McLaren hoping to exploit key trick in crucial F1 battleground

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has confirmed the Woking-based squad is working hard to get the MCL40 under the new F1 weight limit.

With the advent of the new regulatory era, the championship has shaved 30kg off the minimum weight limit, coming down from 798kg to 768kg.

Whilst this is good news for F1 generally, with smaller, more agile cars that should promote better racing, it is a headache for its teams.

Starting with a fresh sheet of paper, designers have to find where it can reduce weight, outside of the trimmed chassis and discarded MGU-H. Some teams, such as Williams, are rumoured to be at least 4kg over the minimum threshold.

Stella was keen to outline why he wants McLaren to get under the limit as soon as possible.

"Certainly, working on reducing the weight of the car is always a development item, because even if you are at the weight limit, you want to be actually under the weight limit, because then you can play with ballast," he explained to media, including RacingNews365, during testing in Bahrain.

"So I think this is something on which the teams will keep themselves busy for a long time until they are well under the weight limit."

Bucking the trend

During pre-season at the Bahrain International Circuit, McLaren bucked the usual trend of incrementally adding parts to its package and experimenting.

The constructors' champion opted to steer clear of tweaking with various possibilities, instead focusing on understanding the baseline it is starting from.

The rationale behind that decision is to hold back and assess which direction of development is the correct course to follow.

"In terms of the car's specification, what we have seen in testing is fundamentally the car that we will see in Australia," Stella stated.

However, the Italian also shared that there would be some updates to the MCL40 for the round in Melbourne.

"There will be a few parts that are being manufactured in the meantime, and they will be ready just before," he added.