McLaren offers 'in reality' evidence to explain puzzling F1 car trait

McLaren boss Andrea Stella has offered evidence as to why the team's slow-speed corner weakness did not show itself during victories in Hungary and the Netherlands.

Although Lando Norris was able to take pole at both the Hungaroring and in Zandvoort, converting both into dominant victories, he believes the MCL40 machine is struggling in low-speed corners compared to the championship-leading Mercedes W17 of Kimi Antonelli and George Russell.

Whilst Norris believes that his car is stronger in the high- and medium-speed corners, it is lacking in the slow-speed ones. 

It is a trait which has carried over in the DNA of the McLaren from previous generations of cars, with Norris reporting in the past that slow-speed rotation was an issue for the car whilst high- and medium-speed corners produced better results.

Both the Hungaroring and Zandvoort are regarded as 'slow-speed' circuits, but when questioned why the weakness had not shown itself as Norris enjoyed his back-to-back pole and wins, Stella explained that the "reality" of the Hungaroring, in particular, was different from what is widely believed.

"I think I have clear ideas about part of it; part of it I'm not sure about, so let's start with the part where I have some clear ideas," Stella began to tell media, including RacingNews365, when asked why the slow-speed weakness had not shown itself in Hungary. 

"I think when Lando refers to the fact that in the race he can't push the high speed, that's true, but to some extent. I think the main problem in the race is that you can push in the high speed and gain a bit of time, but you won't gain as much as you lose in all the low-speed corners. 

"There are many more low-speed corners than high-speed corners at [Zandvoort]. Also, when you are in a race stint compared to qualifying, the duration of a corner at low speed is much longer. You brake much earlier. You go even lower speed, and traction is much longer, so the grip-limited sections, especially at low speed, become much bigger. 

"So if you have a deficit in this condition, you can kind of compensate in qualifying because, with low fuel and new rubber, the low-speed corner is still pretty short, but in the race it becomes much, much longer. So I think when you have a deficit in low speed, it's always going to be a bit of a problem on tracks like this, in which there's a dominance of low-speed sections. 

"In relation to why this was less important in Hungary, I'm not as clear in my head as to why I think Hungary, which is often classified as a low-speed track, in reality is very much a medium-speed track. 

"Like, even corner two is above 120kph, just to give you an idea; corner one and the chicane and probably the penultimate corner are around 100kph, but all the rest is well above 100. 

"So I think the speed range is slightly different, and then there are some other things, setup-wise, that you can do in Hungary that you cannot do as much of [at Zandvoort], which I think were a good benefit for our car. 

"Now I don't want to disclose too much, but I think there's a speed range difference, and there are some technical differences in how you exploit your car that you can do in Hungary, but you cannot do here."