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A disappointed McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said that the 2023 F1 Italian GP was not good news for the team.
The new team principal reflected on the key takeaways at Monza as McLaren struggled for pace on the track. Stella noted that it's not good news for the team, as it won in 2021 in these conditions.
In 2021, McLaren achieved a 1-2 finish with Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris at Monza, thanks to the car's strong low downforce efficiency. The latest set of regulations has, however, taken the direction of car development in a different trajectory.
Unlike the 2021 F1 challenger that worked well in a low downforce setup, the current one has struggled, so much so that Lando Norris spent the entire race stuck behind Alex Albon.
Talking to the media, including Sportskeeda, and looking back at the weekend, Stella admitted that the race was not good for the team:
"It is not good news. The car was very quick here in 2021, and that car had an underlying level of frag which was quite low. Off-loading the car, and I mean off-loading by reducing the level of the rear-wing, the floor could still retain a decent level of downforce, so it is more discernments that make the difference to how you perform at Monza, rather than driveability, balance and so on."
He added:
"It just depends how much downforce your car retains as you take off more rear-wing. This depends much more on the aerodynamic concept of the car, and how you achieve what you want to achieve at medium and high downforce (tracks) and so on.
"Balance-wise, the comments we had in 2021 keep being similar to the comments we have now, but in 2021, relative to the competition, our car was very efficient."
McLaren still finds itself P5 in championship
After the weekend, the team scored a few points with Lando Norris but find themselves in P5 in the championship. They will hope for a better run in the coming races to close the gap on Ferrari and Aston Martin.
It will be interesting to see how McLaren perform in Singapore, as that's a track the team should be competitive. They should look to challenge for a podium once again, as they were quite competitive in Hungary, too.
