time in over a decade. It marks a remarkable turnaround from a tough start to last season, but Stella said that while the significance should be recognized, there can be no room for complacency. “If I look at it for a second as a milestone then it is definitely huge, because we don’t have to forget at the start of 2023 we were last when started the season and now we lead the classification,” Stella said. “That’s a huge milestone that has been possible because of the great work, hard work and quality of work of the whole team, the support from our shareholders, the support from our partners, the fans, you achieve this because you achieve it together. “At the same time – which is my way of going racing, and the way that I would like the team to go racing – this second is already over. We don’t look at the classification, we just look at executing at every single event, delivering the upgrades that we still plan to take to some of the future races, because the car is still not fast enough to create some boring races – which is not in the interest of Formula 1, but definitely the way that we want to go racing. “So we have work to do in terms of making the car faster and we need to remain humble, keep our feet on the ground, because we see that in fairness there is not much to pick at all between the four top teams. “I often hear that McLaren is the best car, but this is not in the numbers. I think in the numbers McLaren is the best car at some kinds of circuit, like Barcelona, Hungary, Zandvoort, for good technical reasons. But (at Baku) I don’t think McLaren enjoyed any advantage over Ferrari, and I think not even over Red Bull. “Even in Monza, Mercedes was in the 0.086 seconds between P2 and P6, so it is just very, very balanced. So I think the execution by the drivers and by the team is what makes the difference.” Oscar Piastri won in Baku with Lando Norris fourth, but the latter is ahead in the drivers’ championship, and McLaren recently said it will back him where necessary to try and catch Max Verstappen. Stella said that remains the plan, but pointed to Norris’ role in holding up Sergio Perez in Sunday’s race as proof it will still ask both drivers to prioritize the team. “We have two number one drivers, effectively,” he said. “Having two number one drivers mean we approach things first of all in the interest of the team. The interest of the team is to win the constructors’ championship and also the drivers’ championship. “Lando was in the most favorable position. I think he still is in the most favorable position, so naturally we would have supported Lando. But I think we have evidence that actually, interestingly, it was Lando supporting Oscar and enabling Oscar’s victory thanks to driving for the team and driving to support his teammate. “So that remains our approach and we always intended to review after every event with each driver, with the drivers together, what is going to be the best approach for the next races. We will do that and set the plan for Singapore.”