The steps McLaren will take to overcome its Las Vegas GP weakness

McLaren Formula 1 team boss Andrea Stella has confirmed that the team has “taken action” following last year’s disappointing performance at the Las Vegas Grand Prix — a circuit that has proven challenging for McLaren in recent years.

Last season, McLaren finished sixth and seventh on the Las Vegas Strip street circuit, with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri ending up 43 and 51 seconds behind the race winner, Mercedes’ George Russell, respectively. The team also struggled in qualifying, with the drivers qualifying seven tenths slower than the front runners. They were clearly outpaced not only by Mercedes but also both Ferrari cars and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.

At the time, McLaren’s poor form on the low-downforce street circuit was not a major surprise. The team did not just suffer from a lack of aerodynamic efficiency due to its low-drag rear wing setup but also struggled to get the tyres working effectively in the cold desert conditions.

“Vegas last year was one of the most difficult races,” Stella said. “We had difficulties with the behaviour of the tyres in qualifying because we were not fast, and behaviour of the tyres in the race because we had a lot of graining.”

He added, “We also had some aerodynamic issues when we tried to offload the rear wing. We saw that we were losing too much efficiency, and we also had a bit of issues with the setup of the car in a way trying to compensate for this graining and some of the understeer.”

Despite these challenges, Stella revealed that the papaya squad has already taken steps to address the shortcomings identified during last year’s race. However, he cautioned that the unique characteristics of the Las Vegas circuit mean it will remain a difficult challenge.

“The lack of long, fast corners means the McLaren MCL39 can’t utilise one of its biggest strengths,” he explained. “Because of the chilly weather, the team also won’t benefit as much from its innovative cooling system on the car compared to hot races.”

Looking ahead, Mercedes’ form remains somewhat unpredictable but appears strong enough to contend again in Vegas, and Ferrari is also expected to be more competitive this year.

“The review from Vegas last year gave us a lot of information to try and find a way to improve,” Stella said. “I would say that from a tyre point of view, from an aerodynamic efficiency point of view, and from a car setup point of view, we know in which direction we should change compared to last year.”

He concluded, “Will it be enough to be competitive now? We will only see it in Vegas, but definitely we took actions in response to what we saw last year because, certainly, the performance wasn’t satisfactory enough.”

Lando Norris, the championship leader, was cautiously realistic about his chances of scoring three consecutive wins for the first time in his career at Las Vegas.

“I think it was our worst race last year,” Norris admitted. “We know Mercedes were incredibly strong there last year, as well as Red Bull and Ferrari. I think we were the bottom of those four.”

“But we’ll wait and see. Obviously, we’ve improved a lot of things this year, so I’m not going to be too negative about it,” he added with optimism.

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**Read Also:**
Lando Norris fears McLaren struggle at F1 Las Vegas GP
https://sports.yahoo.com/article/steps-mclaren-overcome-las-vegas-101157104.html

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