McLaren eye F1 victory return with three tracks highlighted

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has named three F1 tracks at which McLaren could once again impose itself in the fight for victory.

The Woking-based squad was unable to be a significant factor at Monza last weekend, with Mercedes possessing the fastest package.

Kimi Antonelli and George Russell brought home a 1-2 finish, with the former winning after starting from 19th on the grid.

Lando Norris ended the race in fourth place after making a last-lap overtake on team-mate Oscar Piastri, but it was a largely mellow weekend for the team that won the two races prior to Monza.

However, Stella does not see McLaren's chances of success now over, insisting upcoming tracks will play into its hands.

“A good, sensible, realistic end of the year is an end of the year in which the final nine or 10 races, we will see are sessions in which we can be consistently fighting for victories and achieve some of these victories,” he said.

“I think our tracks will be more the likes of Malaysia, Austin, Brazil. Here we have some long corners that seem to express its potential well. 

“We have some new upgrades that we will take to Baku, but we still think that tracks like Baku and Madrid, where you have to be very precise with the trajectory, short corners, maybe they don't play to the best of our car.”

However, Stella is expecting the car to be more competitive this weekend in Madrid compared to Monza.

“Yet we have to say that in Zandvoort and Hungary, we were in position to win races, and here, while we were not, we know that it's a special race,” he said.

“This drag will be less important in Madrid, there's a much higher density of corners. So we will definitely give it a go. 

“But from a championship point of view, I think we have to remain very realistic, don't get conditioned by looking at the classification. Just focus on one race at a time.”