McLaren are scrambling to solve a sudden drop-off in pace after their Saturday heroics came crashing down on Sunday at the Formula 1 Belgian Grand Prix.
The papaya team enjoyed an uptick at the British Grand Prix where Lando Norris stood on the podium and Oscar Piastri wasn’t far off it in fourth.
That offered some optimism within the camp heading to Belgium, although the team was keen to downplay their chances pre-event.
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Nevertheless, Piastri shone again and qualified on the front row for Saturday’s sprint race to the surprise of many.
He led briefly before being overtaken by eventual winner Max Verstappen of Red Bull, the Aussie young gun finishing second.
Sunday’s grand prix couldn’t have been further away as far as results go.
Piastri made race-ending contact with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz on lap one while Norris was left languishing in seventh after a “terrible” race in which he struggled with car balance.
With the summer break ahead of them, McLaren team boss Andrea Stella admitted “urgent work” is needed to overcome the sudden switch in pace that Norris suffered.
“This weekend told us where we could do work,” said Stella.
“The car is improved in some areas. This was confirmed. But, at the same time, this weekend confirmed the areas that we haven’t addressed yet.
“(It) gives us a reality check that there’s more work to do and, to some extent, confirms that those areas, they need to be addressed quite urgently.
“This urgency, for instance, comes from the fact that a second race after (the) shutdown is Monza. You can’t go racing in Monza like (we did in Spa).
“So, there’s urgent work that needs to happen at McLaren to fix the situation.”
The fundamental flaw in the MCL60 is its low downforce set-up.
Spa-Francorchamps is a particularly high-speed circuit with several long straights.
The team reportedly came to the Stavelot circuit without an optimised low downforce rear wing like other teams.
The Italian Grand Prix, which follows the Dutch Grand Prix when the season resumes, is made up almost entirely of long straights and chicanes.
“We have to very frankly admit that, while this configuration gave us an advantage in the previous days (sprint race), (the GP) was starting to be a significant issue,” said Stella.
“Overall, let’s say there’s some learning we take out of this weekend. I think the opportunity to remark is not like we necessarily wanted to target this configuration.
“Fixing the efficiency of the car at low drag is on the to-do list, but it was lower than some of the priorities that we have worked on in the previous months.”
Formula 1 returns on August 27 for the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort.
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